The Spare Room

How it reads

The Spare Room is thriller (psychological thriller, specifically), and its dominant mood is tense. The suspense is the kind you feel in your shoulders. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.

It's set in an international setting, in the present day, told in the first person by several narrators. Its central concerns are secrets, friendship and identity. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending resolves happily. At 336 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.