The tenant

Bestseller McFadden (the Housemaid series) disappoints with this shoddy domestic thriller. After Blake Porter's boss dies in a bizarre suicide, Blake is promoted to VP of marketing at his New York City ad firm. Blake and his fiancée, Krista Marshall, celebrate the bittersweet development by buying a brownstone, but their luck soon runs out: Blake's name tag is hardly affixed to his door before he's laid off. Suddenly in need of cash, Blake and Krista decide to rent out their spare bedroom. After a few disastrous interviews, they're relieved when the buoyant, gainfully employed Whitney Cross knocks on their door. Then the trouble begins. Routine roommate annoyances--rancid kitchen smells, strange late-night thumping sounds--gradually escalate into violent threats that lead Blake to fear he may have opened his home to a psychopath. But who's playing whom? McFadden attempts to answer that question with a series of implausible twists, which steamroll over the few discernible qualities she gives her paper-thin characters at the novel's outset. Even the author's devoted fans might want to skip this. Agent: Christina Hogrebe, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (May)