The Stranger in Room Six

Corry’s underbaked latest thriller (after I Died on a Tuesday) follows a cast of shady characters who orbit a British retirement community called the Sunnyside Home for the Young at Heart. Caregiver Belinda Wall has studiously managed to conceal her 15-year sentence for manslaughter after accidentally shoving her husband of 25 years to his death when the two argued about his infidelity. Mabel Marchmont, the facility’s owner, has lived at Sunnyside since she was a child, first sheltering there during WWII and later converting it into a retirement home. With a national election on the horizon, she’s flooded with guilt about something she did during the war that she fears could have political consequences in the present. As Belinda and Mabel form a tender friendship, the eponymous “stranger”—who knows them both—poses as a Sunnyside resident to carry out a mysterious job with life-threatening stakes. Corry rotates perspectives between the characters, teasing out questions about Mabel’s past and the stranger’s motives, but melodramatic cliffhangers and sluggish pacing keep the plot from achieving liftoff. It’s not the author’s best. Agent: Kate Hordern, KHLA. (Oct.)