The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

This story is so full of twists and turns that I was continually re-assessing who I thought was guilty and of what.  I was nearing the final chapters when I figured out parts of  the mystery, but I didn't figure out the entire plot.

Secrets in a marriage are not unheard of, though the ones that Anne and Marco are hiding could spell disaster for their missing baby daughter.  One thing that they agree upon, is that they desperately want her back.  I could easily imagine the grief and anxiety that they were feeliing.

Author Shari Lapena has created a great set of characters.  Marco was mostly a self made man who became too wrapped up in wanting to succeed and ended up making some bad decisions.  I could almost like him.  Anne was learning to cope with a fussy baby and trying to find her new identity as a stay at home mother.  I thought I would bond with her more, but her grief rightly overwhelmed her character and kept me from getting to know the real her. As she realized, it's not easy to leave the identity your job brings you to become a mom.  As for their dear neighbours, Cynthia and Graham, they were so perfectly matched in their twisted marriage, that they made my skin crawl.  Richard, Anne's stepfather, he came across as a good guy, at least at first, but then I started to feel that he was trying to hard.  Well played Richard.

If I hadn't had to work this week, I would have read it this novel in one day.  Each time I went to put it down for the night saying I would stop at the end of the chapter, something dramatic would be revealed in the last sentence and I'd be left hanging overnight.

This is a well written story and has left me eagerly waiting for Shari's next book, A Stranger in the House, due out July 2017.

I received an advance reader copy of this book from Penguin Random House Canada in exchange for an honest review. 

Cover image courtesy Penguin Random House Canada.

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