“Evocative writing and wholly realized characters complement a multifaceted tale that's both harrowing and profound.”
House on Fire
A Novel
Description
“A masterfully written saga of family drama in the vein of Celeste Ng, Liane Moriarty, and Sally Hepworth” (Book Reporter) about a blended family in crisis after a drunk driving accident leaves one parent’s daughter dead—and the other’s son charged with manslaughter.
Divorce lawyer Leigh Huyett knows all too well that most second marriages are doomed to fail. Yet five years in, she and Pete Conley couldn’t be happier with their blended family.
But one rainy Friday night, on the way back from celebrating their anniversary, Peter and Leigh receive horrific news. Peter’s son Kip, a high school senior, has crashed his truck and been arrested for drunk driving. And Leigh’s fourteen-year-old daughter, Chrissy, was with him.
Twelve hours later, Chrissy is dead and Kip is charged with manslaughter.
Reeling with grief, Leigh nonetheless does her best to rally behind Peter and Kip. That is, until Kip changes his story and claims that he wasn’t driving after all—Chrissy was, and he swears there is a witness.
As they hurtle toward Kip’s trial date, husband and wife are torn between loyalty to their children and to each other, while the mystery of what really happened that night looms large.
Reviews
“Bonnie Kistler captures the madness of losing a child with profound understanding in House on Fire. My anxiety rose with each page as I swung with the characters from hope to rage, and back again as I followed this family through the shattering after effects of a drunk driving accident, but somehow Kistler manages to hold the reader’s exploding heart safe as this gut-wrenching story unfolds. I lived inside this novel with every word.”
“A nuanced and compelling story of a family in crisis. Kistler handles a tragedy and the questions that swirl around it with a depth that will take your breath away and have you asking yourself—what would I do? Outstanding!”
"Kistler has a clear mastery of the legal drama but also a deft touch with complicated family dynamics and the tightening noose of a trauma that refuses all efforts at a cut-and-dry solution."