Have you ever started reading a book that, for some reason, you can’t put down, but that you constantly say to yourself while reading, “This book is so stupid!”? That book, for me, was Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell.
The book begins with a small family gathered together after the funeral of their beloved father, husband, and wildly popular restaurateur, Paddy Swann. His death was shocking and sudden, having been pushed into an oncoming train by a schizophrenic man for apparently no reason.
From here, the story essentially centers around two main characters. Our antagonist is a man named Nick Radcliffe. Or wait, is it Alistair Gray? Regardless, he is a very handsome, smooth-talking, narcissistic serial con artist who preys on and manipulates women to support the lavish lifestyle he feels he deserves.
And then there is our somewhat sympathetic protagonist, Ash Swann, the 26-year-old daughter of Nina Swann, Ash’s grieving mother and Nick’s new target. Ash immediately suspects something is amiss with this sparkly-eyed, charismatic man and vows to figure him out as he woos her mother and invades their lives.
The storyline switches narratives among many of the female characters whose lives intersect because of this one man’s actions. For example, there’s Martha, a florist with two boys from a previous marriage and a new baby with her husband, Al. While she is buried under the demands of her career and raising children, her husband, Al, constantly travels for his job and is oddly unavailable when he is away. There are more women and more storylines, but all are written without much complexity and are easily followed.
The book includes sequential timeline changes, needed to supply relevant backstory, but the “Four years earlier… Three years earlier… Two years earlier…” transitions are executed fairly well. I experienced confusion a few times, but rereading the chapter heading quickly set me back on track.
What really kept me hooked with this book was my recurring question: “How do these women put up with this nonsense?!” The author is a Londoner, and as I read the female characters’ perspectives and responses to their situations, I wondered, “Is this a British thing?” I have heard that Brits are notoriously non-confrontational, so I wondered if maybe the characters were written with some sort of cultural influence. Or perhaps these women actually represent the vulnerable personalities that men, such as the fictional Nick Radcliffe, prey upon. Ms. Jewell is a New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author who has published more than 30 books. Perhaps if I read more of her books, I could figure this out.
Many reviewers called this book a “gripping psychological thriller,” but I think “domestic suspense novel” is more fitting. The writing and character development were too underdeveloped for it to be called a “thriller.”
In summary… Plot? Decently solid. Character development? Pretty weak. Writing? Simplistic. While this description of a novel’s basic elements may not compel you to put it on the waitlist at the local library (actually, there was no waitlist… so that may have been a sign…), don’t we all need an “interesting no-brainer” to read sometimes?
It is worth the 361 pages to get to the climactic ending. Realistic or not, it satisfies!
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, November–December 2026.
