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The Bed I Made
One stifling night in a bar in Soho, Kate meets Richard - powerful, sensual Richard. Going home with him that night is reckless and exhilarating, their connection electric. Now, 18 months later, Kate is fleeing London for an old coastguard's cottage on the Isle of Wight, determined to forget Richard for ever. In winter, however, the island is locked down, wary of outsiders, and there is little to distract her from her memories. Within days, a local woman, Alice Frewin, goes missing from her boat, and though no body is found there are whispers of suicide. Kate is quickly drawn into Alice's world but all the time Richard - powerful, unstable Richard - looms larger and larger over her own...
320 pages, Paperback
First published June 21, 2010
About the author
Lucie Whitehouse
14 books366 followersLucie Whitehouse was born in the Cotswolds in 1975 and grew up in Warwickshire. She studied Classics at Oxford University and then began a career in publishing while spending evenings, weekends and holidays working on the book that would eventually become THE HOUSE AT MIDNIGHT.
Having married in 2011, she now divides her time between the UK and Brooklyn, where she lives with her husband. She writes full time and has contributed features to the Times, the Sunday Times, the Independent, Elle and Red Magazine.
Having married in 2011, she now divides her time between the UK and Brooklyn, where she lives with her husband. She writes full time and has contributed features to the Times, the Sunday Times, the Independent, Elle and Red Magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 216 reviews
June 16, 2019
if you like contemporary gothic romances, this book will scratch that itch.
this is my reading history with lucie whitehouse:
the first book of hers i read was The House at Midnight, which is very much in the tradition of The Secret History, and therefore directly in my interest zone. then i read Before We Met, which was a perfectly decent book that i made excuses for on account of how much i had enjoyed The House at Midnight, which is the interlocking-judgment system by which i make assessments on my enjoyment of books and which i acknowledge is crazytown. then i backtracked to this one (from my seeecret santa), which is her first novel, and i'm going to dust off that interlocking-judgment system once more to make excuses for what is an entertaining but fairly cookie-cutter romantic suspense novel.
for me, the appeal of "gothic romance" or "romantic suspense" is in the gothic/suspense part of the genre. i enjoy being unsettled, not knowing what is going on, i enjoy ambiguity and tension and haunting atmosphere and if characters are mistaking terror for passion in the middle of all of it, that's fine with me but it's not what brings me to that table.
this one is much more on the romantic side of romantic suspense. you can tell by how much talk there is about chest hair. and muscles.
it's far from happytown romance, but the driving force is relationships and emotional manipulation and headgame-playing gone wrong more than "what are those noises in the middle of the night and did a ghost move my cheese?" and all that. the tension in this book comes from the "when" rather than the "what" or the "who?"
it follows a woman named kate who flees london for the isle of wight after an intense 18-month relationship goesbad disastrously and she is in fear for her life. kate and richard had the kind of relationship found in romance novels that is all about competition and power and sounds so exhausting to me:
The semi-combative game between us, the bantering exchanges about who had supremacy, appealed to him. He liked the challenge, the competition: it fired sparks between us and, for that reason, I liked it, too. It also appealed to my vanity that I could meet this clever, ambitious man and match him. I loved the thrill of daring to respond to his bait with indifference and firing back a challenge of my own. It hadn't taken me long to understand that for Richard, things acquired value in direct proportion to their difficulty. I wanted him and so I gave him the impression that he would have to work for me.
and that relationship works for a while until lines are crossed and kate is in too deep to do anything but run away to a place full of happier childhood memories to regroup and figure out what to do with the rest of her life. the isle of wight is, in winter, tourist-free and inhabited by a tight-knit community of locals ranging from suspicious to placidly uninterested in kate and her problems, and she is cut off from both her mainland life and any new distractions in a very isolating situation. her arrival also coincides with the disappearance and assumed death-at-sea of alice frewin - the beautiful and mysterious wife of the beautiful and mysterious peter frewin, a disappearance to which kate attaches personal significance and interest, as she had met alice briefly when she first arrived, and she struggles to follow the gossip of the story's developments despite the aloofness of the islanders.
the story goes where you expect it to as kate's old life won't let her go while a new life unfolds for her on the island, and the cat-and-mouse game between her and richard eventually tightens its spirals just when she's learning to breathe again. it just takes a damn long time to do so, and the threatening incidents are largely repetitive instead of escalating - emails and phone messages make up the bulk of the stalkery contact until the last leg of the novel.
for me, the characters never came alive, particularly the male leads who both read pretty flat to me. the location is well-chosen and -described, but i never felt pulled into the story enough to achieve the anxiety you need to really enjoy this kind of novel. if you're a romance fan, this will probably satisfy on that level, but if you're in the gothic thriller camp, this is probably not your best bet.
i have her forthcoming novel:Keep You Close waiting for me on my nook through netgalley, and it sounds closer in tone and content to The House at Midnight, so i'm looking forward to reading it and appreciating how much her skills have been fine-tuned since her first time out with this one.
bottom line - it's a fine wine-and-bathtub book, but my expectations were raised with The House at Midnight and i would love to see her top that with Keep You Close. here's hoping!
***************************************
thank you, secret santa!!!!
(shhhh, you'll always be secret to me!!)
come to my blog!
this is my reading history with lucie whitehouse:
the first book of hers i read was The House at Midnight, which is very much in the tradition of The Secret History, and therefore directly in my interest zone. then i read Before We Met, which was a perfectly decent book that i made excuses for on account of how much i had enjoyed The House at Midnight, which is the interlocking-judgment system by which i make assessments on my enjoyment of books and which i acknowledge is crazytown. then i backtracked to this one (from my seeecret santa), which is her first novel, and i'm going to dust off that interlocking-judgment system once more to make excuses for what is an entertaining but fairly cookie-cutter romantic suspense novel.
for me, the appeal of "gothic romance" or "romantic suspense" is in the gothic/suspense part of the genre. i enjoy being unsettled, not knowing what is going on, i enjoy ambiguity and tension and haunting atmosphere and if characters are mistaking terror for passion in the middle of all of it, that's fine with me but it's not what brings me to that table.
this one is much more on the romantic side of romantic suspense. you can tell by how much talk there is about chest hair. and muscles.
it's far from happytown romance, but the driving force is relationships and emotional manipulation and headgame-playing gone wrong more than "what are those noises in the middle of the night and did a ghost move my cheese?" and all that. the tension in this book comes from the "when" rather than the "what" or the "who?"
it follows a woman named kate who flees london for the isle of wight after an intense 18-month relationship goes
The semi-combative game between us, the bantering exchanges about who had supremacy, appealed to him. He liked the challenge, the competition: it fired sparks between us and, for that reason, I liked it, too. It also appealed to my vanity that I could meet this clever, ambitious man and match him. I loved the thrill of daring to respond to his bait with indifference and firing back a challenge of my own. It hadn't taken me long to understand that for Richard, things acquired value in direct proportion to their difficulty. I wanted him and so I gave him the impression that he would have to work for me.
and that relationship works for a while until lines are crossed and kate is in too deep to do anything but run away to a place full of happier childhood memories to regroup and figure out what to do with the rest of her life. the isle of wight is, in winter, tourist-free and inhabited by a tight-knit community of locals ranging from suspicious to placidly uninterested in kate and her problems, and she is cut off from both her mainland life and any new distractions in a very isolating situation. her arrival also coincides with the disappearance and assumed death-at-sea of alice frewin - the beautiful and mysterious wife of the beautiful and mysterious peter frewin, a disappearance to which kate attaches personal significance and interest, as she had met alice briefly when she first arrived, and she struggles to follow the gossip of the story's developments despite the aloofness of the islanders.
the story goes where you expect it to as kate's old life won't let her go while a new life unfolds for her on the island, and the cat-and-mouse game between her and richard eventually tightens its spirals just when she's learning to breathe again. it just takes a damn long time to do so, and the threatening incidents are largely repetitive instead of escalating - emails and phone messages make up the bulk of the stalkery contact until the last leg of the novel.
for me, the characters never came alive, particularly the male leads who both read pretty flat to me. the location is well-chosen and -described, but i never felt pulled into the story enough to achieve the anxiety you need to really enjoy this kind of novel. if you're a romance fan, this will probably satisfy on that level, but if you're in the gothic thriller camp, this is probably not your best bet.
i have her forthcoming novel:Keep You Close waiting for me on my nook through netgalley, and it sounds closer in tone and content to The House at Midnight, so i'm looking forward to reading it and appreciating how much her skills have been fine-tuned since her first time out with this one.
bottom line - it's a fine wine-and-bathtub book, but my expectations were raised with The House at Midnight and i would love to see her top that with Keep You Close. here's hoping!
