REVIEW - THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR by Shari Lapena

What pulls the reader in hook, line and sinker into this “domestic noir” is that all the fraught scenarios we read of in THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR are only a couple of shaky steps off the normal path of married domesticity, walked by most of us every day.   This makes the events in this fast moving book even more frightening to consider; it is only one mother’s group discussion away from our own possible realities. 

The book does stumble occasionally with poor construction, notably in the scenes between married couple Anne and Marco.  Lots of meaningful looks here with little engagement.  Anne and Marco are a strangely disconnected couple. Throwing that old plot device of Post Natal Depression up against the wall doesn’t serve so well to explain the disinterest the two seem to have in each other.  Neither of them seem to have a clue what the other is up to; odd, considering they are the two prime suspects as the parents of the abducted child.   The reader needed to see more conflict between the couple; more pressure to confess or absolve.

It is very easy to see this novel being made into a Hollywood big screen thriller as all the right ingredients are there; no character is wasted, all are relevant. The author has done a sterling job of turning our suspicions this way and that, backtracking over connections we once discarded and allowing us see them differently in hindsight as the novel powers along.  THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR is a blisteringly fast read with the ticking time clock of little Cora’s life always in the back ground.  This clever thriller should be a huge hit and spark much discussion.