The Tenants was brilliantly written. I really enjoyed how the characters were written. M.A. Hunter blew this book away. I was loving the developments. I could not imagine not leaving my home in over five years. I think I would go insane.
I was switching my position on my big comfy chair throughout the book. Bringing my phone with my kindle app wherever I went because I couldn’t get enough of this story. The amount of secrets going on was mind blowing at times. The buildings past starts to come to light when one of the tenants was found dead inside their apartment. The police now are showing up and looking into the death and Eve is being talked to.
This was definitely one book that had me keeping my eyes open. It took me a day to think through everything I had read.

M.A. Hunter takes domestic suspense to a whole new level in The Tenants, a dark and twisted tale that blurs the line between voyeurism, paranoia, and hidden truths. At the center of the story is a landlord whose obsession with watching her tenants crosses every boundary of privacy. But as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that those living under her roof are just as mysterious—and potentially dangerous—as she is.

What makes this novel so effective is the atmosphere of constant unease. Hunter keeps readers second-guessing every character’s intentions, planting subtle hints that make you wonder who is lying, who is hiding something, and who might be in real danger. The pacing is steady yet taut, and the sense of claustrophobia builds with each chapter, pulling you deeper into the web of secrets inside the building.

The psychological tension is sharpened by the complexity of the characters. No one feels entirely trustworthy, which only adds to the suspense. Just when you think you’ve figured out the truth, Hunter delivers another twist that shifts the ground beneath your feet.

By the time the story reaches its climax, the unsettling atmosphere and tangled lies come together in a shocking and memorable ending. The Tenants is a gripping psychological thriller that will appeal to readers who enjoy dark, character-driven stories full of secrets, deception, and suspense that lingers long after the last page.

The Tenants
by M A Hunter
Pub Date: 18 Aug 2025

The Tenants isn’t your typical psychological thriller—it’s claustrophobic, makes you wonder who’s watching you through the walls. The Tenants is a brilliant, unnerving treat. It has a unique plot. Lots of twists and turns to keep you hooked!

Synopsis: Looking after and tending to the needs of my tenants is what gives me purpose. Every day I go out of my way to watch over them and keep them safe. They're more than just paying guests, they're my neighbors, and I will do whatever it takes to ensure they're happy. But when one of them is found dead in their apartment, everything I thought I knew is thrown into chaos. I always thought that danger only lived in the outside world, it’s why I’ve not stepped foot outside this building for 5 years. But I’m quickly realizing that there is more to fear inside these walls.

Many thanks to #TheTenants #NetGalley & #BoldwoodBooks for providing me an E-ARC of this exceptionally great read!

📱E-Book Review📱

The Tenants
MA Hunter

🌟🌟🌟🌟

This was a brilliant first read for me by this author and I could just tell from the cover image that I was going to love this!

Poor Eve suffers from agoraphobia and as a landlord, this means she can be super attentive to all her tenants needs.
But when one tenant is found dead, we start to wonder where the real danger lies.

I love a psychological thriller that grabs you from the start and has you racing through the pages to get all the answers - and this is what we got here.
The chapters were nice and short and had me sneaking just another and another in each time I picked it up.

This had an instantly creepy atmosphere which put me on edge and I couldn't help but make my own theories along the way.
It seems that your home would be the safest place to be, or that's what Eve thought, but some of the tenants made me feel uncomfortable and this had me wondering about how I would have fared in such a situation.

I loved that every time I made a theory, something else would be revealed and I'd be back to square one again - this was packed with secrets and twists that in the end had me still shocked by the outcome.

A great quick read and perfect for devouring in the garden over the weekend.
Can't wait to read more from this author soon.

What a great book this was! We meet Eve, a woman who suffers with agoraphobia who has secrets from her past. She is a landlord who wants to make sure they are all happy and keep the safe. One of her tenants is found dead, suspected suicide before another one of her tenants goes missing. Eve then finds strange things happening and can’t work out why. Her other tenants are suspicious of her and she feels the police think she is guilty of murdering her tenants. This book will have you desperate to find out what happens next, with short chapters and plenty of tension! Twists that I didn’t see coming and excellent pacing - book I would definitely recommend!

