Stranger in the House Overview A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena is a mystery thriller centering on a married couple living in suburban upstate New York. Tom, the husband comes home to find his wife of 2 years missing. A Stranger in the House offers a good story with lots of false turns. Meanwhile, her husband Tom arrives home to see that she is missing. When you read the summary on the book jacket it does sound intriguing. His wife Karen is in the hospital and can’t remember anything that happened to get her there. We get a sense of foreboding from the very beginning when Tom comes home to an empty house. Read 6,402 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. She accidentally crashes into a telephone pole and suffers a concussion. In this neighborhood, danger lies close to home. A STRANGER IN THE HOUSE by Shari Lapena ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 15, 2017 After a terrible car accident, a woman is left without memory of the events, but a dead body at the scene speaks of something sinister. He learns that she has been in a car accident and has amnesia. A Stranger in the House book. The wife, Karen, is in a car accident one day and suffers slight amnesia from a concussion. A Stranger in the House opens with Karen Krupp in a panic as she is driving away from an abandoned restaurant.