The Couple Next Door

The Couple Next Door is an addictive page-turner. It’s clever and creative, and nearly every chapter ends with a cliffhanger that practically requires you to keep reading.

Lapena pulls you into the frenzied search for the missing baby while casting doubt onto nearly every character. The use of multiple points of view ratchets up the tension. Entertaining and fast-paced, this is perfect as a beach read. Bonus points as this is a debut novel!

This is a rollercoaster ride of a thriller, with a whole lot of moments that will get your pulse racing (I actually, at one point, was stumbling around my house, unable to put the book down as I tried to do other things!).

Like Picoult, Lapena uncovers questions that no one truly wants answered. What are your most basic values? How do you live them? How well do you know the people you love, the people you see every day? Do we all keep secrets? What are yours? (And, first of all, who goes to a dinner party next door,… show more.

I’m a sucker for domestic mysteries, especially those with plenty of twists and turns. The Couple Next Door checks all the boxes for a gripping psychological thriller, one that I tore through in only two sittings. Anne and Marco, parents of one-year-old, Cora, attend a dinner party at the row house next door. Their babysitter suddenly cancelled just before the outing, so they bring their baby monitor to the dinner and take turns checking on Cora every thirty minutes as she sleeps in her crib. All goes well until Anne’s final check of the night, when she finds the crib… show more.

What I love about this story is the never-ending assortment of twists and turns. Just about anybody could have done it in this whodunnit, and we follow Detective Rasbach who whittles it down as we try to stay one step ahead, but never quite manage it.

Anne and Marco go to dinner next door leaving Cora in her crib with the baby monitor on. Anne checks on her every half hour. Should be safe. Shouldn’t it? Until they return home to discover the baby is gone. Who took her and is she still alive? Kidnapping or murder? Along the way,… show more.

Shari Lapena’s debut thriller is an intense, multi-layered kidnap plot packed with twists that keep the reader completely off balance until Lapena’s ready for you to see what’s really going on. It’s a brilliant novel but what hit home for me is that the catalyst for everything that goes wrong is a decision to leave a baby home alone while a couple goes next door for dinner with neighbors. Sure, there’s a monitor and the parents diligently check on the baby every half-hour, but even so, it’s not enough to keep their daughter safe. As a mother, this one forced… show more.