The House on Beale Street by Loraine J Hudson

A dream house in a small town. 
A cup of coffee on her porch. 
Her dog at her feet. 
What could possibly go wrong? 
Plenty. 
Bumps in the night, unwelcome visitors, an angry friend, and a lingering threat from a local robbery leave Marianne Reed wondering if her new home might become a nightmare. The question is, is it new house jitters, or is danger just around the corner? 
The House on Beale Street is the debut novel by Loraine J Hudson, who lives and writes in a small town in Michigan. She loves oldies rock music, stained glass, playing in her garden, snuggling with her dogs, riding her off-track thoroughbred horse, and – of course – writing. She has also published a series of middle grades fantasy chapter books under her pen name, Judith Wade.   (Summary via Goodreads)


The House on Beale Street is Loraine J. Hudson's debut novel and I am already looking forward to her next book !!

The House on Beale Street is the house that Marianne bought and recently moved into.  It is a nice small house in a quiet neighborhood and she is excited to do renovations to the house, get to know her neighbors and enjoy sitting in her yard with her big teddy bear of a dog Rowdy.

That is until she meets her neighbor, Ashley, and learns of a burglary that happened in the neighborhood just before she moved in and one of the robbers hid out in the cornfield behind her house.  It is also rumored that the robber may have hid in Marianne's basement and left something behind before he took off running ending up hit by a car and killed.

When strange things start to occur Marianne, her friend Louise, and her step-daughter Natalie piece together a timeline and clean out the basement.....but they find nothing of value and end up with more questions than answers.  

Marianne tries to put it aside when Ashley stops over with an off the way story providing more unanswered questions but makes her feel like she misinterpreted everything and maybe there just isn't anything to worry about........until a knock on the door reveals the truth.

The House on Beale Street is a easy to read, hard to put down book and it is a GREAT debut book.  Hudson is definitely an author to follow !!

Review by Missi S.