You Let Me In: The most chilling, unputdownable page-turner of 2018. Lucy Clarke

      

      

       Copyright

      Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      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: 2018-10-26

       Dedication

      For my parents, Jane and Tony.

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

      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

       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

       Prologue

      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 will they leave behind?

      What parts of you will they discover?