The Stranger Living in My House

Someone is walking upstairs. And Daniel Mercer lives alone.

At 2:17 a.m., a floorboard creaks above his kitchen. A note waits on his pillow: YOU SHOULD STOP LOOKING FOR THE ROOM. The handwriting is his own. He has no memory of writing it.

Then a brass key arrives in the post, wrapped in a calendar page with one date circled in red: the autumn his sister Emily disappeared. A damp toothbrush appears in the bathroom cupboard. The hallway camera shows Daniel opening the back door, stepping out, and coming back with nothing. He has no memory of leaving.

Behind his bedroom wardrobe, Daniel finds a hidden room that someone has used very recently. Inside are photographs, unopened letters addressed to him, and one question he can no longer avoid: who built the hiding place?

Daniel works with records. His whole job is finding where other people’s stories fail to match. But what if the story that does not match is his own?

The Stranger Living in My House is a fast, atmospheric psychological thriller novella about missing time, buried family secrets, and how far people will go to protect, or to silence, the ones they love. Short chapters, sharp cliffhangers, and a quiet, emotional ending make it a gripping read for one evening.

If you love:
✦ Slow-burn suspense with an unreliable memory
✦ Hidden rooms, mysterious notes, and old family secrets
✦ Stories where the real mystery is inside the house, and inside the mind

...this book is for you.

Content note: this book includes psychological distress, family violence, disappearance, and crime.