The Neighbour by Gemma Rogers
Genre: Psychological thriller, Suspense
Read: 3rd January 2023
Published: 5th January 2023
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Love thy neighbour or fear thy neighbour?
For myself and Lauren, my 10-year-old daughter No3 Beech Close was to be our refuge after two years of hell nursing my sick mother.
In need of a fresh start and wanting to distance ourselves from the bad memories of my mother’s house we moved to Beech Close, a small cul-de-sac of six houses situated around a picture-perfect green.
It seemed perfect but I had underestimated the secrets that this tightknit community shared.
Within hours of moving in my next-door neighbour Valerie made it abundantly clear we were not welcome.
I soon discovered that Valerie hadn’t welcomed the previous occupant either and she’d since disappeared without a trace.
Had I put myself and my daughter in danger moving to Beech Close?
Which neighbours, if any could I trust?
And how far would they go to keep their secret?
MY THOUGHTS:
Crikey! Who'd want to live in Beech Close? With neighbours like a cross between "desperate housewives" and "the Stepford wives"? They were a mad bunch...the lot of them! But aside from that, THE NEIGHBOUR is filled with tension and intrigue with a sense of spookiness that gives you the chills.
Shelly and her 10 year old daughter Lauren are in need of a fresh start after having cared for her own mother in the final years of her life, battling dementia. Selling the cottage which was filled with unwelcome memories, they packed up and moved to the idyllic location of number 3 Beech Close...or so they thought. The move was meant to bring healing to enable them to move on but they had barely unpacked the first box when Shelly had an unpleasant run-in with her immediate neighbour, Valerie. The next thing she knows she finds an unwelcome gift shoved through the letterbox and a half eaten chocolate bar in the backyard, which had likely caused their dog Teddy to be sick overnight. Valerie, it seems, has taken an instant dislike to Teddy who is a dear sweet dog. But the strange occurrences don't end there.
When her best friend Josh finds a box of belongings in the loft, Shelly tries to find the previous tenant to return them to her. But hits a brick wall. And then she discovers that Danielle, the previous tenant and school teacher, had lost her dog just three days before she herself disappeared. Trying to find out what happened, she's told that Danielle fled Beech Close to the sunny climes of Egypt as soon as term ended. But why would she leave when she had been searching for her beloved dog? According to her friend, Mark, she would never have left without him. Shelly tries to ask the neighbours but no one seems forthcoming with answers and she begins to wonder if everyone else knows what happened to Danielle except her. So what exactly happened to Danielle?
Shelly's attention is somewhat sidetracked when she meets Remy, Valerie's son, who spends much of his time there caring for his mother who has dementia. She is at once sympathetic having just spent that last few years caring for her own parent with the dreaded disease, and she offers Remy a friendly shoulder. But Shelly instead finds herself attracted to Remy, as it's been a long time between drinks for her. Then as the story proceeds Remy's behaviour begins to leave question marks also. What is it with this place?
Shelly gets a strange vibe emanating from Beech Close and she wonders if it's all it's cracked up to be. Everyone appears to have secrets and not all of them the average kind either. And her dipping her toes into the murky waters of Danielle's disappearance begins to lead her into dangerous territory. Are she and Lauren safe in Beech Close? Or has she gotten too close for someone's comfort?
THE NEIGHBOUR is a fast paced engrossing page-turner that, while a tad far-fetched in reality, on page it's a compelling tale. There is an air of creepiness surrounding the little cul-de-sac of Beech Close that will leave you with a feeling of unease.
This is my first read by Gemma Rogers and I thoroughly enjoyed it but my favourite was that ending. While I had tied most of the pieces together, even down to that final confirmation at the end, it was the innocence in which those final words were delivered that just packed a punch.
And can I just give a shout out to my favourite character in the book? Which was undoubtedly Teddy the dog. Thank goodness no harm came to him...or any other dog in the story.
I would like to thank #GemmaRogers, #Netgalley, #BoldwoodBooks and #RachelsRandomResources for an ARC of #TheNeighbour in exchange for an honest review.
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