The House on Buzzards Bay

'This elegant, eerie mystery brings a shudder to the spine' Daily Mail

When a group of old college friends reunites for a summer vacation at a beach house in coastal Massachusetts, a sudden disappearance and the arrival of a seductive stranger threaten to unearth the darkest secrets of their relationships.

'A masterful psychological thriller...It's a devilish twist on the traditional locked-room mystery' Publishers Weekly Starred Review

'A delicious, brooding heart-stopper of a book' Tea Obreht, author of The Tiger's Wife

As they hurtle into midlife, Jim and his closest college friends get together to rekindle the bonds of their friendship in his family's beautiful, generations-old vacation home along Buzzards Bay. But what begins as a restorative seaside escape takes a darker turn when Bruce, an aloof but successful writer, disappears from the house without a trace.

Meanwhile, a series of mysterious break-ins besets the town, which is the site of an old Spiritualist campground turned idyllic fishing village. After a series of uncanny disturbances at the house, Jim can't help but feel that someone — or something — is watching them. And with the arrival of a strange, seductive guest at their home, the group begins to question the very nature of their experiences — along with their already precarious ties with one other.

In The House on Buzzards Bay, Dwyer Murphy returns with a chilling, atmospheric page-turner that explores the bonds of friendship, the growing accumulation of life's responsibilities, and whether our youthful dreams can endure the complexities of adulthood.



Dwyer Murphy is the editor-in-chief of Crime Reads, Literary Hub's crime fiction vertical and the world's most popular destination for thriller readers. He practised law at Debevoise and Plimpton in New York City, where he was a litigator, and served as editor of the Colombia Law Review.