Review : The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena
The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena
Pages : 320
Genre : Thriller
Stand alone
My Rating : 3.5/5
About the Book :
People are capable of almost anything. . . Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all—a loving relationship, a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately focuses on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story.
Inside the curtained house, an unsettling account of what actually happened unfolds. Detective Rasbach knows that the panicked couple is hiding something. Both Anne and Marco soon discover that the other is keeping secrets, secrets they’ve kept for years.
My Thoughts :
The Couple Next Door is a really fun read. Fast pace and filled with secretive, twisted characters, it grabbed me from the first chapter and I had a hard time putting it down.
First, I have to say I really enjoyed the narration, which skips from Anne to Marco to Detective Rasbach, with one or two more points of view added in at some points. There was just enough of each voice, and I felt all of them did bring something to the story.
It’s also a thriller that has a bit of a different pace than most : rather than have a complete list of revelations in the last 20% of the book, we discover halfway through who planned the kidnapping. What follows is the search for the baby and a slow reveal of the motivations behind the crime. I really liked that, and there was still a lot of suspense left in the second part!
The book did lose me a bit toward the end, I’ll admit. There were too many twists, secrets and turnarounds, a lot of which didn’t feel necessary. I didn’t particularly enjoy the last few pages/chapters. I think the author was trying to give an additional edge to the story, when it had already reached its (satisfying) conclusion.
Overall, I really enjoyed The Couple Next Door. It was suspenseful and easy to slip into thanks to Shari Lapena’s captivating writing. While the conclusion disappointed me a little, I would happily read again from this new author. Fans of a fast-paced suspense will want to give this one a try!