***************************************
thank you, secret santa!!!!
(shhhh, you'll always be secret to me!!)
come to my blog!
July 27, 2018
"I thought psychopaths were like Hannibal Lecter...it didn't occur to me that they walked the streets among us, just like ordinary people."
3.5 ⭐️
This was a lot better than I thought it would be! The reviews aren't amazing, so I wasn't sure what to expect going into this one.
Kate meets Richard on a night out and they hit it off immediately, so much so that she ends up going home with him. From here becomes a whirlwind romance - Richard is wealthy, exciting and addictive.
However, something happens to cause Kate to leave. Not just leave the relationship but flee to the Isle of Wight. Throughout the novel we get flashbacks to her relationship with Richard and what it leads to, and her new life she is trying to build in the sleepy town of Lymington.
We get the impression that Richard has done something, and the frequent emails and texts she receives from him just emphasize the fact of his mental instability.
Meanwhile, the island itself has enough secrets of its own. A local woman goes missing the same day Kate arrives, and most people believe it was suicide.
One thing I don't really understand is the book's title. I'm guessing it refers to the phrase "you've made your bed, now lie in it." But to me that sounds like the author is blaming the character for what she suffers, as if she brought it upon herself which is absolutely ridiculous - but I can't work out what else the title could mean.
Parts of the novel were a bit slow for me, but as it drew to its riveting conclusion I was hooked! I needed to know what would happen and if Kate would be ok.
Overall, a pretty enjoyable and thrilling read.
3.5 ⭐️
This was a lot better than I thought it would be! The reviews aren't amazing, so I wasn't sure what to expect going into this one.
Kate meets Richard on a night out and they hit it off immediately, so much so that she ends up going home with him. From here becomes a whirlwind romance - Richard is wealthy, exciting and addictive.
However, something happens to cause Kate to leave. Not just leave the relationship but flee to the Isle of Wight. Throughout the novel we get flashbacks to her relationship with Richard and what it leads to, and her new life she is trying to build in the sleepy town of Lymington.
We get the impression that Richard has done something, and the frequent emails and texts she receives from him just emphasize the fact of his mental instability.
Meanwhile, the island itself has enough secrets of its own. A local woman goes missing the same day Kate arrives, and most people believe it was suicide.
One thing I don't really understand is the book's title. I'm guessing it refers to the phrase "you've made your bed, now lie in it." But to me that sounds like the author is blaming the character for what she suffers, as if she brought it upon herself which is absolutely ridiculous - but I can't work out what else the title could mean.
Parts of the novel were a bit slow for me, but as it drew to its riveting conclusion I was hooked! I needed to know what would happen and if Kate would be ok.
Overall, a pretty enjoyable and thrilling read.
December 5, 2022
(First read in 2010; reread November 2022.) I picked the perfect time to reread this. Reading it as the weather seemed to suddenly change – heavy fog rolling in; the temperature dropping below zero for the first time this winter – it felt as though I had conjured the book’s atmosphere into reality.
The Bed I Made is about a woman escaping an abusive relationship and hiding out on the Isle of Wight – a place she remembers fondly from childhood holidays, but a location chosen just as much for its isolation (particularly in winter). The narrative switches between recollections of her past and the new life she builds on the Island: a job in a cafe, a newfound love for sailing, tentative friendships with a few locals. At times, it’s tense – Kate lives in fear of being found by her ex, and she is also drawn into the drama surrounding a missing woman whose empty boat is found shortly after her arrival. But what I love most about the book is the writing, particularly the descriptions of landscape and solitude, and how they intersect.
Reading it again made me wonder when commercial fiction stopped being like this; when the prose stopped being this good? Or is this book just an anomaly? Or am I looking in the wrong places for the 2022 equivalent? It would be a stretch to call The Bed I Made literary fiction, but the writing is sublime, the description leisurely, the scene-setting slow and generous. The book is filled with the sort of rich descriptions of solitude that are one of my favourite things in literature. I read another genre novel around the same time I reread this, and in terms of style the other book honestly seemed abysmal in comparison.
In the second half of the story, things change for Kate, and I remembered disliking certain developments, feeling they took up too much space. Revisiting it, that isn’t the case at all. I’d clearly exaggerated this stuff in my memory; most of it doesn’t even come into play until the last few chapters. The climactic scenes are swift, and the epilogue perhaps tries to wrap up too many significant events in a small amount of space, but that doesn’t really put a dent in the effectiveness of the rest.
Original review (August 2010): Lucie Whitehouse has done it again. Her brilliant debut, The House at Midnight, was one of the few books I have read from start to finish within one day. This riveting second novel lasted just a few days, and in the end I stayed up all night to finish it. There is just so much to love about Whitehouse's writing. Much like Jo in The House at Midnight, Kate is the perfect narrator – immediately likeable and absolutely human, you truly care about and believe in what happens to her. The minor characters (Chris in particular) are similarly believable and charming, and the dialogue, which flows like real speech, is a joy to read. I particularly loved the sections describing Kate's first week on the Island, which convey both the loneliness and the romance of her isolated experience perfectly. I've never been to the Isle of Wight, but I was left with vivid mental pictures of the characters' surroundings. The whole book is suffused with subtle tension, the flashbacks to Kate's relationship with Richard brimming with foreboding and suspense. I wasn't a big fan of the developments in the second half, and I would have chosen a different type of ending, but despite all that, this is a fantastic novel.
TinyLetter | Linktree
The Bed I Made is about a woman escaping an abusive relationship and hiding out on the Isle of Wight – a place she remembers fondly from childhood holidays, but a location chosen just as much for its isolation (particularly in winter). The narrative switches between recollections of her past and the new life she builds on the Island: a job in a cafe, a newfound love for sailing, tentative friendships with a few locals. At times, it’s tense – Kate lives in fear of being found by her ex, and she is also drawn into the drama surrounding a missing woman whose empty boat is found shortly after her arrival. But what I love most about the book is the writing, particularly the descriptions of landscape and solitude, and how they intersect.
Reading it again made me wonder when commercial fiction stopped being like this; when the prose stopped being this good? Or is this book just an anomaly? Or am I looking in the wrong places for the 2022 equivalent? It would be a stretch to call The Bed I Made literary fiction, but the writing is sublime, the description leisurely, the scene-setting slow and generous. The book is filled with the sort of rich descriptions of solitude that are one of my favourite things in literature. I read another genre novel around the same time I reread this, and in terms of style the other book honestly seemed abysmal in comparison.
In the second half of the story, things change for Kate, and I remembered disliking certain developments, feeling they took up too much space. Revisiting it, that isn’t the case at all. I’d clearly exaggerated this stuff in my memory; most of it doesn’t even come into play until the last few chapters. The climactic scenes are swift, and the epilogue perhaps tries to wrap up too many significant events in a small amount of space, but that doesn’t really put a dent in the effectiveness of the rest.
