The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

This is a book that you can read in one sitting - if you have the time, of course. It is definitely fast-paced. The author gives you information along the way, so you are not kept completely in the dark, which is nice. I like how the reader knows what everyone is thinking, including Detective Rasbach, but no one person is able to put it all together. It's like a small group of people assembling a jigsaw puzzle. Each person believes they can contribute a piece of the puzzle (what happened to baby Cora?), but no one can actually "see the picture" until all the pieces come together at the end.

In the beginning I thought that Detective Rasbach was being a bit too tough and suspicious of Marco and Anne, although the reader knows why he is suspicious since the details of the crime scene are explained as they are discovered. I like how we know all the characters that are involved. It's not like some minor or briefly mentioned character is the kidnapper. I thought the story was very well laid out. It kept me guessing to the end.

Honestly, I thought the "the couple next door" would have a bigger part of the story. They came in and out, but they were almost peripheral characters in some regard. Although the book did start with them and end with them, so that's very cyclical. I thought the tidbits of Graham & Cynthia as a couple were odd. We didn't get to know them very well at all, but what we do find out is weird. Did Graham know - or even care - what Cynthia was up to? Was Cynthia planning to leave Graham? Did they even love each other? Using "The Couple Next Door" as the title of the book is a little misleading even, because the whole time you think they must have something to do with Cora's kidnapping. And quite frankly, Graham was only in about two chapters.

I actually liked Marco, despite his poor judgment. I felt sorry for Anne. I kept thinking that her dissociative disorder stemmed from something else from her childhood other than her father dying. I kept thinking that she had been sexually abused as a young child or something. That too was a surprise to me, that everyone seemed to accept that her disorder was due to her father's death and it wasn't explored further. (Not that witnessing your father's death when you are 4 years old - or any age - isn't traumatic!)

So, the ending.... I feared something like that would happen, but had hoped it wouldn't. The author blazed the trail and set the scene, so I guess it was bound to happen. It made me sad though. We finally get all the answers of who did what and why - and then we are left with a number of other questions!

I love a good mystery, especially one that moves along like this one. This is an excellent debut novel for Shari Lapena.

Wendy's Rating: ****