My extremely grateful thanks to Hayley Barnes at Transworld Books for a surprise advanced reader copy of The Intruder by P. S. Hogan.

The Intruder was published in e-book on 1st February 2018 and is available for purchase and paperback pre-order here.

The Intruder

He has the key to hundreds of houses.
Maybe even to yours.

William Heming is an estate agent. He’s kept a copy of every key to every house he’s ever sold. Sometimes he visits them. He lets himself in when the owners are out. But what will happen if he gets caught?

What will he do next?

My Review of The Intruder

William Heming is an estate agent with a difference. Even after a sale the buyer is always on his books!

Ooo The Intruder is clever. Tautly written and plotted it worms its way under the reader’s skin until they are consumed by the need to know what will happen next.

The language is like poetry at times and the superb quality of description places the reader at the scene with William Heming until they almost become part of the story. I loved the way the variety of sentence structure mirrored the natural cadences of thought so that I felt as if I was almost in William’s head. Similarly, I found the direct appeal to the reader through the rhetorical questions and first person address made me experience the narrative so clearly first hand that I felt complicit in William’s actions as if I had carried them out myself. This is what makes The Intruder so compelling. Reading it gave me a very uncomfortable feeling as I found I had a grudging admiration for a highly disturbed and dangerous man.

The plot almost borders the ridiculous as Heming entrenches himself more and more in other people’s lives and yet it is entirely believable and plausible. P. S. Hogan anticipates any disquiet on the part of the reader and addresses it directly making them feel foolish as William explains his actions.

I found The Intruder scarily affecting because of the mundanity of many of William’s actions even though they are so definitely morally wrong at best and downright criminal at other times. I wanted this villain to succeed, even if that meant murder, and reading The Intruder has left me questioning my own morality and that of every person I’ve ever met.

Creepy, compelling and disturbing The Intruder makes the reader think and I for one will never trust an estate agent again. I’m sure there will be those who would prefer more visceral events or more blistering a plot, but I think Heming is the Macbeth of the modern age and The Intruder is just brilliant in conveying the potential for everyday evil in all of us.

About P. S. Hogan

P. S. Hogan was born in Yorkshire. He is married with four children and has been a journalist and columnist on the Observer for over 20 years.