SOLVED. Psychological thriller - narrator is controlling life of young girl who lives in the house [s]

[Sarah]

This came out early in my time at medical school, so it was either the very end of 1989 or the beginning of the '90s. (I remember it being in paperback; it's possible that it was published in hardback first and what I'm remembering was the paperback release, but I think this was the initial release.)

The novel is told in first person. I believe the narrator's name was Larry and that he was an elderly man; at least, that's very much the way he comes across in my memory of the book. He's a rather odd and solitary chap who rents a room in a house; a young girl moves into the same house and he strikes up what initially seems to be a friendship with her. However, he is actually behaving in very controlling, manipulative ways which he continually justifies to himself as being for her good.

(spoilers)





For example, at one point he opens a letter that arrives for her, telling us that it might be something that would upset her. The letter is from her estranged parents, who have written to send her a plane ticket and ask her to visit them to try to mend the relationship. Larry hides the letter, meaning that she misses her chance to mend the relationship. Over the next few days Larry sees her looking very upset and comes up with some excuse as to why this would be the case; it's clear to the readers that she's upset at not having heard from her family.

At another point, Larry mentions to her in passing that she needs to be careful when going out late as there was a spate of serial killings of young women in this neighbourhood a few years ago that was never solved. At the end of the novel, he finds her having sex; when she is on her own, he strangles her. We learn that he is, in fact, the serial killer himself, and the book ends with him planning to go out and look for another victim, which he sees as getting rid of young women whose sexual behaviour he doesn't approve of. I believe the very last line was 'Merry Christmas Larry'.

One final detail is that I somehow have a really strong association between the cover of this book and birdcages, so I think either the title or the cover art had something to do with a cage. I could be wrong about that, though, so I don't know whether that's much help.

[Ayshe]

The Last Girl seems to match? (I searched for "Merry Christmas Larry" subject:fiction on google books)

[Sarah]

This is it! Thank you so much - that was bugging me.