Original review (August 2010): Lucie Whitehouse has done it again. Her brilliant debut, The House at Midnight, was one of the few books I have read from start to finish within one day. This riveting second novel lasted just a few days, and in the end I stayed up all night to finish it. There is just so much to love about Whitehouse's writing. Much like Jo in The House at Midnight, Kate is the perfect narrator – immediately likeable and absolutely human, you truly care about and believe in what happens to her. The minor characters (Chris in particular) are similarly believable and charming, and the dialogue, which flows like real speech, is a joy to read. I particularly loved the sections describing Kate's first week on the Island, which convey both the loneliness and the romance of her isolated experience perfectly. I've never been to the Isle of Wight, but I was left with vivid mental pictures of the characters' surroundings. The whole book is suffused with subtle tension, the flashbacks to Kate's relationship with Richard brimming with foreboding and suspense. I wasn't a big fan of the developments in the second half, and I would have chosen a different type of ending, but despite all that, this is a fantastic novel.
TinyLetter | Linktree
October 3, 2011
Disappointing. I expected a chilling thriller, but there wasn't a lot of action for much of the book. It actually took me ages to get through as it just wasn't holding my attention.
I liked the setting of the Isle of Wight in a quiet and wild winter, but the constant long explanations as to what road Kate was on and which shops she was next to did nothing for me as I haven't ever been to the island. I prefer fiction to stay completely fictional anyway, letting my imagination create the scene. This book had far too much descriptive detail of everything, not just the places that would mean nothing to those of us who haven't been there, but of everything else, the characters' homes and clothes etc. I think it was just in there to pad the book out to novel-length, and I feel it would have created more gripping suspense to have had it as a shorter, to-the-point novella.
I was grateful for the side-plot about Alice and Pete, but didn't appreciate its denouement. The ending as a whole was far too rushed, less than 10 pages in a 309 page novel, and not entirely satisfying.
Of course, the whole plot was realistic, something that tragically happens to women the whole world over, but I didn't buy the part of Helen in the end. Maybe it was just too rushed, after all anything is possible in these cases. As for Pete,
I liked the setting of the Isle of Wight in a quiet and wild winter, but the constant long explanations as to what road Kate was on and which shops she was next to did nothing for me as I haven't ever been to the island. I prefer fiction to stay completely fictional anyway, letting my imagination create the scene. This book had far too much descriptive detail of everything, not just the places that would mean nothing to those of us who haven't been there, but of everything else, the characters' homes and clothes etc. I think it was just in there to pad the book out to novel-length, and I feel it would have created more gripping suspense to have had it as a shorter, to-the-point novella.
I was grateful for the side-plot about Alice and Pete, but didn't appreciate its denouement. The ending as a whole was far too rushed, less than 10 pages in a 309 page novel, and not entirely satisfying.
Of course, the whole plot was realistic, something that tragically happens to women the whole world over, but I didn't buy the part of Helen in the end. Maybe it was just too rushed, after all anything is possible in these cases. As for Pete,
March 4, 2013
I enjoyed the story, how the tension was building throughout the book. But everything else I had problems with. I couldn't relate to Kate, the main character, at all. For starters the girl drinks a glass of wine on pretty much every page, but also given her sexual history she at one point is convinced to go out for a pub lunch by another character twiddling her nipples. Is this normal for women? Am I just being a prude? I agree with other readers too about the constant never-ending description of what the sea looks like that day. I found myself skipping paragraphs to get back to the story. I also agree about the exciting but terribly rushed ending. Perhaps we could have had another few pages about what happened next?
March 16, 2022
"Una historia en la que no es complicado sentir cierto desconcierto ante la forma en la que la autora intenta forzar un vínculo entre dos tramas que aparentemente no tienen demasiada conexión. El ritmo es lento, especialmente en la primera mitad, pero luego hay una remontada y es más fácil avanzar. A pesar de no tener ningún giro argumental especialmente llamativo, sí que acabé apreciando la forma en la que la autora fue implicándome emocionalmente con la protagonista. Se sabe lo que terminará ocurriendo, pero es inevitable querer saber cómo pasará. Aunque tengo mis más y mis menos con determinados aspectos de la trama, no negaré que la lectura me entretuvo y que sí que consiguió mantenerme en tensión en varios instantes".
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August 7, 2013
After being disappointed by The House at Midnight, I thought to give Lucie Whitehouse another chance with The Bed I Made, especially to see what she made of the Isle of Wight as a setting. Other than drinking at the Island Sailing Club during Cowes Week, most of my experiences of the IOW have been from a yacht, & I was eager to find out what it might be like to live in Yarmouth during the off season. Found that bleak and fascinating.
Unfortunately the story itself was too unlikely to be believed. I often wonder how closely romantic fiction has to be true to real life to be successful. I’m not quite sure whether The Bed I Made ought to be considered a gothic romance or a mystery story. As mystery story it is lacking in the mysterious - we know exactly who the villain is for virtually the entire book. Against gothic romance the banal nature of the menaces (assault, rape, attempted murder - standard garden variety villain stuff - no hidden dungeons with corpses of former wives, &c.).
Found myself totally incredulous when Kate, who has fled her abusive lover Richard, gets a phone call from Richard’s wife Sarah. Wife-mistress conversations can be hilarious, but this one is straight. Richard has beaten Sarah so badly that she’s been in hospital. Sarah says, ‘Do you know what you’re dealing with? Do you? Two nights ago he . . . [dots in original] My collarbone’s broken and three of my ribs. I’ve lost my front teeth. . . . [my ellipsis] It was never like this before - this bad. Normally he can stop. I’ve been in hospital two days. If I’d punctured a lung . . .’ [dots original].
I could not believe the staff of the A&E would not have immediately notified the authorities. In America all health care workers (even us lowly chaplains) are ‘mandatory reporters’ required by law to report such cases of abuse. Surely there must be similar rules in Britain. And why does Kate never report Richard’s abuse and threats to the police, or consult a solicitor to have him bound over? Richard is so stupid that he sends Kate death threats by e-mail, which of course could be easily traced. In real life he would have been in prison before the book was half over.
Some of the threats are unintentionally hilarious. He posts to her: ‘I’ve got to take my hat off to you, sweetheart - you’re really playing hardball.’ I’d love to know just what Richard thought hardball meant. So far as I’m aware, cricket balls come in only one variety of hardness. Maybe Richard thinks ‘hardball’ is some uniquely Yank form of abuse. (Some spouses of rabid baseball fans might agree.)
Kate’s sailing descriptions are painfully ignorant (‘he tightened ropes’ [she means ‘he trimmed the sheets’) & ‘he slackened off the ropes a little so that the boat was at an easier angle’ [‘he eased the sheets so that the boat heeled over less’]. Surely Pete must have taught Kate some elementary nautical language or she’d be useless on a boat. When Kate referred to the Royal Yacht Squadron ‘flag’ I wondered that she [& Lucie?] couldn’t recognise the White Ensign. I’d thought any Englishwoman knew that much about the Royal Navy - but then I’m old-fashioned.
Anyway, two stars is generous. No adult reader could believe that Kate could be so naive or so ignorant. (We are supposed also to believe she makes her living translating French novels, but we never encounter a word of French.) Or that she was ever in any real danger. So I’m sorry that I have to play hard ball with Lucie Whitehouse, but after reading The House at Midnight and The Bed I Made, this umpire says it’s two strikes & you’re out!
Unfortunately the story itself was too unlikely to be believed. I often wonder how closely romantic fiction has to be true to real life to be successful. I’m not quite sure whether The Bed I Made ought to be considered a gothic romance or a mystery story. As mystery story it is lacking in the mysterious - we know exactly who the villain is for virtually the entire book. Against gothic romance the banal nature of the menaces (assault, rape, attempted murder - standard garden variety villain stuff - no hidden dungeons with corpses of former wives, &c.).
