The Couple Next Door: The fast-paced and addictive million-copy bestseller
£0.90
‘Meticulously crafted and razor-sharp. THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR lingers long after you turn the final page’ HARLAN COBEN
***The fast-paced, addictive No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller. Over one million copies sold.***
PEOPLE ARE CAPABLE OF ALMOST ANYTHING.
You never know what’s happening on the other side of the wall.
Your neighbour told you that she didn’t want your six-month-old daughter at the dinner party. Nothing personal, she just couldn’t stand her crying.
Your husband said it would be fine. After all, you only live next door. You’ll have the baby monitor and you’ll take it in turns to go back every half hour.
Your daughter was sleeping when you checked on her last. But now, as you race up the stairs in your deathly quiet house, your worst fears are realized. She’s gone.
You’ve never had to call the police before. But now they’re in your home, and who knows what they’ll find there.
What would you be capable of, when pushed past your limit?
***OUT NOW *** Shari Lapena’s brand-new unputdownable thriller: EVERYONE HERE IS LYING
Read more
Additional information
| Publisher | Transworld Digital (14 July 2016) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 8456 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 302 pages |
by Kindle Customer
I couldn’t stop reading even though I was terrified what would happen next. An engrossing read. Kept me up into the night cause i wanted to know what would happen next.
by Biddy
Riveting story full of twists
by Amazon Customer
will enjoy reading this book
by LottiD
love this author! only discovered a few weeks ago but i’m ploughing through all her works.. excellent. you won’t regret
by Read and Reviewed
Credit where credit is due.. for a debut thriller Shari Lapena packs a hefty punch. I will admit that when I read the synopsis for this one, I was sceptical. After all, with such a straightforward seeming premise I wondered how the author was going to sustain the tension and keep cranking it up the longer the nightmare continued through three-hundred-pages. Well, the seeming simplicity of the situation is part of its success and allows Lapena to hold some red herrings in reserve and toss them into her novel generously throughout. The claustrophobic domestic setting tightens the noose even more and the small cast allows Lapena to explore her characters, with the inscrutable Detective Rasbach giving nothing away.
Parents to a six-month-old baby, Anne and Marco Conti reluctantly agree to a dinner party for neighbour Graham Stillwell’s fortieth birthday celebrations. Hostess with the mostest, Cynthia is as far from baby friendly as possible and hence a babysitter is booked to keep a watchful eye on baby Cora next door. When the sitter cancels at short notice, Anne opts to stay home and watch Cora, especially given she has been experiencing postpartum depression since the birth and a cooling friendship with neighbour, Cynthia. Marco convinces her that taking the audio baby monitor next door and half-hourly checking on Cora will give Anne a much needed night out. Strumpet Cynthia has however, spent half the night flirting openly with Marco, and Anne just wants to gets home and forget the night as the evening drags on… When worse for wear Anne and Marco eventually return to their house it is to discover that baby Cora has vanished, and given she is not yet crawling and still in a cot it is obvious that she has been kidnapped. If they have any hope of getting Cora home safely they need cooperate with an icily cool razor-sharp cop, Detective Rasbach and in the process disclose a few secrets…
Enter Anne’s wealthy parents, Alice and oppressive father, Richard Dries, who makes no secret of his condescension for Anne’s ‘loser’ husband; Marco’s ailing business and Anne’s mysterious schooldays secret. And don’t think for one minute that Cynthia and Graham next door aren’t withholding plenty of their own secrets! As the disclosures keep coming and Detective Rasbach takes a closer look at Anne and Marco all the while waiting for nerves to fray. Complications unfold and Lapena does an admirable job of exploring her lead characters as the tension heightens.
Admittedly The Couple Next Door has faults, not least a convoluted conclusion which is neatly tied up and Anne’s postpartum depression which needed to be fleshed out and appreciated for the significant mental health problem that it is. Lapena chooses to deliver an overview of the police handling through lead Detective Rasbach and thus avoids underpinning the story with procedural logistics. The composed Rasbach chooses to keep the family under scrutiny and trust that the guilty party will hang themselves in the process, but this little novel has a sting in its tail awaiting its readers. Shari Lapena has produced an addictive rollercoaster ride and keeps a firm hand on her plot, injecting the unexpected on numerous occasions to stoke the fire. Concentrating on the fear of parents Anne and Marco, the fragility of their relationship and the barely concealed bitterness that exists amongst the parties involved this is splendidly handled. The Couple Next Door is an atmospheric episode of domestic noir and shows how a relatively simple premise can offer so much more than it promises.
Review written by Rachel Hall (@hallrachel)
by Shona A. Reid
Absolutely a can’t put down book , kept twisting and turning , great story and surprising ending , loved it
by Sarah H.
What a wonderfully dark and twisted read this was!
I have to admit I’m not quite sure what I was expecting after reading the blurb but the author delivered way more than I could have possibly imagined. It’s actually going to be hard to know what to say without giving any spoilers away as the story line went off in a direction I never envisioned.
Anne and Marco could be any couple. I didn’t really agree with leaving such a young baby in the house on their own but then they were only in their next door neighbours garden and they did have the baby monitor with them. Even though still not right, I could feel for Anna who hadn’t wanted to leave her daughter and against her better judgement had gone along with her husbands idea, it is certainly one of those things that with hindsight, you would never have done it.
Right from this point there was so many questions going through my head as to the who and why. All I can say is that from that point onward’s, the author took me on a roller coaster of a ride with lots of thrilling shocks and revelations.
I loved the detective that was working on the case. So calm and collective and you can tell he has had a lot of experience in his working life in the way he was thinking and trying to get to the bottom of things. He reminded me a bit of the wonderful Columbo apart from everyone takes this one seriously.
The Couple Next Door was a great read that any fan of psychological thrillers will enjoy. From picking it up, I struggled to put it down as I needed to know whether parents and baby would be reunited. Whilst the first half or so of the book sets everything up nicely the second half just seemed to be a whirl wind read of twists and turn. Really enjoyed it.
by crafty julie
In my opinion this is one of the best books that I have read in a long time, it definitely a page turner, and yes I would recommend.