The Neighbour - Lisa Gardner

I have a bone to pick with the author Lisa Gardner - I haven't got any fingernails left !!

The suspense and tension start right from the first line of the book. The narrator, young mum Sandy Jones, evokes the final hours of her life and says that she always wondered if people foresaw that something terrible was about to happen. My immediate reaction was hmmm, that's a bit strange, a voice from the beyond the grave but hey, if it's good enough for Desperate Housewives, why not ?!

As the police start looking for her, the investigation immediately focuses around the usual suspects, her strangely calm husband Jason and a registered sex offender who happens to live just a few doors away. But in this novel, nothing and nobody is quite what they seem. There are more skeletons coming out of closets than in the world's scariest ghost train ! It is not easy to figure out who are the good guys and who are the bad guys - partly because nothing is clear cut and there aren't really any totally good guys. Even the police officers seem to have a seedy, callous side. The only totally likeable character is 4-year-old Ree.

With enough red herrings to open a fishmonger's shop, you'll be guessing until the very end and still getting it wrong every time. Behind the image of the perfect couple hide so many deep dark secrets and lies, that are slowly unearthed and pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle.

It will have you gripped until the final pages, when, after a few more unexpected twists and surprises, everything finally becomes clear. It will make you look twice at your perfectly normal neighbours and double-check that you've put the deadbolt on the door at night !

star rating : 4.5/5

Paperback: 384 pages

Publisher: Orion (4 Mar 2010) - yep, sorry, you'll have to wait for ages - this was an advanced reading copy !!

ISBN-10: 1409103358
ISBN-13: 978-1409103356