The Last House on the Street

Starred review from November 8, 2021
Chamberlain (Big Lies in a Small Town) delivers the goods with this affecting and spellbinding account of a community’s buried secrets. In 2010, North Carolina architect Kayla Carter reluctantly prepares to move into her dream home with her three-year-old daughter, Rainie, after her husband, Jackson, died in a freak accident while building the house. Kayla is approached at her office by a woman named Ann Smith, who claims to be a potential client but unnerves Kayla by talking about Jackson’s death, and by telling her she is thinking about killing someone. After moving into the new house, Kayla and Rainie meet neighbor Ellie Hockley, who recently returned to the area to care for her aging mother and ill brother. In a parallel narrative set in 1965, Ellie joins a student group to help register Black voters. She faces danger from the KKK while working alongside other students from Northern colleges and the members of her local Black community in N.C., all of which is exacerbated by her attraction to a Black civil rights activist. As Kayla learns Ellie was once in a romantic relationship with Kayla’s father, she uncovers a series of terrible events that occurred in the woods surrounding Kayla’s property. Chamberlain ratchets up the tension with the ever-present mystery of what Ann might be up to, and the dual narratives merge beautifully before an explosive conclusion. This will keep readers enthralled.

March 1, 2022

In 1965, 20-year-old Ellie Hockley, who is white, shocks her family and North Carolina community by volunteering to work in the SCOPE program, which registers Black people to vote ahead of the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Ellie is determined to participate even though it puts her in danger and causes her family to be shunned. As she falls in love with one of the Black students, the couple ignore all warnings to be careful about their relationship and violence ensues. In 2010, Ellie has returned to North Carolina to care for her ailing family members. In another story line, a grieving Kayla and her young daughter Rainie are about to move into their newly built house--on the same street where Ellie grew up. Their stories combine in a suspenseful tale of long-held grudges, the viciousness of racism, and the pain of not knowing the truth of past trauma. Narrator Susan Bennett has a wonderful voice that effectively portrays Southerners, Northerners, children, and adults. Her sense of timing when voicing situations that have a sense of urgency and doom is excellent. She is particularly good at portraying the prickly, naive, passionate Ellie. VERDICT Will be very popular with fans of Chamberlain (Big Lies in a Small Town) and listeners who like some meat to their suspense.--B. Allison Gray

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