The Hours Before Dawn (1958)

Louise Henderson needs sleep, but the baby keeps crying and the rest of the household carries on needing her. Suspicion of a new lodger grows inside that exhaustion, where being too tired to explain yourself also makes it easier to be dismissed. Fremlin turns unevenly shared domestic work into the conditions of suspense. Begin here for a short, sharp novel whose threat emerges from ordinary routines and the absence of reliable support.