I won’t lie; I wasn’t completely sure how The Couple Next Door was going to go. Obviously being a suspense nut, I was intrigued by the storyline, but I was probably more drawn into the pages because of the cover. The cover is nothing special, but the light creeping in from behind the woman creates just enough suspense to make you want to crack the spine and learn more.
From the start, I wanted to know who was responsible for abducting the missing character in the story, but there seemed to be some depth in storytelling lacking from the early pages of the story. Where there could have been a lot of suspense, it seemed liked some details were missing and Shari Lapena took more of a surface level writing approach. Even though I wanted to solve the crime and know who the bad guy was, I couldn’t tell if I was intrigued because I was actually into the novel or if I was just being a nosy human, desiring to know who really stole the cookies from the cookie jar. Was I willing to keep reading, or should I just skim through the pages and get the gist of the story?
My thoughts and opinions took a TOTAL 180 when the story was no longer just at the home of the main characters, the Contis. Oh my goodness! The details and suspense were so well thought out, which makes this book a must read!
Just when you think everything is out in the open and you have solved the case, a new twist is thrown your way. Family becomes divided. Detectives are left questioning everything. A marriage seems broken for good. This story goes hard until the VERY. LAST. WORD.