“You know who.
You don’t know why.Alice only meant to stop the intruder.
She didn’t mean to hit him so hard.
She didn’t mean to kill him.The police conclude that she acted in self-defence, but wracked with guilt, Alice sets out to apologise to Linda, the mother of the young man she killed – only to find she is unable to come clean about who she really is.
Without meaning to, Alice finds herself drawn more and more into Linda’s world, struggling to balance her growing obsession with starting a prestigious new job, caring for her daughter and being there for her husband.
But as Alice learns more about Ezra – and finds herself uncomfortably enmeshed with his family – she begins to wonder whether she really has the full picture about why he came to her house that day.”
Hello and welcome to damppebbles. Today I am delighted to share my review of The Break-In by Katherine Faulkner. The Break-In was published by Raven Books on 19th June 2025 and is available in hardcover, audio and digital formats with the paperback to follow. I chose to read a free eARC of The Break-In but that has in no way influenced my review.
I thoroughly enjoyed Katherine Faulkner’s debut, Greenwich Park, when I read it in 2021. So much so that I have been meaning to get hold of a copy of Faulkner’s second book, The Other Mothers, for a while now. So when I heard Katherine Faulkner was on the brink of publishing her third novel, The Break-In, I jumped at the chance to read it. And oh my goodness, what a fabulous slice of domestic suspense it is! Gosh. Dark and unexpected. Complex and utterly riveting.
Alice Rathbone lives a comfortable life in her stylish Hackney-based house with her husband, Jamie and their young daughter, Martha. One afternoon, during a playdate, a man bursts into the kitchen. He grabs a knife from the kitchen counter and heads towards the room where the nanny is entertaining the children. Alice grabs the nearest thing to her, a bulky stool, and smashes the intruder, Ezra, around the head with it. She only meant to stun him, stop him from hurting the children. She never meant to kill him. Now haunted by that fateful day, under police investigation and with the entire community giving her side-eye wherever she goes, Alice cannot escape the guilt of what she has done. She becomes obsessed with Ezra’s mother and sister, trying to find out why Ezra did what he did that day. But the more she learns, the more she begins to doubt what she initially thought. With those closest to Alice acting differently, Alice’s doubt begins to spiral. Who really is Ezra, and what was he actually doing at the house that day…?
I loved The Break-In. It was my book of the month for May. I’ve always been a fan of thrillers where exceptional things happen to ordinary people, and that’s very much the case here. At the start of the book, I found Alice a little annoying. She’s got a great new job as an art restorer, a loving husband who works in the charity sector, a darling daughter and a gorgeous, stylish house. Granted, it’s not in the best of areas, but there’s a lot of regeneration going on locally and the future is certainly looking bright. But then Ezra arrives on the scene and the Rathbone’s perfect life is shattered into a million tiny pieces. Things begin to spiral. Alice cannot get beyond what she has done and inserts herself into the lives of Ezra’s family. She’s desperate for answers, to the point of obsession. It made for uncomfortable reading, and I loved it.
Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. The Break-In is stuffed to the gills with suspense, with bucketloads of intrigue spooned over the top. Gosh, things really take a turn for Alice. A turn I certainly didn’t see coming! This is a beautifully written domestic thriller that fans of the genre should definitely make a point of picking up. The plot moves at a great pace, leading the reader down the path of Alice’s demise. The characters are mainly unlikeable, but that’s never a problem for me. In my limited experience, Faulkner tends to make her lead female characters rather well-to-do, fairly naïve and a touch on the annoying side. Alice is most definitely all three. Saying that, I did find it interesting how easily Alice’s thoughts and feelings were dismissed by those around her. Those who were supposed to care for her. I mean, she killed a man and, rightly so, was struggling to deal with it. Suggesting she ‘get over it’ probably wasn’t the most sensitive of approaches! However, this is suspense fiction and not real life, so… All in all, I loved spending time in Alice’s slightly obsessive, out-of-control world. This book took me places I never expected from the opening few chapters. There’s a lot going on here with a large cast of characters, but the story was very easy to follow and immerse myself in. I cannot wait to read more by this author. Gorgeously tense, utterly compelling, highly unexpected, full of twists and turns, and completely engaging throughout. Recommended.
I chose to read and review a free eARC of The Break-In. The above review is my own unbiased opinion.
The Break-In by Katherine Faulkner was published in the UK by Raven Books on 19th June 2025 and is available in hardcover, audio and digital formats with the paperback to follow (please note, the following links are affiliate links which means I receive a small percentage of the purchase price at no extra cost to you): | amazon.co.uk | Waterstones | bookshop.org | Goodreads | damppebbles bookshop.org shop | damppebbles amazon.co.uk shop | damppebbles amazon.com shop |
Katherine is a London-based author and journalist. She studied History at Cambridge University, graduating with a First, then completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Newspaper Journalism. Since then she has been working as an investigative reporter and latterly an editor. Her work has been published in many national papers, and she most recently worked at The Times, where she was the joint Head of News.
While working as an undercover reporter, Katherine won the Cudlipp Award for public interest journalism and was nominated for a string of others. She was also commended by a committee of MPs for ‘the highest standards of ethical investigative reporting.’
Katherine was inspired to write her debut novel about the complexity of female friendships after attending NCT classes when pregnant, and her experience of sudden intimacy with complete strangers.
She lives in Hackney, East London, where she grew up, with her husband and two daughters.