Found myself totally incredulous when Kate, who has fled her abusive lover Richard, gets a phone call from Richard’s wife Sarah. Wife-mistress conversations can be hilarious, but this one is straight. Richard has beaten Sarah so badly that she’s been in hospital. Sarah says, ‘Do you know what you’re dealing with? Do you? Two nights ago he . . . [dots in original] My collarbone’s broken and three of my ribs. I’ve lost my front teeth. . . . [my ellipsis] It was never like this before - this bad. Normally he can stop. I’ve been in hospital two days. If I’d punctured a lung . . .’ [dots original].
I could not believe the staff of the A&E would not have immediately notified the authorities. In America all health care workers (even us lowly chaplains) are ‘mandatory reporters’ required by law to report such cases of abuse. Surely there must be similar rules in Britain. And why does Kate never report Richard’s abuse and threats to the police, or consult a solicitor to have him bound over? Richard is so stupid that he sends Kate death threats by e-mail, which of course could be easily traced. In real life he would have been in prison before the book was half over.
Some of the threats are unintentionally hilarious. He posts to her: ‘I’ve got to take my hat off to you, sweetheart - you’re really playing hardball.’ I’d love to know just what Richard thought hardball meant. So far as I’m aware, cricket balls come in only one variety of hardness. Maybe Richard thinks ‘hardball’ is some uniquely Yank form of abuse. (Some spouses of rabid baseball fans might agree.)
Kate’s sailing descriptions are painfully ignorant (‘he tightened ropes’ [she means ‘he trimmed the sheets’) & ‘he slackened off the ropes a little so that the boat was at an easier angle’ [‘he eased the sheets so that the boat heeled over less’]. Surely Pete must have taught Kate some elementary nautical language or she’d be useless on a boat. When Kate referred to the Royal Yacht Squadron ‘flag’ I wondered that she [& Lucie?] couldn’t recognise the White Ensign. I’d thought any Englishwoman knew that much about the Royal Navy - but then I’m old-fashioned.
Anyway, two stars is generous. No adult reader could believe that Kate could be so naive or so ignorant. (We are supposed also to believe she makes her living translating French novels, but we never encounter a word of French.) Or that she was ever in any real danger. So I’m sorry that I have to play hard ball with Lucie Whitehouse, but after reading The House at Midnight and The Bed I Made, this umpire says it’s two strikes & you’re out!
October 27, 2011
An enjoyable read, but not as thrilling or suspenseful as the author's previous book, The House at Midnight. However, a protagonist who is easy to sympathize with, a realistic plot line, and the author's descriptive writing make it worth a read.
September 13, 2010
Main character Kate is on the run. It’s winter and she has retreated down to the Isle of Wight for peace, solitude and safety. Only her father, her brother and her best friend Helen know her location. It is a place she visited as a child, with her father and brother after her mother left. It is a place she associates with happiness, with rebuilding.
On her third day on the island, she watches on the shore as the authorities tow in the boat of a local woman, Alice Frewin. Although no body has been found yet, it’s widely believed that Alice is gone, and at her own hand. Kate realises that she saw Alice on the very first day she spent on the island and spoke to her. From the very beginning Kate is drawn to Alice, and especially drawn into this mystery surrounding her disappearance. She listens at the local newsagent and cafe to the locals, trying to pick up information.
It soon becomes obvious that Kate is fleeing her former boyfriend Richard. Through flashback, usually triggered by Richard’s calls, texts or emails, we revisit how Kate and Richard met, how their relationship formed and how it then started to fall apart. Richard isn’t willing to let Kate go and his constant constant, which wavers between conciliatory and menacing, paints a sinister threat to Kate’s safety. Kate, for the best part, tries to ignore Richard and immerse herself in life on the island. She is a translator and once she finishes the novel she has been translating, she gets a job on the island. She visits a local 2nd hand bookstore and is befriended by the owner who invites her around for a meal. She meets Alice Frewin’s husband Pete and their close friend Sarah. She begins to build a life, and to want to stay on the island when her lease of the little cottage is up, even though she knows that she should keep moving. That it won’t be long before Richard finds her.
This book is a very slow burn, pace-wise. Information is never given quickly and although the scenario with Richard is easily guessed by the reader, it’s quite a while before we get the full picture and evidence of everything he was doing to Kate, the sort of person he was. Much is made of the island itself, the weather, the solitude, the bleakness and the portrayal is wonderful. I really felt like I was there, experiencing that driving rain and wind, the ‘small-town (island) mindedness’, the closing ranks against strangers, people who were not born and bred of the island.
The characters are well done in this novel also – Kate, scarred by the disappearance of her mother, immersing herself in French, forging a career as a translator (her mother was French). The novel makes much of her friendship with Helen, how strong it was before Richard, and how the arrival of Richard put it on incredibly shaky ground. But apart from Helen, she seems to have no other friends and no one else in the novel attempts to try and contact her and see where she is. Her whole life by the start of the book revolved around Richard. He had inserted himself into her life and alienated pretty much everything else until he was all that she had left and when she fled him, she had no one. She refused to go to either her brother in the US, or her father, who had finally found himself a new partner and was happy, preferring to try to heal herself down on the Isle of Wight.
Richard, in my opinion, is equally well done in the way he is portrayed. At first we get Richard’s charm and recklessness, his generosity and intenseness, his work ethic. You obviously know that something isn’t right, but the way his true character unfolds, in that slow way, building tension and fear, hooks you right into the story. The islanders – kind Chris, the tense and haunted Pete, frazzled Sarah, are all interesting additions and colour Kate’s experience on the island. Despite the isolation and the wariness from many, it seems like she fits in better there than she ever did in London.
My only complaint is that such a slow burn adds up to a very rushed ending. And although the ending wasn’t bad, or poorly written, it did come across to me as very rushed compared with the pacing of the rest of the novel. It is literally a graceful arc the whole way through the book leading up to the obvious ending where you know Richard will appear and then when he does it all feels very jerky. After 300 pages of background and build up, the climax is over in less than 10. It felt very stilted and like it didn’t mesh well with the rest of the novel. There was so much invested in the whole portrayal of Richard, the threat of him, that when he finally appeared, it was almost a let down as it was over so quickly and the reader wasn’t given the chance to fully appreciate his controlling, manipulative and abusive nature in person, so to speak.
Despite that, the novel was very enjoyable and easy to read. The pages turned quickly, I carried it around with me for the night, reading while I was cooking dinner, etc and I was invested in the story of Kate and also in the interwoven story of Alice Frewin. I just thought that the ending could’ve definitely added more to the story and increased the tension level to a greater level than it actually did.
On her third day on the island, she watches on the shore as the authorities tow in the boat of a local woman, Alice Frewin. Although no body has been found yet, it’s widely believed that Alice is gone, and at her own hand. Kate realises that she saw Alice on the very first day she spent on the island and spoke to her. From the very beginning Kate is drawn to Alice, and especially drawn into this mystery surrounding her disappearance. She listens at the local newsagent and cafe to the locals, trying to pick up information.
It soon becomes obvious that Kate is fleeing her former boyfriend Richard. Through flashback, usually triggered by Richard’s calls, texts or emails, we revisit how Kate and Richard met, how their relationship formed and how it then started to fall apart. Richard isn’t willing to let Kate go and his constant constant, which wavers between conciliatory and menacing, paints a sinister threat to Kate’s safety. Kate, for the best part, tries to ignore Richard and immerse herself in life on the island. She is a translator and once she finishes the novel she has been translating, she gets a job on the island. She visits a local 2nd hand bookstore and is befriended by the owner who invites her around for a meal. She meets Alice Frewin’s husband Pete and their close friend Sarah. She begins to build a life, and to want to stay on the island when her lease of the little cottage is up, even though she knows that she should keep moving. That it won’t be long before Richard finds her.
