The Kindness of Strangers by Emma Garman

This historical novel, set in 1952, begins dramatically with a dead or nearly dead body. Honor Wilson, a seemingly respectable widow, inherited a large Victorian house in London after her much-older husband died but little in the way of other assets. She takes in lodgers: George (Georgina), ostensibly studying art but actually posing in the nude as an artist’s model, a shady occupation for Lord Mountford-Owen’s daughter; Robbie, estranged from his wife, living in Honor’s attic; teenage Mina, trying to better herself through elocution and deportment lessons while she works in a Cinema; and Saul, a Holocaust survivor from Romania, who lost his wife and daughter.

Everyone is helping to dig a hole in the garden to bury the most recent addition to the household, Jimmy Sullivan. The question is how did he get there, who killed him, and why?

After this glimpse of a desperate situation, the story goes back five weeks to the day Jimmy appeared and disrupted Honor’s hard-won equanimity, bringing chaos with him. Garman skillfully introduces us to the residents and expands on their relationships to each other – and their secrets. Jimmy learns these secrets and although he is disarmed by the friendliness of his fellow-lodgers, he will not hesitate to exploit his knowledge, if necessary to protect himself. But are any of these secrets serious enough to kill for? The author does a good job building the suspense and making the reader care about the characters: we don’t want anyone to suffer for getting rid of Jimmy once his blackmail schemes show he cannot be redeemed. Can there be a happy ending after disposing of a corpse?

Jimmy was cold, paralyzingly cold, and sticky wet above the waist. Blood soaked his sweater, churned in his throat, filled his lungs. He tried to move, to turn onto his back, but an iron bar of pain held him in place. Circling about like seagulls’ squawks were voices discussing, with maddening dispassion, whether he was alive or dead. None of them tried to help. Why would they. To be rid of him was their dearest wish.

The expression “The kindness of strangers” comes from the final line of Tennessee Williams's 1947 play, A Streetcar Named Desire. Honor has invited all these strangers into her home, offering bargain rates, creating a pseudo-family, but Jimmy’s arrival and her deliberate obscuring of his identity end up putting everyone, including herself, into danger. First, their secrets could be exposed and then they are at risk of being accessories to a crime.  The tension increases as each character in turn learns more about Jimmy and the threat he represents to their wellbeing.

The book is being compared to Agatha Christie, and while I didn’t see that, it did remind me of several books by Kate Atkinson, who is extremely good at setting up characters and situations that appear to have nothing in common, then weaving a narrative that connects them all. John Verney is also a strong proponent of that sort of twisty book, although I always lost the thread in his very intricate plots. Full of flawed but interesting characters, this was an intriguing book from my Historical Novels for 2026 post – I wasn’t sure I liked it but I certainly wanted to know what would happen, so I kept on reading late into the night.  Thanks to the Newton Library for making this purchase at my request.

Title: The Kindness of Strangers
Author: Emma Garman
Publication: Summit Books/Simon & Schuster, hardcover, 2026
Genre: Suspense
Source: Library

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• Cloak and Dagger 2026
• Historical Fiction Challenge 2026