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Sign up todayThe Quiet Tenant
A novel
Length
10 hours 44 minutes
Language
English
Narrators
Gilli Messer, Elena Rey, Valerie Rose Lohman, Amber Battaglia, Reba Buhr, Clémence Michallon, Jess Nahikian, Aure Nash, Milly Sanders, Sara Sheckells & Yu-Li Alice Shen
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreBookseller recommendation
“The Quiet Tenant is dark, disturbing, and fabulous! Recently widowed, Aiden Thomas is beloved by everyone in the small town he lives in with his 13-year-old daughter. He is also a serial killer and a kidnapper. Rachel has been kept captive in his backyard shed for five years. She knows he has killed his other victims but also knows she is doing something right to still be alive. The story is told from the perspective of the three women currently in his life (and snippets from each of his victims). They are Rachel, his current captive, Cecelia, his daughter, and Emily a local restaurant owner and his current love interest or perhaps the next victim. You are kept on the edge of your seat trying to understand what might happen. Has Stockholm syndrome affected Rachel, so she won’t try and escape or is she just being smart and cautious? Will Cecelia finally rebel against her father’s rules and strictness and see him as he really is? Will Emily end up as just another victim? Reminiscent of Emma Donahue’s Room it is a look at true depravity and how easy it is to hide it. It is also a look at the strength of a woman who wants a chance to have the life she should be living. ”
— Nancy • Fiction Addiction
Bookseller recommendation
“It was pretty tempting to write a to-the-point, one-word review for this novel. That word would start with a capital F, end in a ‘ck’ and have a whole lot of U’s in the middle. But you're a reader, and I have a degree in English, so I’ll try to elaborate. I have read a lot of thrillers and mysteries in my life, but I have never read one that made my pulse rise to the point where it probably counted as exercise. You could probably actually track the entire novel on my fitness watch - stress, pulse, blood pressure - whatever the heck else it measures. It did this not just through cliff hangers and plot twists, but by making me care deeply about the characters - namely, the women who get to narrate this book - and never the brutal man who controls their orbits. The narrative structure of this book is a large part of what makes it so brilliant, like a Greek tragedy told only through the voices of its female chorus. Michallon has written a gorgeous, haunting, and at times terrifying novel, one that I would recommend not just for thriller fans but for literary readers as well. ”
— Rachel • The Book Table
Bookseller recommendation
“Trigger Warnings: Kidnapping, Murder, Death of Parent. The author utilizes the perspectives of various characters to tell this twisty novel. Each character offers a unique insight to the life of a serial killer (Aiden), which often leaves the reader relating to his more caring side. This thread of the story also makes the character interaction with Aiden that much more terrifying. The writing style is darkly humorous and straight to the point. Several times throughout the novel the reader is left reeling from the decisions that each character makes which leaves you on the edge of your seat. What a great debut novel !”
— Kristen • Little Green Bookstore
Bookseller recommendation
“I was awed by Michallon's ability to create such vivid portraits of every character in this book, while keeping the tension so taught, I had to remind myself to breathe. The "family man with a dirty secret" trope is not new, but giving all the power of storytelling to the victims in the killer's sphere, was fresh. That in combination with Michallon's atmospheric writing make this a must-read thriller. ”
— Destinee • East City Bookshop
Bookseller recommendation
“Intriguing thriller, told from the perspective of women the killer lives with or has encountered. I liked it and was invested all the way throughout. I listened on Libro.fm! Quite a cast!”
— Melanie • The Well-Read Moose
Bookseller recommendation
“The Quiet Tenant is a slow-burn thriller with many chapters written from the second-person point of view. It's pulse-pounding and haunting; once you start, it's impossible to stop reading. The cast did a wonderful job narrating this book. ”
— Caitlin • Grimsby Books
Summary
NATIONAL BEST SELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES BEST CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR • GMA BUZZ PICK • “A bravura feat of storytelling...daring and completely satisfying.” —James Patterson, #1 best-selling author
A PULSE-POUNDING PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER ABOUT A SERIAL KILLER NARRATED BY THOSE CLOSEST TO HIM: HIS 13-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER, HIS GIRLFRIEND—AND THE ONE VICTIM HE HAS SPARED
"Intelligent and suspenseful." —Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World
“All…of the expected suspense and psychological tension, but offering a story about women—the ones who didn’t know the evil that lurked within, the ones who tried to placate or fight but still perished, the ones who might actually survive. Haunting but never prurient…truly unforgettable.” — Alafair Burke, author of The Wife
Aidan Thomas is a hard-working family man and a somewhat beloved figure in the small upstate New York town where he lives. He’s the kind of man who always lends a hand and has a good word for everyone. But Aidan has a dark secret he’s been keeping from everyone in town and those closest to him. He’s a kidnapper and serial killer. Aidan has murdered eight women and there’s a ninth he has earmarked for death: Rachel, imprisoned in a backyard shed, fearing for her life.
When Aidan’s wife dies, he and his thirteen-year-old daughter Cecilia are forced to move. Aidan has no choice but to bring Rachel along, introducing her to Cecilia as a “family friend” who needs a place to stay. Aidan is betting on Rachel, after five years of captivity, being too brainwashed and fearful to attempt to escape. But Rachel is a fighter and survivor, and recognizes Cecilia might just be the lifeline she has waited for all these years. As Rachel tests the boundaries of her new living situation, she begins to form a tenuous connection with Cecilia. And when Emily, a local restaurant owner, develops a crush on the handsome widower, she finds herself drawn into Rachel and Cecilia’s orbit, coming dangerously close to discovering Aidan’s secret.