Eve is the landlord of her building. She prides herself on being there for all her tenants when they need something. How does she know they need something? Oh she’s spying on them through the tunnels in the walls. Then a tenant dies, and Eve starts losing control of her life even more, and it becomes clear something is coming for her next….
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This will be giving you hardcore flashbacks of the woman in the window. I mean, an agoraphobic, alcoholic who can’t be trusted and spies on her neighbors?? Oh well. Also I think if you’re a fan of quick thrillers like Frieda McFadden you will eat this up! This was extremely fast paced despite parts of it being slow. Well, I guess slow isnt fair, but more of moves at its own pace. We’re well into 20% of the book before the actual plot point takes over, and then it’s ON. And then near the end we get a whole new plot point that something happened to Eve at school. I mean, it’s brought up like of COURSE this is going on but we literally just heard about it. I’m not complaining, it moved so fast that everything made sense before you had a chance to get annoyed by it. I thought I knew where this was going and I was very glad to be wrong. I will say a lot of this surface level information, and I wish we got a little more background into these people but that’s just a preference. Also, WHERES GEORGE???

Wow this was reverting from the start, I felt for Eve to start with then changed my mind & maybe I don’t want to admit this but I changed my mind about her a lot. She was a very strange landlord & very intrusive, seemed to care a bit too much about her tenants. This is a great thriller & had me guessing till the end. Great read if you like your head messed with from start to finish.

I enjoyed the book if you love Claire Douglas and Lisa jewels and frieda McFadden books then you will enjoy this one!!

Blurb

Looking after and tending to the needs of my tenants is what gives me purpose. Every day I go out of my way to watch over them and keep them safe. They're more than just paying guests, they're my neighbours, and I will do whatever it takes to ensure they're happy.

But when one of them is found dead in their apartment, everything I thought I knew is thrown into chaos. I always thought that danger only lived in the outside world, it’s why I’ve not stepped foot outside this building for 5 years. But I’m quickly realising that there is more to fear inside these walls.

When I inherited this building from my dad I had no idea about its sordid history. But as far as I'm concerned, no good comes from digging up the past. But with the police asking probing questions - about them, about me - and with my tenants holding secret meetings, I must uncover the truth before anyone else comes to harm, even if it means risking everything I've carefully built.

I enjoyed the character building in this book and how this positively impacted on the ending. Was an enjoyable read and recommend.

3.5 stars
Eve is a landlady and also lives in the building with her tenants. She likes to make sure they are all happy and holds regular meetings with them.
What the tenants are not aware of is the secret corridors and crawl spaces that Eve goes through to listen to their conversations.
When Eve hears James and Danielle arguing, she intervenes. However, when he is found dead the next morning, she is in shock.
Eve is struggling with agoraphobia and hasn’t been outside for five years, but she is determined to keep an eye on her tenants even more now.
Things start happening to Eve and she catches someone in her flat, but she feels like her brother and the Police don’t believe her.
I don’t like it in books when someone makes someone else feel like they are losing their mind, as I find it frustrating, and I just want them to reveal themselves.
This is a good read but not quite as gripping as I expected.
Thanks to Boldwood Books for the opportunity to read this book.

A gripping psychological thriller that kept me hooked from the start. Eve, a landlady who has not stepped outside in five years due to her agoraphobia, devotes her life to caring for her tenants. They are more than just neighbours, they are her world. She watches over them constantly, even in ways that others might find questionable, but for Eve it is simply her way of keeping them safe.

When one of her tenants is found dead, Eve’s fragile existence begins to spiral. As the police start asking questions and secrets from the past come to light, Eve finds herself caught between protecting those she loves and facing the dark truths she has long avoided. Her blackouts and reliance on alcohol add another layer of tension, making the reader question whether she is as reliable as she seems.

Atmospheric, unsettling and full of twists, this book masterfully blends a claustrophobic setting with characters who all feel suspicious in their own way. It is the kind of thriller that keeps you guessing until the very end.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

Such an interesting read! Eve is the owner of Blackwood House and all she wants to do is keep her tenants happy. She is terrified of the outside world so she stays in her happy place with people she thinks are her friends. She is able to spy on all of her tenants, though she doesn't think of it as spying, and that is how she finds one of them is dead. I liked the plot and the characters, but sometimes the pacing felt a little off which is why it's 3 stars for me. Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for my digital ARC!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood for the chance to read this book . M A Hunter is one of my favourite authors . This is such a good book is a dark thriller that is gripping and keeps you reading and then at the end it’s like you’ve lost a friend .
Eve the landlady of the block of flats that’s been converted from a hotel where her father died scared me at first but as the story went on I liked her.
If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would . Well worth a read.

