The New Neighbors/Neighbours

Lena is interested to meet her new neighbours, seemingly a friendly middle-aged couple, but no sooner have they moved in than she accidentally overhears snatches of a mysterious conversation between them via equipment her teenaged son Rufus is using to record environmental sounds in the garden. She’s immediately suspicious that they are not what they appear to be and are up to no good. Kidnappers? Drug dealers? Who are Henry and Marielle, really?
 
Aside from Lena’s story, there are two other viewpoints: one from a terrified woman only known as Natalie, who is on the run for unspecified reasons, and from Henry, who is consumed with his obsessive love for Marielle.
 
Summarising the rest of the plot would risk giving too much away, but if you’re in the mood for a fast-paced mystery with lots of twists and turns, then this is a cracker of a read that quite literally had me reading into the small hours.
 
Sure, Lena’s risk-taking in investigating her neighbours might have you shouting at her not to be so stupid and there are also coincidences, loose threads and asides into her past and current personal life that might irritate the more pedantic reviewer, but for me, the overall inventiveness, easy readability and unexpected shifts in plot direction make for an escapist and enthralling ride that is a bit different from others in the women-in-jeopardy genre. In the hands of a good screenwriter, this could make an excellent bingeworthy TV series.
 
Many thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC.
 
Five stars

(US publication details to come.)
 
amazon.co.uk

​Dymocks Australia

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