Tag: suspense

3.5 star, adult

Review: The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all–a loving relationship, a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately focuses on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story.

Inside the curtained house, an unsettling account of what actually happened unfolds. Detective Rasbach knows that the panicked couple is hiding something. Both Anne and Marco soon discover that the other is keeping secrets, secrets they’ve kept for years.

What follows is the nerve-racking unraveling of a family–a chilling tale of deception, duplicity, and unfaithfulness that will keep you breathless until the final shocking twist.

This was my first experience with Lapena’s work and I have to say I am overall quite impressed. This thriller was truly filled with many twists that were well planned out and not too forced. I have to say that I was initially shocked when there was a dramatic reveal and I was only halfway through the book! Needless to say I could not predict the endless numbers of twists that always left me guessing.

The Couple Next Door is the story of Anna and Marco Conti and their baby, Cora, and the crime that happens while they are at dinner party at their neighbour’s house. This story is also told from the perspective of the detective who is in charge of the case. All the different perspectives are written in such a way that is meant to add more suspense and mystery – just who is the one telling the truth? Overall it was fairly well done, but I think this kind of style has its limits. I personally found some things to be less convincing (“mysterious”) because we already had the truth from a different perspective. Having these different point of views took a little bit away from the overall suspense, but certainly did not take away from the mystery shrouding the entire case.

Twist after twist, even though I saw some coming, more kept coming! I thought this was quite exciting. So for what the book lacked in overall chilling suspense (in my opinion, usually maximized by keeping to a single clouded main POV), it certainly made up for in overall craftsmanship of the story. I rapidly grew suspicious of most of the characters and wondered how everything would come undone in the end. There may have been some elements in the book that I found a bit extraneous, but I generally take fictional accounts with a grain of salt anyway – surely people do things they regret when they’re stressed. I think we can all relate to that at the moment.

I definitely enjoyed my experience reading this though. I was reading it so quickly, so desperate to find out the mystery and motivations behind it all that I definitely just flew through this novel. There seems to be some comments online indicating some problematic/unnecessary plot points and I think I tended to agree on a logical level. There were certainly aspects that I wouldn’t have put in there were it my choice. However, I respect the decisions that were made by the author, as I honestly did enjoy the book anyway, so I can’t really fault it on not being the paragon of believability.

I tend to take things at face value and try to enjoy the story as intended, and it usually goes alright for me – it takes some pretty jarring faux-pas to throw me off the wagon! I wouldn’t recommend this book for its suspense factor, but if you want to see a complicated, tied up plot unfold itself before your very eyes, this book may float your boat. Give it a try! I know I will be trying some more of this author’s work in the future, before I form any final judgments.

Overall Recommendations

The Couple Next Door involves the mystery behind a crime that is committed while parents are at a dinner party at the neighbour’s house. As the case is investigated, more and more truths about the past about everyone emerges, each adding more mystery to the case. Just what happened that night, and who is lying about it? Find out in this thriller mystery full of twists and turns all the way to the very last page! I enjoyed watching how the plot unfolded like a knot slowly untangling. This story was fairly light on the suspense aspect, so I wouldn’t recommend it for that. However if you’re just looking for a mystery with a constant series of twists, this may be the book for you!

2.5 star, adult

Review: The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole
The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am.

She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them.

Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.

The can’t-look-away story of three entangled families living in a house with the darkest of secrets.

I must say that I was quite disappointed with this thriller. Not that it was particularly badly written or anything, but for my usual expectations for this kind of story, it just fell short for me, personally. Having said that though, perhaps this could be considered a lighter type of thriller, and is maybe more suitable for readers new to thrillers, since I didn’t find it neither particularly chilling nor scary – again, all personal opinions of course.

This story follows a couple of POVs, the main one being Libby Jones, who finds out she is a the sole inheritor of a large estate. This estate has a twisted history though, and was left abandoned for a reason. Simultaneous to the story line of Libby investigating her mysterious past, another voice begins narrating the “chilling” events of the past leading up to the house being left to Libby.

The past involves the downfall of Libby’s birth parents (from riches to rags, if you will), and the following families who come to live with them to share the cost of the large house. However, not all is as it seems with these families who arrive, as the family slowly discovers. The twisting and perversion of this household is the “scary” thing that happens in the book, though I did not personally find it to be that convincing. While I could understand perhaps how it may have come about, I wasn’t particularly enamoured with the way things transpired, and as such, did not find the book too enjoyable. Or perhaps this is a sign that I have read too many thrillers and have certain expectations set for the level of drama that I want to see happen. Either way, unfortunately, this book was just not for me.

Overall Recommendations:

If you are looking for truly haunting and chilling thrillers, I would recommend looking elsewhere. The Family Upstairs follows the unveiling of the secrets of the past, of what happened at Libby’s birth home to cause it to be abandoned until she was of age. If you are new to thrillers, and may not want huge scares or major anxiety-inducing plots, this may be the book for you! I would say that it has many elements of a classic thriller, but they are all fairly tame – so if that is what you are looking for, this may be right up your alley.

3.5 star, adult

Review: Behind Closed Doors by B. A. Paris

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole
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Everyone knows a couple like Jack and Grace. He has looks and wealth, she has charm and elegance. You might not want to like them, but you do.

You’d like to get to know Grace better.

But it’s difficult, because you realise Jack and Grace are never apart.

Some might call this true love. Others might ask why Grace never answers the phone. Or how she can never meet for coffee, even though she doesn’t work. How she can cook such elaborate meals but remain so slim. And why there are bars on one of the bedroom windows.

Sometimes, the perfect marriage is the perfect lie. 

This one was a truly thrilling one – I had to stop so many times at the intense suspense I was feeling; definitely kudos to the author for being able to create the suspense through her writing!

Behind Closed Doors follows Grace, who seems to have the perfect life to the outside world. An insanely handsome husband, a huge house, a lot of money – what can only be described as perfect. But as we dive back between the present and the past (marked by the chapter), we quickly discover just what lies beneath the surface, behind closed doors. This novel does a great job at exploring how something that looks so perfect from the outside could be so twisted on the inside. Seriously chilling story!

Although this truly was one of the most chilling thrillers I have read in a while, the twists and the plot weren’t altogether too shocking for me. Actually the concept itself was quite unique, how the author pulled this story together – I guess it was only my experience with thrillers that allowed me to accidentally predict the plot. That being said, it’s impressive that this was so thrilling even with its predictability – I guess that speaks to just how twisted and frustrated I felt for Grace. It was definitely a well crafted story, most things explained well, and great foreshadowing and themes that made it feel like a cohesive story. The scariest part was how real it seemed, and how very possible it would be to face the same difficult choices with no right answer.

If you enjoy reading this kind of novel purely for the emotions it can make you feel and the tension it can create, this would definitely be the book for you. However, if you are the type who unconsciously (or consciously) likes to predict the plot and like things being completely unpredictable, this is not the book I would recommend. Overall I would say this book is well written, and I thoroughly enjoyed my experience with it – though I may need a breather – you’ll see what I mean if you read it.

Overall Recommendations

Behind Closed Doors is a well crafted thriller novel that follows Grace as she navigates her “perfect” life. The things she must do to maintain her perfect image…lest what happens? A truly chilling story of a husband and wife that is seemingly perfect in all respects – except for what happens behind closed doors. My main gripe is that it was a bit predictable for me getting towards the end, but at least it still left me wondering how we would get to that point. A very exciting read indeed if you are looking for a truly chilling thriller novel to read!