I am a big fan of Kia Abdullahs books, and I was thrilled to get an early listening copy of Those People Next Door. As always, the narrator was fantastic and really brought the characters to life. This book was more a family drama/thriller than the usual legal thrillers, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. T. C. A. Raghavan illuminates the main events of this tumultuous dynamic through the eyes and words of key players and contemporary observers. He exposes how, in both countries, this shared past is seen through radically different prisms; how history keeps resurfacing, with unavoidable resonance, to this day. I thought I was going to enjoy my first foray with Tony Parsons as it began as an intriguing slow burning psychological thriller. I thought secrets would be uncovered, mysteries would be solved...but instead everything ends up a convoluted mess and stretching credibility and believability beyond belief. I know as readers we must often suspend belief...but seriously? A few months ago, this book's very discriminatory publisher declined my NetGalley request to review this audiobook which, ironically, was a book about discrimination and rejection.

There were some good plot twists such as Vince being Juno's brother and the neighbours turning out to be some sort of crazy cult preparing for the end of the world It then jumps into the paranoid "everyone is out to get me" with the wife spotting areas of concerns, finding bones in the garden, putting two and two together that sinister things are afoot. Rosemary's Baby to the character names (a Roman). Toxix herbs are potentially used as murder weapons. The story wears its influences transparently. 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. Many thanks to Shelf Awareness, Putnam, and Kia Abdullah for an ARC of this book provided via NetGalley! Now available as of 9.12!** 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.

Retailers:

Overall much of this is enjoyable especially the first 60% but the last 30% percent is not to my taste. And there’s an ending, well there’s more than one that blindsided me….I thought I knew the ending and actually admonished the author in my mind for making it ‘too easy to see what was going to happen’ how wrong I was and how great a book this is 🤗

This was one of my most highly anticipated reads this year. While I enjoyed it for the most part, this is my least favourite book by this author. The intensity was no were near as impactful as her other novels. Most of the characters actions and decisions were over the top and unbelievable which took away from my connection to and investment in the story. I wasn’t bought into what was happening. I was emotionless while reading this and I failed to develop sympathy for any of the characters. I had no one to root for in this revenge-filled story. Also, the family’s dog, Molly, is used as a means to create tension and APPREHENSION-which never sits well with me. Many thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP PUTNAM/G.P. Putnam's Sons for sharing this amazing book's digital review copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts. If you want a fast-paced psychological thriller where nobody is really what they seem and your allegiances are challenged throughout then this is definitely one for you.The plot starts as a potentially engaging thriller then turns in to a bonkers loads of random events with no effort to link them together or any progress or conclusion to ANY of them. You have been warned now about these two aspects. In other words, you may read things in this book that will make you uncomfortable. You may read things in this book that will make you angry, or emotional, but I promise, you'll walk away with a lot of thoughts and it will be memorable. Lana and Roman Wade are a young professional couples who have escaped unsafe and hectic London for a slower paced life in the idyllic Oxfordshire countryside. They move to an affluent area called "The Gardens" where the neighbours are friendly and tight-knit unlike in London. Whilst Roman relishes the move, Lana isn't so keen. There's something off about her neighbours and they seem to have secrets to hide...