House of Glass

In this solid, if sometimes overwrought, domestic thriller from Anthony Award–winner Littlefield (A Bad Day for Mercy), Jen Glass can tell something isn’t quite right in her marriage to Ted, who had a good job in finance until he was laid off, but it’s hard to concentrate on that when she’s trying to cope with 15-year-old daughter Livvy’s increasing surliness and four-year-old son Teddy’s selective mutism. But all attempts at keeping up the crumbling facade of perfection come crashing down the night two men force themselves into the Glass’s suburban Minnesota home. In what could be seen as an extreme version of marriage counseling, Jen and Ted—along with the terrified Livvy and Teddy—are forced to air their grievances while being trapped at gunpoint in their basement. Readers may guess the overall trajectory of the family’s internal—and external—dramas, but Littlefield is adept at character development, so even the familiar is nuanced. Agent: Barbara Poelle, Irene Goodman Literary Agency. (Mar.)