This book is a very slow burn, pace-wise. Information is never given quickly and although the scenario with Richard is easily guessed by the reader, it’s quite a while before we get the full picture and evidence of everything he was doing to Kate, the sort of person he was. Much is made of the island itself, the weather, the solitude, the bleakness and the portrayal is wonderful. I really felt like I was there, experiencing that driving rain and wind, the ‘small-town (island) mindedness’, the closing ranks against strangers, people who were not born and bred of the island.
The characters are well done in this novel also – Kate, scarred by the disappearance of her mother, immersing herself in French, forging a career as a translator (her mother was French). The novel makes much of her friendship with Helen, how strong it was before Richard, and how the arrival of Richard put it on incredibly shaky ground. But apart from Helen, she seems to have no other friends and no one else in the novel attempts to try and contact her and see where she is. Her whole life by the start of the book revolved around Richard. He had inserted himself into her life and alienated pretty much everything else until he was all that she had left and when she fled him, she had no one. She refused to go to either her brother in the US, or her father, who had finally found himself a new partner and was happy, preferring to try to heal herself down on the Isle of Wight.
Richard, in my opinion, is equally well done in the way he is portrayed. At first we get Richard’s charm and recklessness, his generosity and intenseness, his work ethic. You obviously know that something isn’t right, but the way his true character unfolds, in that slow way, building tension and fear, hooks you right into the story. The islanders – kind Chris, the tense and haunted Pete, frazzled Sarah, are all interesting additions and colour Kate’s experience on the island. Despite the isolation and the wariness from many, it seems like she fits in better there than she ever did in London.
My only complaint is that such a slow burn adds up to a very rushed ending. And although the ending wasn’t bad, or poorly written, it did come across to me as very rushed compared with the pacing of the rest of the novel. It is literally a graceful arc the whole way through the book leading up to the obvious ending where you know Richard will appear and then when he does it all feels very jerky. After 300 pages of background and build up, the climax is over in less than 10. It felt very stilted and like it didn’t mesh well with the rest of the novel. There was so much invested in the whole portrayal of Richard, the threat of him, that when he finally appeared, it was almost a let down as it was over so quickly and the reader wasn’t given the chance to fully appreciate his controlling, manipulative and abusive nature in person, so to speak.
Despite that, the novel was very enjoyable and easy to read. The pages turned quickly, I carried it around with me for the night, reading while I was cooking dinner, etc and I was invested in the story of Kate and also in the interwoven story of Alice Frewin. I just thought that the ending could’ve definitely added more to the story and increased the tension level to a greater level than it actually did.
August 28, 2013
SPOILERS CONTAINED HEREIN! My mum lent me this book because I'd just returned from a holiday in the lovely Isle of Wight (a most beautiful place) and I've got to say that the main thing I enjoyed in the book was revisiting the locations I am now familiar with through Whitehouse's prose; particularly being as we stayed in some eerily similar cottages (and encountered an equally eerily similar cat as the one in Whitehouse's novel) during our hols, in Yarmouth. (It made me question if the author had stayed there too whilst writing her book!)
Sadly, for me, that's where the charm of the book began and ended. The main character is introspective, self-pitying, carping and basically deserves everything she gets. If there ever was a singularly appropriate title for a novel, it's the one for this book, because the heroine in it, has definitely made her own bed and brought all of her misfortunes upon herself.
So the slightly unlikely premise is as follows: Kate (a woman prone to drinking too much, over self-analysing, dread of being alone and overreacting, as we are told during the first few pages) meets Richard, an arrogant, confident man who I couldn't make a clear picture of in my mind from the author's description, but a great deal of her account of him is based around his eyebrows, so I kind of just pictured a dark bloke with satanic eyebrows (picture him with me if you will...) and goes home to bed with him on the first night of meeting. A slightly strange relationship then develops between the pair, whereby anyone with one iota of sense can see that Richard is a power-hungry psychopath intent on controlling Katie's every move, and Katie believes she's in love with him.
Despite Katie assuring us that she is really really much cleverer than anyone else (including you poor brain-cell deprived reader!), she falls completely under his spell and even falls for such old chestnuts as "my wife doesn't understand me..." when she finds out he's married; and, "NO! I haven't got any children... oh, apart from that one.. Oh, and the other woman I got pregnant whilst I was in a relationship with you..."
Finally, Katie wakes up and smells the coffee and flees (for her life by this stage after discovering much too late that Richard is not the rich single charmer she thought he was, but a married, fraudulent psychopath with violent tendencies, who comes complete with a battered wife, a (probably terrified) son, in addition to satanic eyebrows. So where does she go? (Now ask yourself, where would you go if you were in this situation? The Police station? Somewhere where you have no previous connections and not tell ANYONE where you are so there's no chance of being tracked down? Or a small island where you used to go on holiday and everyone knows everyone and is probably very happy to point out the location of the latest newby on the island to any passing psychopath with satanic eyebrows who happens to chance by?) And perhaps, to help things along, you could broadcast where you are going to a few family and friends as well.
Yes, that's right, clever Katie flees to the Isle of Wight; so not only is she within easy driving distance of London (where said psychopath lives) but is also marooned on an island when he inevitably catches up with her.
What follows is according to the blurb "a game of cat and mouse", but what I interpreted as a stream of whingeing from our heroine who then builds upon earlier mistakes by getting involved with a man who she initially suspects of murdering his wife, or at least driving her to suicide. (Oh yes, she's got a taste for psychopaths by this stage).
The reader doesn't have to be a genius to work out what will happen. Said Psychopath arrives (with a gun). Fortunately when he arrives Katie is safe in a pub. But oh no! She decides to leave with him ALONE, fails to call for help, thus leaving herself open to being shot.
In short, I found that despite Katie's assurances that she is very, very clever, she was, in my opinion, not the sharpest tool in the box. Similarly, thanks to all the carping and complaining endured by myself during the previous three hundred pages, I didn't really care if she got shot or not. In fact, by page 283, I've got to admit, I was rooting for the psychopath.
The Independent on Sunday reviewed this as "Gripping, believable and unnerving". I found it irritating, far-fetched and just a bit silly really. The plot was muddled with far too many extraneous bits in it which didn't tie up at the end (it would have been so much better if Richard has just shot them all, excluding the cat, and burned the yachts before heading back to the mainland), the characters were undeveloped, annoying and unengaging. I enjoyed seeing the cat again though, so it wasn't all bad.
Sadly, for me, that's where the charm of the book began and ended. The main character is introspective, self-pitying, carping and basically deserves everything she gets. If there ever was a singularly appropriate title for a novel, it's the one for this book, because the heroine in it, has definitely made her own bed and brought all of her misfortunes upon herself.
So the slightly unlikely premise is as follows: Kate (a woman prone to drinking too much, over self-analysing, dread of being alone and overreacting, as we are told during the first few pages) meets Richard, an arrogant, confident man who I couldn't make a clear picture of in my mind from the author's description, but a great deal of her account of him is based around his eyebrows, so I kind of just pictured a dark bloke with satanic eyebrows (picture him with me if you will...) and goes home to bed with him on the first night of meeting. A slightly strange relationship then develops between the pair, whereby anyone with one iota of sense can see that Richard is a power-hungry psychopath intent on controlling Katie's every move, and Katie believes she's in love with him.
Despite Katie assuring us that she is really really much cleverer than anyone else (including you poor brain-cell deprived reader!), she falls completely under his spell and even falls for such old chestnuts as "my wife doesn't understand me..." when she finds out he's married; and, "NO! I haven't got any children... oh, apart from that one.. Oh, and the other woman I got pregnant whilst I was in a relationship with you..."
