Like so many of you book lovers, I read ‘Our House‘ by Louise Candlish. But, since then, I had rather let her novels pass me by. When she was announced as one of the authors who would be attending ‘The Tasting Notes Live’ in June, I knew I had to make sure I read another of her books.
The clever aspect of this thriller is that there is a feeling that such a thing could come true – and you are considering how far someone would go to deal with that noisy neighbour…
This is a bit of a format that we have seen before: that perfect neighbourhood, with the too-good-to-be-true inhabitants, who have their peace shattered by the arrival of an outsider or two. You are introduced to these characters and, of course, all the ‘perfect’ neighbours have a reason to deal with that ‘intruder’ of their idyll.
However, this was not a favourite read of mine; it was a bit too slow paced. Plus, none of the characters were particularly likeable. So, it was hard to feel any empathy or sympathy for many of those characters who felt their lives were falling apart because of the new terrible neighbour. I did totally appreciate that much of what was happening could push people to the edge – but a couple of them just came across as though they were not helping themselves in the situation.
Yet, I really appreciate that this is the sort of book that I can borrow from the library, as I know I will read more by Lousie Candlish. ‘The Only Suspect’ is definitely one I hope to pick up soon – because I have definitely been influenced by some good reviews out there.
On a total sidenote, if you are a regular reader of my blog, I have to admit it made me giggle that my last read was ‘These Days’, followed by ‘Those People’ – such different reads but such easily confused titles.