The Very Pink Notebook is thrilled to be part of Shari Lapena's new crime thriller,
The Couple Next Door, blog tour this week. With much thanks to Becky Hunter, at Transworld Press for involving me in the tour and for a copy of the book, in exchange for an honest review.
Published by : Bantam Press
14 July 2016
Copy : Received in exchange for a fair and honest review
The Blurb
You never know what's happening on the other side of the wall.
Your neighbour told you that she didn't want your six-month-old daughter at the dinner party. Nothing personal, she just couldn't stand her crying.
Your husband said it would be fine. After all, you only live next door. You'll have the baby monitor and you'll take it in turns to go back every half hour.
Your daughter was sleeping when you checked on her last. But now, as you race up the stairs in your deathly quiet house, your worst fears are realized. She's gone.
You've never had to call the police before. But now they're in your home, and who knows what they'll find there.
What would you be capable of, when pushed past your limit?
Your neighbour told you that she didn't want your six-month-old daughter at the dinner party. Nothing personal, she just couldn't stand her crying.
Your husband said it would be fine. After all, you only live next door. You'll have the baby monitor and you'll take it in turns to go back every half hour.
Your daughter was sleeping when you checked on her last. But now, as you race up the stairs in your deathly quiet house, your worst fears are realized. She's gone.
You've never had to call the police before. But now they're in your home, and who knows what they'll find there.
What would you be capable of, when pushed past your limit?
The Very Pink Notebook Review
There has been a huge buzz about this novel so I was thrilled to get my hands on an early copy. During the first chapter or two I wasn't sure about the style or tense of writing being used, I think it being third person and a thriller is quite unusual, but I quickly realised that it was helping hugely to keep the suspense, tension and pace going at a rate of knots, so swiftly got my head around it.
Thrown into the thick of the action from the very first pages, the reader is taken on the heart-wrenching journey of a child going missing from their home, with parents Anne and Marco. Shari Lapena flawlessly conveys all the emotions expected, shock, anger, guilt, fear, determination to catch the criminal. I didn't automatically like the parents, or, in fact any of the characters. This was cleverly done by the author because I was willing to suspect foul-play from any of them and soon discovered secrets were being hidden here, there and everywhere...
I was pleased that the plot wasn't inundated with police procedure, the story really is tracked through the eyes of baby Cora's parents and merely has the detective on the case, Rasbach, as a secondary character to help keep facts on track, which was quite helpful. Taken through multiple trails of discovery by the parents, I happily followed after the scent of the missing baby without once guessing what the ending would be - and personally, I thought it was a fantastic finish to the novel.
Throughout, I was kept engaged and enthralled, with no idea of what was going to transpire next. I didn't know who the bad guy was or wasn't, who was a reliable narrator or who was lying through their teeth. With a pacey, twisting plot and well developed characters this has 'killer thriller' stamped all over it.
Follow The Tour
Be sure to check out what other reviewers thought of the book
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