Finally, Katie wakes up and smells the coffee and flees (for her life by this stage after discovering much too late that Richard is not the rich single charmer she thought he was, but a married, fraudulent psychopath with violent tendencies, who comes complete with a battered wife, a (probably terrified) son, in addition to satanic eyebrows. So where does she go? (Now ask yourself, where would you go if you were in this situation? The Police station? Somewhere where you have no previous connections and not tell ANYONE where you are so there's no chance of being tracked down? Or a small island where you used to go on holiday and everyone knows everyone and is probably very happy to point out the location of the latest newby on the island to any passing psychopath with satanic eyebrows who happens to chance by?) And perhaps, to help things along, you could broadcast where you are going to a few family and friends as well.
Yes, that's right, clever Katie flees to the Isle of Wight; so not only is she within easy driving distance of London (where said psychopath lives) but is also marooned on an island when he inevitably catches up with her.
What follows is according to the blurb "a game of cat and mouse", but what I interpreted as a stream of whingeing from our heroine who then builds upon earlier mistakes by getting involved with a man who she initially suspects of murdering his wife, or at least driving her to suicide. (Oh yes, she's got a taste for psychopaths by this stage).
The reader doesn't have to be a genius to work out what will happen. Said Psychopath arrives (with a gun). Fortunately when he arrives Katie is safe in a pub. But oh no! She decides to leave with him ALONE, fails to call for help, thus leaving herself open to being shot.
In short, I found that despite Katie's assurances that she is very, very clever, she was, in my opinion, not the sharpest tool in the box. Similarly, thanks to all the carping and complaining endured by myself during the previous three hundred pages, I didn't really care if she got shot or not. In fact, by page 283, I've got to admit, I was rooting for the psychopath.
The Independent on Sunday reviewed this as "Gripping, believable and unnerving". I found it irritating, far-fetched and just a bit silly really. The plot was muddled with far too many extraneous bits in it which didn't tie up at the end (it would have been so much better if Richard has just shot them all, excluding the cat, and burned the yachts before heading back to the mainland), the characters were undeveloped, annoying and unengaging. I enjoyed seeing the cat again though, so it wasn't all bad.
August 22, 2013
*Spoilers*
I enjoyed this book most of the way through, until I realised I was only 20 pages from the end and the notorious Richard had yet to make his reappearance, which was inevitably going to happen.
Anyway, following the rushed and ridiculous revelation that he'd been dating Katie's best friend, he popped up a few pages later for a hurried confrontation, getting beat up and sent to jail in a heartbeat so that Katie and Pete could live happily ever after.
Very similar to Whitehouse's 'The House at Midnight', this is dressed up and presented as a thriller but actually it's just a pretty weak love story. The interesting stories of Alice Frewin's suicide and Richard stalking Katie are strung out through the novel but tied up too conveniently and quickly, and quite unsatisfactorily.
I enjoyed this book most of the way through, until I realised I was only 20 pages from the end and the notorious Richard had yet to make his reappearance, which was inevitably going to happen.
Anyway, following the rushed and ridiculous revelation that he'd been dating Katie's best friend, he popped up a few pages later for a hurried confrontation, getting beat up and sent to jail in a heartbeat so that Katie and Pete could live happily ever after.
Very similar to Whitehouse's 'The House at Midnight', this is dressed up and presented as a thriller but actually it's just a pretty weak love story. The interesting stories of Alice Frewin's suicide and Richard stalking Katie are strung out through the novel but tied up too conveniently and quickly, and quite unsatisfactorily.
September 16, 2014
This was one big disappointment. The first third of the book seemed to hold a lot of promise - the main character is on the run from her ex and it gets you wondering what he's done and what a stinking baddie he'll turn into. Unfortunately the book just drags on and on with descriptions of how depressed she is and the walks she goes on! The most we get in the way of tension is a few nasty Emails from her ex. There was no cat and mouse, will he get her or not, it was just boring all the way through then it all happens in one chapter at the end. I've got another book by this author but I'm reluctant to even bother opening it now.
August 12, 2014
I've read two of Lucie Whitehouse's other books, "The House at Midnight" and "Before We Met", and I have to say that I was disappointed by "The Bed I Made". As a therapist, the concept interested me: What happens when a woman falls for the wrong man, and he doesn't want to let her go? Kate, a thirty-something translator,falls in love with Richard, a man casually met in a bar in London(read: had a one night stand with). The connection between the two is immediate. Richard has a somewhat mysterious allure and this fascinates and overcomes Kate so much that soon, she cannot imagine a life without him. However when she suggests that they move in together after a few months of passion, Richard changes. She discovers that not only is he married, but he also has a child. He also explodes in violence when she tries to end their affair. Frightened and needing to get away from him, Kate decides to leave him and moves away, to the Isle of Wight, without disclosing her new location to Richard. She hopes to never see or hear from him again, and plans to spend her time on the island healing her broken heart and catching up on work. But Richard turns up, if not physically, in subtle, menacing ways...She receives a call from his wife, telling her that their marriage is over; Richard has finally beaten his wife so badly that she is in the hospital. His wife also reveals that Kate is not the only woman he has cheated on her with, and that he actually got another woman pregnant during the time he was seeing Kate.
Kate keeps to herself on the island, but after a while, she tries to fit in. Yarmouth, where she chooses to stay, has recently been rocked by terrible news, involving the disappearance of a young wife, Alice, lost at sea. Suicide? Murder? Accident? The body does not turn up.
The book mainly deals with stalking, which is well described despite its being such a negative subject. However the reading becomes tedious at times and gets bogged down with far too many mundane descriptions of the island and Kate's boring days spent wandering around. It is also a bit too repetitive about Kate's feelings of frustration and fear. I found myself frustrated that this woman did not contact the police about the threatening e-mails this creep sent her, and never reported his physical attack on her. Overall, I think Lucie Whitehouse is a talented author, but this was definitely not her best work.
Kate keeps to herself on the island, but after a while, she tries to fit in. Yarmouth, where she chooses to stay, has recently been rocked by terrible news, involving the disappearance of a young wife, Alice, lost at sea. Suicide? Murder? Accident? The body does not turn up.
The book mainly deals with stalking, which is well described despite its being such a negative subject. However the reading becomes tedious at times and gets bogged down with far too many mundane descriptions of the island and Kate's boring days spent wandering around. It is also a bit too repetitive about Kate's feelings of frustration and fear. I found myself frustrated that this woman did not contact the police about the threatening e-mails this creep sent her, and never reported his physical attack on her. Overall, I think Lucie Whitehouse is a talented author, but this was definitely not her best work.
August 11, 2010
"The bed I made" reminded me of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. I am not sure if I like that idea or not. Kate the protagonist arrives at the Isle of Wight to find that a local women, Alice is lost at sea, not sure if it is an accident or suicide, this scenario is similar to Rebecca.
Kate is running away from a relationship gone bad. Like Maxim de Winter she contemplates jumping off a cliff. She constantly thinks of Alice and is always trying to empathise with her feelings and then ends up in a relationship with Pete. Kate later finds out that there was always someone else in Alice's life and her marriage to Pete was not as it seemed.
The “Rebecca” idea is further solidified when we find out the Sally ( the Ms Danvers of this story) was the one who made Kate believe that Pete was madly in love with Alice and that he gave her everything she wanted. Sally’s son even puts a bird carcass in Kate’s boat ( the one that belongs to Pete). Pete’s boat is called Beatrice which is the name of Maxim’s sister.
Kate and Richard’s relationship is a new twist, as a reader you are curious to know what has happened, that has caused Kate to be so afraid of him. Helen, Kate’s best friend becomes a target for Richard, he uses her to get to Kate. However when he finally catches up to her, you are disappointed as the end feels rushed. Richard is made out to be a cold calculating character, waiting months to work out where Kate is, so you expect the final meeting to be intense. It isn’t.
