Published By: Penguin
Pages: 400
Released On: 13/03/2025
Do you trust the couple next door?
When Lena overhears a conversation between her next-door-neighbours she thinks she must have misheard. After all, the Morgans are a kind, retired couple who have moved to a suburban street in Bristol where nothing ever happens. But it sounded like they were planning a crime.
Her family and friends tell her that she’s made a mistake.
Yet Lena can’t stop thinking about it.
Because what if they are about to do something terrible?
What if she can prevent it?
And what if, in doing so, it might help ease her conscience about her own dark past . . .
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I was having a bit of a reading slump before this, picking books up but struggling to get through them, none of them were holding my attention. And so I turned to this, knowing full well that it would be exactly what I needed.
This one is very much more of a psychological thriller than a crime one, in my opinion. Are you hearing things, can you trust what you’re hearing, who can you trust, is anyone telling the truth? It also looks at family matters, separations, divorces, empty nests, being alone.
You hear the POV of a few characters but Lena is our main one. She’s a bit lost, stressed, hurting, and paranoid, but she cares and just wants things to be right, which is why she gets so involved in her suspicions. Then Henry and Marielle, the next door neighbours, are the perfect creations. I won’t give them away, but Claire has pitched them so well. They’re not angels but nor are they pantomime villains.
Where this book excels is in its layered storytelling. We have the main story going on with Lena and her neighbours, but there’s also sub stories going on – missing people, divorces, issues at work. And at first you don’t really see how they all fit, but slowly, slowly they get there and you realise how obvious it is, and I think that’s very good. To weave multiple narratives together to come to a satisfying conclusion is impressive.
I was a bit on the fence at times. It seems the whole book is based on the main character of Lena thinking something is going on with the neighbours. And all this stems from one broken overheard conversation that doesn’t really tell her anything, but then she overthinks it and it grows and grows, until she’s obsessed with it. Which to begin with I felt was a bit of a stretch. But by the end, I understood why she did that and it all makes perfect sense, so I’d advise you let go of that question you might have in your mind about it.
Like all good thrillers, I spent my time trying to work it out, guessing bits here and there. One theory of mine was right, another was half right, but then the rest was a real surprise. And given the amount of thrillers I read, I’m always amazed that I can never guess the outcome and it frustrates me.
Claire is always an auto-read for me and this book proves why she will continue to be so. You’d think that after writing so many thrillers that she’d run out of ideas or talent, but it’s still there. It’s fast paced and I read it in a matter of hours, like I do all her books.
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