Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2018
Copyright © Lucy Clarke 2018
Cover design by Simeon Greenaway © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018
Jacket photograph © Roderick Field/Trevillion Images
Lucy Clarke asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008262549
Ebook Edition © July 2018 ISBN: 9780008262563
Version: 2020-11-10
For my parents, Jane and Tony.
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
1. Elle
Previously
2. Elle
Previously
3. Elle
2003
4. Elle
Previously
5. Elle
2003
6. Elle
2003
7. Elle
Previously
8. Elle
Previously
9. Elle
2003
10. Elle
11. Elle
2004
12. Elle
Previously
13. Elle
Previously
14. Elle
Previously
15. Elle
2003
16. Elle
Previously
17. Elle
Previously
18. Elle
2004
19. Elle
20. Elle
2004
21. Elle
Previously
22. Elle
2004
23. Elle
24. Elle
Previously
25. Elle
2004
26. Elle
2004
27. Elle
28. Elle
29. Elle
2004
30. Elle
31. Elle
32. Elle
33. Elle
34. Elle
35. Elle
36. Elle
37. Elle
Epilogue: One year later
Read on to enjoy an exclusive extract of The Castaways
Acknowledgements
If you enjoyed You Let Me In, don’t miss these other breathtakingly gripping novels from Lucy Clarke
About the Author
Also by Lucy Clarke
About the Publisher
I’d like to offer you one piece of advice. It’s just a small thing. It won’t apply to many of you – but it is important.
It changed everything for me.
It’s this: if you’re considering letting someone into your house, pause first. Think.
Think about what it means to give a stranger – or strangers – the keys to your home.
Think about that stranger drifting through your house; a hand slipped into a drawer; fingers trailing through the clothes hanging in your wardrobe; the bathroom cabinet opened, examined.
Think about where their gaze may linger; the photos of you and your family hanging on the walls; the calendar in the kitchen outlining your plans; the file you keep at the bottom of a trunk.
Think about that person lying in your bed; the mattress moulding to their warm body; tiny cells of their skin shedding on your sheets; their breath moist against your pillow.
What other parts of themselves