In a very interesting twist, Daphne de Maurier was accused of plagiarism for her novel "Rebecca". I loved reading "Rebecca" so I can understand why Lucie Whitehouse would use it.
Kate is running away from a relationship gone bad. Like Maxim de Winter she contemplates jumping off a cliff. She constantly thinks of Alice and is always trying to empathise with her feelings and then ends up in a relationship with Pete. Kate later finds out that there was always someone else in Alice's life and her marriage to Pete was not as it seemed.
The “Rebecca” idea is further solidified when we find out the Sally ( the Ms Danvers of this story) was the one who made Kate believe that Pete was madly in love with Alice and that he gave her everything she wanted. Sally’s son even puts a bird carcass in Kate’s boat ( the one that belongs to Pete). Pete’s boat is called Beatrice which is the name of Maxim’s sister.
Kate and Richard’s relationship is a new twist, as a reader you are curious to know what has happened, that has caused Kate to be so afraid of him. Helen, Kate’s best friend becomes a target for Richard, he uses her to get to Kate. However when he finally catches up to her, you are disappointed as the end feels rushed. Richard is made out to be a cold calculating character, waiting months to work out where Kate is, so you expect the final meeting to be intense. It isn’t.
In a very interesting twist, Daphne de Maurier was accused of plagiarism for her novel "Rebecca". I loved reading "Rebecca" so I can understand why Lucie Whitehouse would use it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 8, 2011
The book is so well written that for the first half of the book I was more reluctant to like Richard, the psycho, then Kate, the woman he's been terrorizing and even beaten. We know this already within the first few pages, but as the story moves on and Kate remembers the Richard she fell in love with. Richard is described as the kind of man every girl at some point in her life dreams of meeting. Well apart from the psycho bit.
This way Whitehouse sends her reader into the same dilemma that Kate is facing. Can you love a man even if it is obvious he's wrong for you, even dangerous? And if you do love him, would you be ready to live with the fear of him loosing it?
The book is said to be a Gothic thriller and honestly for the majority of the book, no matter how good a read it was, I couldn't understand where the Gothic thriller came from. That was until I read the last hundred pages of the book one night in bed. I suddenly became aware of every sound in the night and more then once spooked myself so much that I considered waking up my husband. It wasn't until the next morning I connected my sudden irrational fear of the night with the book. It's that good a book and without any hesitation I would recommend it to others.
This way Whitehouse sends her reader into the same dilemma that Kate is facing. Can you love a man even if it is obvious he's wrong for you, even dangerous? And if you do love him, would you be ready to live with the fear of him loosing it?
The book is said to be a Gothic thriller and honestly for the majority of the book, no matter how good a read it was, I couldn't understand where the Gothic thriller came from. That was until I read the last hundred pages of the book one night in bed. I suddenly became aware of every sound in the night and more then once spooked myself so much that I considered waking up my husband. It wasn't until the next morning I connected my sudden irrational fear of the night with the book. It's that good a book and without any hesitation I would recommend it to others.
March 24, 2015
After reading the description of the book, I was expecting something pretty special! Unfortunately, I was disappointed. Far too much of this book was spent describing surroundings - mainly boats and sea views. Not what I wanted from a thriller at all. I managed to see it through to the end but was confused at how the story suddenly went from being a 'Village Hall and tea cakes' type of book to this unrealistic thriller. Not the worst book I've ever read but certainly not one to remember.
May 15, 2011
I was very annoyed. This was a chick lit novel in disguise!!
Nothing really happened until the end.
If you've ever been to the Isle of Wight you'll recognise the descriptions and Whitehouse writes some pretty prose. T'was not for me though
Nothing really happened until the end.
If you've ever been to the Isle of Wight you'll recognise the descriptions and Whitehouse writes some pretty prose. T'was not for me though
March 26, 2015
If you picked up this book thinking its a gripping thriller...then put it back. It's not, it's a boring chick lit with a thriller-ish ending. Bad, just bad.
May 9, 2022
The Bed I Made is my third outing with British writer Lucie Whitehouse (The House at Midnight, Before We Met). Like Before We Me, this novel concerns a love affair gone wrong.
Kate works as a translator in London. One night, out with her friend Helen, she meets Richard.
He was watching me intently but didn’t speak. It was strange: it should have unnerved me but instead I found myself responding to the intensity, It was like suddenly finding myself in a spotlight.
Kate is generally practical and reserved, but her attraction to Richard is immediate and intense and soon they are in a full-fledged relationship. Richard is handsome, charming and successful – quite unlike anyone Kate has ever dated before. And if you’re thinking he sounds too good to be true, you’d be correct. Eighteen months after they first kiss, Kate sublets her apartment and flees to the Isle of Wight, a place that has personal significance to her, but where she is a stranger in the community.
The problem is that Richard isn’t about to let her go so easily. He might not know where she is, but he can still text her (until she changes her number) and email her (she can’t seem to stop herself from reading his messages and when she finally tells him that they are never, ever, ever getting back together, he starts making unpleasant threats.)
I guess you could say that The Bed I Made is a relatively straightforward domestic thriller. The Isle of Wight is supposed to offer Kate sanctuary, but soon after she arrives, a local woman goes missing and she becomes fascinated with her disappearance. Then she meets the woman’s husband, Pete, and things start to get even more complicated.
I found this book kind of slow, actually. Not slow in that I didn’t want to read it or find out what was going to happen – even though I had a pretty good idea. Whitehouse captures Kate’s sense of loneliness and isolation and claustrophobia really well, and she was a likeable – if often times naïve – character. By the time we get to the novel’s dénouement, I sort of felt as though I was reading a completely different book. There was a lot of time when nothing much was happening – Kate was wandering around the town, or she and Pete were sailing – and then bam. Thriller mode.
Still, Whitehouse has been a dependable author for me and I will definitely continue to read her.
Kate works as a translator in London. One night, out with her friend Helen, she meets Richard.
He was watching me intently but didn’t speak. It was strange: it should have unnerved me but instead I found myself responding to the intensity, It was like suddenly finding myself in a spotlight.
Kate is generally practical and reserved, but her attraction to Richard is immediate and intense and soon they are in a full-fledged relationship. Richard is handsome, charming and successful – quite unlike anyone Kate has ever dated before. And if you’re thinking he sounds too good to be true, you’d be correct. Eighteen months after they first kiss, Kate sublets her apartment and flees to the Isle of Wight, a place that has personal significance to her, but where she is a stranger in the community.
The problem is that Richard isn’t about to let her go so easily. He might not know where she is, but he can still text her (until she changes her number) and email her (she can’t seem to stop herself from reading his messages and when she finally tells him that they are never, ever, ever getting back together, he starts making unpleasant threats.)
I guess you could say that The Bed I Made is a relatively straightforward domestic thriller. The Isle of Wight is supposed to offer Kate sanctuary, but soon after she arrives, a local woman goes missing and she becomes fascinated with her disappearance. Then she meets the woman’s husband, Pete, and things start to get even more complicated.
I found this book kind of slow, actually. Not slow in that I didn’t want to read it or find out what was going to happen – even though I had a pretty good idea. Whitehouse captures Kate’s sense of loneliness and isolation and claustrophobia really well, and she was a likeable – if often times naïve – character. By the time we get to the novel’s dénouement, I sort of felt as though I was reading a completely different book. There was a lot of time when nothing much was happening – Kate was wandering around the town, or she and Pete were sailing – and then bam. Thriller mode.
Still, Whitehouse has been a dependable author for me and I will definitely continue to read her.
