The Attic Room

Shortly after the death of her mother, Nina Moore is contacted by a lawyer, informing her that she inherited a house and money from her father. Only, her father died a long time ago, at least that's what her mother told her. She meets the lawyer and stays in the inherited house for a few days to deal with all the formalities. There, she discovers a dark family secret: her father was a paedophile who was blackmailed ...

I found The Attic Room an average thriller. The idea of a paedophile father of whom the main character is unaware of is interesting. But unfortunately, the story line was too illogical and I didn't understand the motivation behind the behavior of the "villain". It didn't make sense to me.

Quotes from the book

A cremation with no service, no mourners, no funeral flowers. How tragic. A sordid end to any kind of life.

Her suggestion that they talk things through with a marriage guidance counsellor [was] met with ridicule, and he started calling her "fat cow", even in front of other people.

The photos might tell her something about her father's life, but she already knew he'd been the biggest scumbag in creation.

"Um - is there any word about the paternity test?" She knew she was being naive, hoping it could still come back negative, but you never knew. People won at the lottery every week, didn't they? [...] It was difficult not to hope. Nobody wanted a monster for their father.

She still didn't know if he'd been an active paedophile or had "merely" collected vile pictures. And - if he had abused other children, he could have abused her too. It was the blackest thought of all. There was no evidence of it and she had no memories, but...

[...] discovering that your father had been a paedophile and your mother had lied to you about him all your life – bad stuff didn't get much mightier than that.

"I wanted to kill him for a long time", he said, his voice trembling. "Both of them, Dad and Uncle John. When I was older I even bought a gun, but they were enemies by that time and I never got the two of them in the same place at the same time and that was what I wanted. I wanted to pull the trigger on your father and watch the fear in Dad's eyes while I did it. And then I wanted to kill him too. But it didn't work out."