Title: The New Neighbors
Author: Simon Lelic
Published: April 2018, Berkley
Format: ARC E-copy, 328 pages
Source: Netgalley via Publisher
Summary:
The Girl Before meets The Couple Next Door in a Hitchcockian thriller about a couple who moves into their dream neighborhood only to discover nothing is as it seems…
The perfect couple. The perfect house. The perfect crime.
Londoners
Jack and Syd found their dream home: lots of space, a great location,
and a friendly owner who wanted a young couple to have it.
Everything
is exactly what they hoped for when they move in–except Jack makes a
disturbing discovery in the attic, and Syd begins to wonder about the
girl next door. And they each keep the other in the dark.
A mistake.
Because someone has just been killed outside their back door, and now the police are watching them.
This is their chance to prove they’re innocent–or to get away with murder.
Whose story do you believe?
My thoughts: This is the first time I’ve read anything by Simon Lelic and I am definitely intrigued by his writing style. It was dark and twisted, yet it was the writing style that kept me more intrigued than anything else!
I love this type of book – the type of book that sneaks up on you, sometimes without you even realizing it. That’s the type of book this is. It starts off quite benignly, and then before you know it, it’s moved into something quite dark and sinister and you are completely hooked. And the short chapters that alternate between Jack and Syd, writing entries into a journal of sorts just adds to the intrigue.
What I loved about this writing style, the use of the journal, is that it forces them to be concise and to the point. There isn’t a lot of complex dialogues and flowing descriptions. I found this to be a nice change of pace from all the other books out there – not to say that I would want to see this all the time, but it worked here. And I liked that not only did this allow for us to get their thoughts about what was going on about the house, but it also provided us with the background information about each of them before they were a couple. It really was a clever way to tell a story.
This is a fast-paced, gripping book and the tension runs throughout. You know things aren’t right, you know not all is as it seems but you just can’t put you finger on why or how. And I for one did not see that final twist coming, which I love…I love when I am totally surprised! I will definitely be checking out what else Simon Lelic has written as I think he is an author I will enjoy reading. Have you read anything else by him?
***This was originally published as The House in the UK.