The victim of an assault, Eve is now the agoraphobic landlady who makes her tenants her life's work. She strives to meet their every need, because she eerily always knows what they need. Some residents suspect she has placed hidden cameras in their apartments, but the truth is a little more creepy, Eve uses the secret passage way in the building to keep tabs on her tenants. The morning one of her tenants turns up dead, things start to spin out of control for Eve. Is she drinking too much and hallucinating? Or is someone messing with her? What can she tell the police? Will they believe her?

This was an easy, interesting read. I had a little trouble tracking some of the characters, some of this felt a little trite, and I still have question a HUGE question about the ending, which I keeping me from rating this any higher. (yes, I know sometimes not knowing something at the end of a book is ok, but I REALLY don't like it when things like this are left hanging.)

Thank you, NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the chance to read this ARC.

The Tenants by M.A. Hunter is a chilling domestic thriller that will make you side-eye your neighbors and double-check your locks. With a deceptively quiet setting and a creeping sense of dread, this book excels at pulling you into a tangled web of secrets, suspicion, and subtle menace.

The story centers on Holly, who’s finally found a peaceful flat in a seemingly perfect house—until she realizes something is very wrong with her fellow tenants. As strange noises, cryptic warnings, and unsettling coincidences mount, Holly begins to suspect her safe haven might actually be a trap. But is it paranoia, or something far more dangerous?

Hunter’s strength lies in her mastery of pacing and atmosphere. She doesn’t need gore to terrify—just the whisper of a threat, the slow tightening of suspense. Holly is a relatable and resourceful protagonist, but her increasing isolation makes her journey feel claustrophobic in all the right ways. The supporting characters are just opaque enough to keep you guessing their motives until the final, satisfying twist.

Perfect for fans of The Housemaid and Behind Closed Doors, The Tenants delivers that delicious mix of domestic comfort and psychological horror. It’s a slow burn, but when it catches fire, it doesn’t let up.

This thriller traps you inside a building full of secrets, where the tension builds fast and the caretaker’s obsession with safety spirals.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an ARC in return for my honest review. I really enjoyed the tense, claustrophobic atmosphere and the way Eve’s gradual descent into madness was so vividly drawn, making it impossible to know what was real or imagined. Dark, intimate and unsettling, The Tenants kept me second-guessing right until the end – a solid four-star read.

This is the first book I have read by this author and OMG, I so enjoyed from page one right to the end!! Lots of characters which were all very believable and a few were rather nasty!! The author kept me entertained with bits of humour too. Excellent read!
Many thanx to NetGalley, the author and publishers for allowing me to read and review this book.

Eve, an agoraphobic landlady and Graphic Designer, is more than just a typical landlady - she goes above and beyond to ensure her tenants are happy. Following a traumatic incident as a teenager and a devasting attack some years earlier, her life now revolves around remaining safe in her building and moving between secret passages where she can keep an eye on her tenants and their needs.

When one of her tenants dies in what looks like suicide, suspicions quickly arise that something more sinister might have happened. Suddenly, Eve begins to realise that danger could be lurking within the very walls she hides behind. As unsettling mix-ups and eerie coincidences cause her brother and therapist to begin to wonder if she’s losing her grip on reality, Eve must question, despite her thorough background checks, regular tenants meetings and nightly vigils in the passages, how well can she truly know the tenants in her building.

This was a really intriguing read, with a heightened sense of claustrophobia due to the unique perspective of an agoraphobic and unreliable narrator. Eve’s choices, paranoia and vulnerability create both empathy and mistrust in her as a character and often I questioned her version of events. With a mix of characters that are clearly red herrings and others who generate genuine questions, I really enjoyed this book.

Following an incident five years previously, Eve never leaves the security of her building. She’s a landlady and can freely moved around the building, just not past the front door. She loves looking after her tenants and will do anything for them, feeling they are more family than tenants. But when one is found dead, the building and her life are thrown into chaos. Another new author for me and I really enjoyed this tense, gripping fast paced thriller with plenty of twists and turns thrown in. thank you to NetGalley, Boldwood Books and the author for the chance to review.