Lana and Roman Wade have fled the city for a little corner of paradise, exchanging their flat with its unhappy memories for a small honey-coloured house among the rolling green hills of Oxfordshire.
Their new home, set in a residential Close known as The Gardens, is their dream and their new neighbours are charming.
So why is Lana feeling so uneasy?
Lana and Roman may seem like an attractive, popular couple. But they are also a couple with a secret; a secret buried in the life they have left behind, a secret they have shared with no-one.
But their new neighbours – these charming, affluent men and women in the Gardens – have secrets of their own.
Terrible secrets; unimaginable secrets that include the apparently happy family who lived – and tragically died – in Lana and Roman’s new home.
As Lana struggles to adjust to her new life in Paradise, she becomes convinced that her new neighbours are hiding something from her, something connected with the deaths of the family who lived in her house before she did, something that could put her own life in danger…
The People Next Door is a psychological thriller full of twists and turns, a murder mystery wrapped in a love story, and a love story wrapped in a murder mystery. It is about the secrets we all keep – and what we will do for love.
Heart Pounding & Spine-Chilling!
If you thought The Stepford Wives was creepy, then hold on to your hat!
Lana and Roman Wade have recently moved; a fresh start into a beautiful home in a small select close known as The Gardens where the neighbours are welcoming and friendly. The couple are harbouring a secret and this move is supposed to greatly improve their lives but Lana can’t settle. There’s something not quite right and she won’t be at ease until she finds out exactly what. Roman, however, cannot see what the issue is and his patience is tried over and over again as Lana won’t let it lie. Is there something to find out? If so, then what?
Those who follow my blog will be aware that I read the blurb at the time of accepting a book onto my list but I don’t peruse it again prior to beginning to read so I was initially convinced that this was set in the States; The Gardens sounded very much like their gated communities. As the story got going, I shared some of Lana’s doubts about whether she could be happy in their new home – not so much a fresh start as a completely different way of life. As she gets to know her neighbours, she realises that it’s not all as sweetness and light as some would want her to believe and her inability to let things lie leads her into a bit of bother. There were times when what I was reading completely freaked me out and towards the end my heart was pounding in my chest so loudly that I was astounded my husband couldn’t hear it! Thrilling, chilling, exciting and one which really freaked me out at times; I’m only grateful we’ve lived in our house for a few decades! Expertly written and with everything all tied up by the final word – exactly how I like it to be. Absolutely recommended and completely worth all five sparkling stars!
My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; this is – as always – my honest, original and unbiased review.
Tags: psychological thriller
- Format: ebook, paperback, hardcover, audiobook
- Size: 433 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Random House, Cornerstone
- Publication Date: 31 March 2022
- Book Links:
- https://www.goodreads.com
- https://play.google.com
- https://www.foyles.co.uk
- https://www.kobo.com
- https://www.whsmith.co.uk
- https://www.waterstones.com
- https://wordery.com
- https://www.amazon.co.uk
Author Details
Tony Parsons (born 6 November 1953) is a British journalist broadcaster and author. He began his career as a music journalist on the NME, writing about punk music. Later, he wrote for The Daily Telegraph, before going on to write his current column for the Daily Mirror. Parsons was for a time a regular guest on the BBC Two arts review programme The Late Show, and still appears infrequently on the successor Newsnight Review; he also briefly hosted a series on Channel 4 called Big Mouth.
He is the author of the multi-million selling novel, Man and Boy (1999). Parsons had written a number of novels including The Kids (1976), Platinum Logic (1981) and Limelight Blues (1983), before he found mainstream success by focussing on the tribulations of thirty-something men. Parsons has since published a series of best-selling novels – One For My Baby (2001), Man and Wife (2003), The Family Way (2004), Stories We Could Tell (2006), My Favourite Wife (2007), Starting Over (2009) and Men From the Boys (2010). His novels typically deal with relationship problems, emotional dramas and the traumas of men and women in our time. He describes his writing as ‘Men Lit’, as opposed to the rising popularity of ‘Chick Lit’.
- Twitter: @TonyParsonsUK
- Facebook: @TonyParsonsBooks
- Instagram: @TonyParsonsUK
Grace J Reviewerlady 