Told through the perspectives of Rachel, Cecilia, and Emily, The Quiet Tenant explores the psychological impact of Aidan’s crimes on the women in his life—and the bonds between those women that give them the strength to fight back. Both a searing thriller and an astute study of trauma, survival, and the dynamics of power, The Quiet Tenant is an electrifying debut thriller by a major talent.
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Reviews
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • GMA BUZZ PICK • A LibraryReads #1 PickOne of The Washington Post’s Notable Summer Books 2023
One of Vogue’s Best Books of 2023
One of Goodreads’s Most Anticipated Books of 2023
One of New York Post’s Best Summer Books
One of CrimeReads’ Most Anticipated Books of 2023
One of Apple’s Best Books of the Month – June 2023
"An expertly paced psychological thriller . . . with a white-knuckle climax." —The New York Times Book Review
“A gripping psychological suspense novel . . . Michallon’s riveting tale shows a killer through the eyes of the women in his life.” —The Washington Post
“Clémence Michallon has written a classic on her first try. The Quiet Tenant is a daring and completely satisfying . . . bravura feat of storytelling . . . Who in her right mind would attempt a novel utilizing the first, second, and third-person? And then have the skill to actually pull it off.” —James Patterson, #1 best-selling author
"Dark and juicy . . . like Emma Donohue’s Room, the novel takes this creepy and claustrophobic premise and spins a paradoxically expansive plot from it, told from the perspective of his victim, his daughter, and a local restaurant owner." —Vogue
“A nail-biting terror of a read, slowly revealing how Rachel, already a little bit broken, ended up where she did . . . And then following as her courage incrementally ratchets up, as brainwashed and terrified, she starts to eye, and then discard, her opportunities to escape. I finished it at very high speed, heart pounding, absolutely loving it.” —Observer (UK Praise)
“In a small American town, single dad Aidan is regarded as a good guy, but he is hiding a secret—he is a serial killer and kidnapper, and is holding a woman captive in his shed. A chilling depiction of evil.” —Best Magazine (UK Praise)
“Cleverly constructed, well written and harrowing in the extreme from the very first page, this is an unforgettable debut. If this is a first novel, what's the next going to be like? I dread to think literally. Congratulations to Clémence Michallon, queen of the psychological thriller. We'll be waiting.” —Shots Magazine (UK Praise)
“I can recommend The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon. The story of a male serial killer called Aidan Thomas is told from multiple perspectives, in a way that centers the female voices of his victims. It's a pacy thriller and a sharp study of survival.” —The Independent (UK Praise)
“The Quiet Tenant is a fascinating inversion of the serial killer thriller, a story that challenges some of the genre’s most prevalent and pervasive tropes through the eyes of the powerful women involved. In the process—with razor-sharp plotting and hypnotic prose—Michallon has created an unforgettable novel.” —Alex Segura, author of Secret Identity
“The Quiet Tenant is a humane thriller, one that doesn't shy from asking the most difficult questions of its characters and its readers, and dares, ultimately, hopeful answers. Intelligent and suspenseful, I couldn't stop turning the pages." —Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World
“The Quiet Tenant is an absolutely brilliant, incredibly delicious, edge-of-your-seat thriller. Imagine Jodi Picoult meets Jeffery Deaver and then watch as Clémence Michallon exceeds every one of your expectations. She’s that good. The book is that good. And the ending is a killer!” —Brad Thor, author of Dead Fall
"Clémence Michallon’s The Quiet Tenant is a spell-binding Trojan horse of a novel, bracing and beguiling. A dangerous man and his unforgivable crimes are its seeming center but, in Michallon’s nimble hands, the novel soon reveals itself to be a story of female strength, cunning, depth, and power." —Megan Abbott, author of You Will Know Me
“Clémence Michallon has managed to reimagine the serial killer novel, delivering all (and frankly, more) of the expected suspense and psychological tension, but offering a story about women—the ones who didn’t know the evil that lurked within, the ones who tried to placate or fight but still perished, the ones who might actually survive. Haunting but never prurient, The Quiet Tenant is truly unforgettable. Read it.” — Alafair Burke, author of The Wife
“Expertly structured and luminously rendered, The Quiet Tenant is told from the perspectives of several different women bound, both wittingly and unwittingly, to a single, terrifyingly familiar predator. A mystery that is at once riveting and heartrending, The Quiet Tenant is a sharply insightful look at what it means to live and love as a woman in this harrowing world. It is truly extraordinary.” — Kimberly McCreight, author of Reconstructing Amelia
“A dazzling debut thriller . . . This is a smart, female-focused inversion of the serial killer thriller perfect for readers who otherwise wouldn’t give the genre a second look.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“While a widowed man falls for a bartender, the woman he’s held hostage for years plots her escape in this fast-paced thriller . . . A twisted premise that raises unexpected moral questions.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A brutal, sad, heartbreaking story focused on resilience and survival. Recommended for fans of true crime stories, Gillian Flynn, or Jessica Knoll.” —Library Journal
“Nightmarish, nerve-jangling, and horrifying, this one is not for the fainthearted, but it’s an explosive, utterly gripping read.” —Booklist Expand reviews
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