The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena is a fast-paced, twist-filled thriller that had me repeatedly questioning the identity of the culprit.  Lapena includes the points of view of a few of her characters which gives readers brief glimpses into their personalities, insecurities, fears and motivations.  She then slowly unveils different aspects of these characters and the secrets they’ve been hiding that will cause readers to question if their earlier predictions were correct.  What really happened?  Who is lying? No one is as they seem and with twists sprinkled liberally throughout I was eager to find out the identity of the culprit.

The only criticisms that I’d have for this book is that some of the characters could have had more depth, some of their actions/responses were questionably believable and the ending felt a little expected (I think I was expecting one big, final twist).  But overall I quite enjoyed being along for this suspenseful ride.

The Couple Next Door is a very impressive and well thought out psychological thriller.  It is a highly entertaining, hard-to-put down, ‘nothing-is-getting-done-until-I-know-whodunnit’ kind of read. Highly recommended.

– Laurie P.