March 9, 2020
I'm a complete sucker for UK Psychological thrillers and I've been devouring Lucie Whitehouse's novels. Look, they aren't going to win any major literary awards but they're fun to read real page-turners, the prose is beautiful and so easy to get lost in. A perfect weekend read or just something to pick up when you don't want anything that requires too much concentration. I really enjoyed this, even if I did think the protagonist was rather dimwitted and could have made much, much better decisions but where's the fun in that? Also, in almost every sex scene nipples were being twiddled and it made me laugh a lot and I needed some laughter. Despite all the nipple twiddling, I do recommend you pick this one up.
March 5, 2019
Unlike the interesting plot the blurb presents, its a boring book..i expected action to begin in the first few pages itself ..but u somehow cope with 3/4th of the page and yet nothing interesting happens..the author cud have finished the book in a more entertaining way in jus 1/4 of the page limit she used..and her never ending description of literally everything she sees around her eats up too much of her content space....to sum it up 'im disappointed'.
April 7, 2020
I found this book quite descriptive, and enjoyed reading. I found the part that kate believed she had a lot in common with Alice a bit strange as I couldn't see it myself. First book I have read by this author and I would read another.
August 7, 2017
British author Lucie Whitehouse does a nice line in stories about women who fall in love with psychopathic men — and this one is no exception.
To read my review in full, please visit my blog.
To read my review in full, please visit my blog.
February 28, 2014
What is it that makes Lucie Whitehouse novels so addictive? Like many British writers penning literary Gothic romances or thrillers, Whitehouse is wildly successful at causing that tingle up your spine right from the first chapter and continuing to build that sense of impending danger, or even doom for the main character as the book progresses, until you're reading late into the night with wide eyes and a dry mouth. She really makes you feel the fear. Take a look at this description of Kate, the main character in The Bed I Made, when she realizes danger is near:
“There was a strange buzzing in my ears, as if I were wearing ear-plugs, muffling out the world and hearing the working of my own brain instead. Everything felt distant, slightly too bright, liable to start spinning at any moment.”
Even more spectacularly, Whitehouse does this with an attention to language that is rare among ordinary thriller writers—well, rare among us lowbrow Americans, anyway—spinning up mists on navy blue rivers, alleyways paved with mossy stones, sea foaming on beaches “like airy egg whites,” and shrubbery rustling with strange noises. Even the swans seem dangerous:
“A pair of swans swam up, their legs powerful beneath the surface. I watched as they arched their long smooth necks to dip their beaks into the water, their feathers white as angels' wings, their black eyes assessing.”
I love that juxtaposition of language between angel wings and assessing black eyes—wow! I would read any novel Whitehouse wrote just for the language alone.
So why did I give this novel four stars instead of five? Because it has one near-fatal flaw: the heroine never once thinks to actually protect herself from the person who has put her in danger. I don't want to offer any spoilers here, but let's just say there are several instances in the novel where I thought, “Oh, come on. You're just going to stay in that place by yourself at night?” or, “Really? You're STILL not going to call the cops or tell your best friend what the hell is going on?” It's kind of like watching those horror movies where the ditzy blond babysitter goes down those basement stairs even though she knows damn well the guy with the saw or the vampire or whatever is down there.
But, having said that, I would also say this: Whitehouse's new novel, which has some similarities in character and plot, has a heroine who does not do that, and I don't care anyway. I'll read any novel she writes just for the thrill of being on her foggy headlands or in her boggy swamps, feeling someone breathing down my neck.
“There was a strange buzzing in my ears, as if I were wearing ear-plugs, muffling out the world and hearing the working of my own brain instead. Everything felt distant, slightly too bright, liable to start spinning at any moment.”
Even more spectacularly, Whitehouse does this with an attention to language that is rare among ordinary thriller writers—well, rare among us lowbrow Americans, anyway—spinning up mists on navy blue rivers, alleyways paved with mossy stones, sea foaming on beaches “like airy egg whites,” and shrubbery rustling with strange noises. Even the swans seem dangerous:
“A pair of swans swam up, their legs powerful beneath the surface. I watched as they arched their long smooth necks to dip their beaks into the water, their feathers white as angels' wings, their black eyes assessing.”
I love that juxtaposition of language between angel wings and assessing black eyes—wow! I would read any novel Whitehouse wrote just for the language alone.
So why did I give this novel four stars instead of five? Because it has one near-fatal flaw: the heroine never once thinks to actually protect herself from the person who has put her in danger. I don't want to offer any spoilers here, but let's just say there are several instances in the novel where I thought, “Oh, come on. You're just going to stay in that place by yourself at night?” or, “Really? You're STILL not going to call the cops or tell your best friend what the hell is going on?” It's kind of like watching those horror movies where the ditzy blond babysitter goes down those basement stairs even though she knows damn well the guy with the saw or the vampire or whatever is down there.
But, having said that, I would also say this: Whitehouse's new novel, which has some similarities in character and plot, has a heroine who does not do that, and I don't care anyway. I'll read any novel she writes just for the thrill of being on her foggy headlands or in her boggy swamps, feeling someone breathing down my neck.
October 26, 2010
I absolutely loved this! I could not put it down. Very compelling read, I just had to keep reading.
I loved the character of Kate. Even though at times she came across a little weak, I actually thought she was a very strong character. She let Richard control and get into her head but as soon as it turned physical she got out of it. Richard's character was extremely well written, a very convincing bad guy and extremely creepy. I actually found I was holding my breath at the end.
Even though to me it was obvious what he had done to Kate etc the storyline I didnt find the storyline super predictible. I was very surprised by the actions of her best friend Helen, I felt they didnt really need to put this in, and best friends wouldnt do it to each other. Well most wouldnt anyway.
It might have been interesting to read a little from Richard's perspective, but in another way the emails kinda gave away the way he thought.
Tbh I cannot really fault this book, I loved it and am so intrigued with this author, I am going to look into The House at Midnight.
I loved the character of Kate. Even though at times she came across a little weak, I actually thought she was a very strong character. She let Richard control and get into her head but as soon as it turned physical she got out of it. Richard's character was extremely well written, a very convincing bad guy and extremely creepy. I actually found I was holding my breath at the end.
Even though to me it was obvious what he had done to Kate etc the storyline I didnt find the storyline super predictible. I was very surprised by the actions of her best friend Helen, I felt they didnt really need to put this in, and best friends wouldnt do it to each other. Well most wouldnt anyway.
It might have been interesting to read a little from Richard's perspective, but in another way the emails kinda gave away the way he thought.
Tbh I cannot really fault this book, I loved it and am so intrigued with this author, I am going to look into The House at Midnight.
November 28, 2010
I found it hard to get into this one. I was well over 100 pages in before I started to find the story interesting and although the pace did pick up, I felt that the ending was rushed when the rest of the book had been so slow. In its favour, the descriptions of the Isle of Wight were very good and atmospheric and being a regular visitor to the Island I could visualise the scenes very well and feel as if I was there!
July 27, 2015
This was one of the best books I've read in ages. The language is beautiful, evoking the locations' views, smells and feels.
I did have a niggle about why the police weren't involved sooner and I'd be interested to know the author's reason for this. But other than that, the story was gripping and the characters appealing.
I did have a niggle about why the police weren't involved sooner and I'd be interested to know the author's reason for this. But other than that, the story was gripping and the characters appealing.
May 20, 2018
I really liked reading The Bed I made by Lucie Whitehouse. I thought it was excellent. I seem to be able to get into Lucie's stories this is why Lucie Whitehouse is one of my favourite authors and I follow her on Goodreads.
October 9, 2014
I just found this in my kindle marked 100% read. This was news to me as I had pretty much no recollection of reading it but after reading other reviews on it here, I do now recall the storyline (barely). I also remember not being hugely impressed.
December 7, 2014
Loved it even though the end was predictable. Initally thought I was re-redaing her other book " Before We Met" because the characters were similar but I thought this better with the dimension of a new life.
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