You Let Me In: The most chilling, unputdownable page-turner of 2018
‘The very definition of a page-turner’ Clare MackintoshNothing has felt right since Elle rented out her house . . .I’M IN YOUR HOUSEThere’s a new coldness. A shift in the atmosphere. The prickling feeling that someone is watching her every move from the shadows.I’M IN YOUR HEADMaybe it’s all in Elle’s mind? She’s a writer – her imagination, after all, is her strength. And yet every threat seems personal. As if someone has discovered the secrets that keep her awake at night.AND NOW I KNOW YOUR SECRETAs fear and paranoia close in, Elle’s own home becomes a prison. Someone is unlocking her past – and she’s given them the key…Spine-tingling, chilling, and utterly compulsive, this is the thriller that EVERYONE is talking about right now – ‘Brilliantly creepy’ Sabine Durrant‘Super-believable, super creepy and super-readable (if terrifying!)’ Fabulous‘Clever, tense, twisty’ C.L. Taylor‘A tour de force’ Gillian McCallister‘Riveting, atmospheric and unsettling’ Heat‘Brilliant and chilling’ Karen Hamilton
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Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2018
Copyright © Lucy Clarke 2018
Cover design by Simeon Greenaway © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018
Jacket photograph © Roderick Field/Trevillion Images
Lucy Clarke asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008262549
Ebook Edition © July 2018 ISBN: 9780008262563
Version: 2018-10-26
For my parents, Jane and Tony.
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
1. Elle
Previously
2. Elle
Previously
3. Elle
2003
4. Elle
Previously
5. Elle
2003
6. Elle
2003
7. Elle
Previously
8. Elle
Previously
9. Elle
2003
10. Elle
11. Elle
2004
12. Elle
Previously
13. Elle
Previously
14. Elle
Previously
15. Elle
2003
16. Elle
Previously
17. Elle
Previously
18. Elle
2004
19. Elle
20. Elle
2004
21. Elle
Previously
22. Elle
2004
23. Elle
24. Elle
Previously
25. Elle
2004
26. Elle
2004
27. Elle
28. Elle
29. Elle
2004
30. Elle
31. Elle
32. Elle
33. Elle
34. Elle
35. Elle
36. Elle
37. Elle
Epilogue: One year later
Acknowledgements
If you enjoyed You Let Me In, don’t miss these other breathtakingly gripping novels from Lucy Clarke
About the Author
Also by Lucy Clarke
About the Publisher
I’d like to offer you one piece of advice. It’s just a small thing. It won’t apply to many of you – but it is important.
It changed everything for me.
It’s this: if you’re considering letting someone into your house, pause first. Think.
Think about what it means to give a stranger – or strangers – the keys to your home.
Think about that stranger drifting through your house; a hand slipped into a drawer; fingers trailing through the clothes hanging in your wardrobe; the bathroom cabinet opened, examined.
Think about where their gaze may linger; the photos of you and your family hanging on the walls; the calendar in the kitchen outlining your plans; the file you keep at the bottom of a trunk.
Think about that person lying in your bed; the mattress moulding to their warm body; tiny cells of their skin shedding on your sheets; their breath moist against your pillow.
What other parts of themselves will they leave behind?
What parts of you will they discover?
‘What happens in the first chapter of your novel should be like an arrow pointing to the last.’
Author Elle Fielding
I slow the car into the curve of the lane, feeling it bounce over ruts and channels, loose gravel spraying from beneath the tyres.
As the track climbs, I straighten, peering beyond the hedgerows to catch a glimpse of the sea. In the muted light of dusk, I spot whitecaps breaking across the water, the sea ruffled by wind. Already, my breathing softens.
I flick off the radio, not wanting the presenter’s voice to dilute the next moment. I’ve been looking forward to it during the long drive from London to Cornwall.
As I turn the corner, I see it: the house on the cliff top, standing like a promise at the track’s end.
*
Pulling into the driveway, I cut the ignition, and sit for a moment, engine ticking.
It still feels entirely incredible that this is where I live.
In the first meeting with the architect, I’d no idea what I’d wanted beyond the number of rooms and a space to write. Over the months that followed, those untethered ideas began to weave together into a vision, which now stands three storeys tall, overlooking the wave-pounded bay.
The house is painted dove-grey, with large windows framed in natural wood. ‘Contemporary coastal heritage’, the architect said. I’m glad the weatherboarding is starting to lose some of its stark newness, and the windows look pleasingly salt-licked. I still need to soften the exterior, perhaps train some wisteria to climb around the entrance – if it can survive the bracing sea winds.
