Desperate Housewives meets The Couple Next Door in a chilling story of murder and intrigue set in a well-to-do DC suburb.
Sometimes the darkest acts occur in the most beautiful houses…
When Alexis and her husband Sam buy a neglected Cape Cod house in an exclusive DC suburb, they are ecstatic. Sam is on the cusp of making partner at his law firm, Alexis is pregnant with their second child, and their glamorous neighbors welcome the couple with open arms. Things are looking up, and Alexis believes she can finally leave her troubled past behind.
But the neighborhood’s picture-perfect image is shattered when their neighbor Teddy – a handsome, successful father of three – is found dead on the steep banks of the Potomac River. The community is shaken, and as the police struggle to identify and apprehend the killer, tension in the neighborhood mounts and long-buried secrets start to emerge.
In the midst of the turmoil, Alexis takes comfort in her budding friendship with Teddy’s beautiful and charismatic widow, Blair. But as the women grow closer, the neighborhood only becomes more divided. And when the unthinkable truth behind Teddy’s murder is finally uncovered, both Blair and Alexis must reexamine their friendship and decide how far they are willing to go to preserve the lives they have so carefully constructed.
Desperate Housewives does meet The Couple Next Door in this novel, but mostly just Desperate Housewives, in my opinion. Everything about the premise gave me the sense of your average thriller, but unfortunately, it was anything but. Read on to find out why.
What the Neighbors Saw is an apt title, as it does revolve mostly around what the residents of a secluded but very grand and affluent neighbourhood all see out their windows. One of the main protagonists, Alexis, has just barely made ends meet to reach and live in a nice new neighbourhood, which has long been her goal. Blair, the other POV we get to see, is already a resident, and is Alexis’s neighbour. Shortly after Alexis arrives though, a man is found dead, and more suspicious things start happening. Was Alexis wrong to choose this seemingly lovely neighbourhood to move into?
Sounds like every other thriller premise ever, right? Well, yes it was, but my biggest, biggest complaint about this book is that simply nothing happened. Funnily enough there was a final twist and resolution at the end. But by then, I had already forgotten what the problem was.
Yes, a man is murdered, very scary. But the detectives visit every other Blair chapter (so one in every four chapters, basically). Every time they visit, there is barely, if any, progress in the investigation. Now that definitely is not a problem in and of itself, but unfortunately, there was also essentially zero suspense in between. The murdered man seems much more like an afterthought, and the story really focuses on these two ladies trying to keep up the appearances of their lives.
It seems as if every family in this rich neighbourhood was going through their trials and tribulations though. While this is normally a good thing, and makes for shady characters and more plausible motives, again it didn’t seem like the focus of the story. Instead, I felt like a got a lot of petty drama between fake rich old ladies gossiping in their home neighbourhood. Now, I’m personally a fan of shows like Gossip Girl, so I have nothing against good gossip and petty neighbourhood drama. However, usually one would expect the gossip to at least be related to the murder. In this book, it’s basically unrelated petty issues that have very tenuous linkage to the what I thought would be the main plot (the thrill!).
I actually finished the book pretty easily, probably because I generally enjoyed the neighbourhood drama. And there were was a decent twist at the end that brought it (the drama) altogether. However, I was just confused when I was more than three-quarters done the book and there still hadn’t really been much mention of the murdered man. Ignoring that, it was a decent book, I just don’t really think it can be classified as a thriller or murder mystery. Maybe that was the intention though, and I just totally misjudged it.
Because of this, the ending totally came out of nowhere for me, and it wasn’t deus ex machina. I just meant I thought by that point we didn’t care about the murder anymore, and indeed the perpetrator was just revealed in an off-handed comment. It was so surreptitious that I had to re-read it multiple times to make sure I was understanding it properly. So that was that. Like I said, this wasn’t a bad book per se, and I finished it quickly. It was just something I completely didn’t expect, and wouldn’t rate highly at all as a thriller or murder mystery.
Overall Recommendations
What the Neighbors Saw should really be called What the Neighbors Said, as it really was more of a Desperate Housewives kind of book, featuring fast-aging ladies in a rich suburban white neighbourhood. Although a man is murdered near the beginning of the book, this is largely just a backdrop for gossip in this affluent neighbourhood. Taking place between two POVs, this is essentially a fun story about how people try desperately to fit in and maintain their images in a rich neighbourhood. If you enjoy that kind of book, this may be the one for you. If you are looking for a thriller, this is likely not the one for you. However, perhaps this could be a good beginner thriller, since there is hardly anything scary (if at all) in this book. Keep that in mind!
Down the Rabbit Hole 