Someone We Know

You see that person across the way, peeking through their blinds. Oh, you didn’t notice? Don’t worry, they noticed you and all your sins that you should have kept behind closed curtains.

My husband always wants to keep our curtains closed. Maybe I should be wondering what he’s getting up to when I’m not at home. Maybe I should get a pair of binoculars and start watching my neighbors. Then again, I may not like what I see.

Shari Lapena’s book, Someone We Know, had me thinking those thoughts while I was reading it. Best part, I was in a hotel in downtown Chicago so I could peer across the road into other windows and have a perfect view. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, I didn’t see much besides a few people walking around show more their room.

I can see why my Books Don’t Review Themselves podcast partner, Jess, enjoys Shari Lapena so much. She really has mastered the art of slowly letting secrets slip. Just when you think you know what is going on or who the killer is, Lapena lets another bit of information be revealed. It amused me how this kept happening to the police, and how sarcastic they became as the story progressed.

And the fact that Lapena could keep everyone’s secret flowing well speaks to an organized author or a really good editing team. Probably both. I didn’t catch any mistakes besides the ones that the suspects themselves made when telling their partial truths.

Another part of the book that was done perfectly was how many side stories Lapena had throughout the book. It wasn’t just one main mystery of trying to find the killer, but who was cheating with whom, who was not where they said they were, and who was sticking up for others and for what reason. And some of those reasons were to protect themselves more so than the other person.

I don’t want to even give a little clue as to who the killer is because the small thing that I wanted to say would give it away. But it was because of this small thing, that in my mind was a bigger thing, that I gave Someone We Know, four stars instead of five. After you read the book that might make sense. If not, leave a comment and I’ll let you know my sticking point in the book. show less

Digital audiobook read by Kirsten Potter

From the book jacket: Maybe you don’t know your neighbors as well as you thought you did. In a quiet, leafy suburb in upstate New York, a teenager has been sneaking into houses – and into the owners’ computers as well – learning their secrets, and maybe sharing some of them, too. After two anonymous letters are received, whispers start to circulate, and suspicion mounts. And when a woman down the street is found murdered, the tension reaches the breaking point. Who killed her? And how far will all these nice people go to protect their own secrets?

My reactions:
This was a taut mystery / thriller. Several characters revealed themselves to be unreliable. They were lying to their families, show more friends, neighbors, and the police. The mother of the teen computer hacker confides in her best friend, but doesn’t tell all she knows (and she doesn’t know everything, because her son lies to her). There are multiple personal intrigues, including several affairs between neighbors. “A” is sleeping with “B”, whose spouse is sleeping with “D.” The dead woman was apparently sleeping with multiple partners, but at least HER husband has an airtight alibi. But then why is HE acting so suspiciously and lying to police?

I was sure I had it figured out but was completely surprised by the actual reveal. And the ending gives the reader another mystery to ponder and wonder about.

Kirsten Potter does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. There are a lot of characters and she was up to the task. show less

The books opens with a shocking murder, a dispassionate husband reporting his wife missing to the police, and a do-gooder mother who writes an anonymous letter of apology to two of her neighbours after learning that her son has taken up the hobby of breaking into people's homes, messing with their computers and private lives. I think this is Lapena's best book by far; I am a huge fan who has diligently followed her every year since the Couple Next Door. The biggest problem I had with this book was that I plugged in my earphones and listened for just over seven hours straight, only to realize (to my horror) that I will probably have to wait another whole year before Lapena comes back again, knocking at my door! Lapena writes skillfully show more and what appears to be, effortlessly (her writing style is so smooth that I cannot picture her tearing her hair out or banging her head against the keyboard while trying to write her next paragraph). Once the stage is set, without further ado, each one of the threads begins to snowball, gathering more and more of the neighbors into a plot that is deliciously twisty and original. Do we ever really know our friends and our neighbors? What secrets do they hold - from us, from themselves, and from their spouses? show less

This is domestic suspense at its worst. The characters are unlikable and uninteresting, the detectives are made of cardboard (one of my fellow book club members shrewdly characterized the female detective as "an appendage" to the male one but neither is given much of a personality, nor detecting skill), every single character has a big secret, most lie to the police (without legal representation), and then try to tell the truth and are shocked the police don't believe them. There's one potentially interesting villain but the author barely scratches the surface with his characterization. The writing is repetitive in content and style. Readers are provided no solid evidence - literally every person in the neighborhood of the murder could show more have committed the crime. Long before the reveal, I no longer cared who did the killing and the ending is a nonsensical dangling thread. show less

This story began with a great deal of promise to be a 5 star story. A missing woman… dead body...a computer hacker…seems to have had all the makings. Then it slowly lost steam. I began to loose track of who the police were interviewing and who was sleeping with who. I couldn’t even keep straight who was married to who. The characters were unlikable and all were lying about something. The ending was a little unrealistic and almost as if the story wasn’t quiet finished. We were left not really knowing if the killings were really over for this neighborhood and if not who might be next.

Aylesford is a small community not far from New York. People know each other, are friends, have barbecues together and share their everyday problems. New to the neighbourhood are Amanda and Robert Pierce, both stunningly attractive and younger than the rest with their teenage kids. When Amanda goes missing, everybody soon blames the husband, the obvious suspect, but then, slowly, the facades of the good people start to crumble. They are not the loving husbands who go to work every day to support their beloved family, they are not the good housewives who only care for their dears and they are not the good kids of the suburbs. They all have their secrets they thought well hidden, but now it’s time for revelation.

I hardly could put down show more Shari Lapena’s thriller since I was hooked from the first page. She has created the perfect environment for readers who enjoy a bit of schadenfreude. Those nice people who appear to be caring and concerned about the others and who are suddenly confronted with their dark sides that threaten the picture they have drawn of themselves. A great read that was not only fun to read because all of them sooner or later have to admit their misconduct, but first and foremost, because the plot was masterly woven and thus kept suspense high until the very end.

It’s hard to say more about the plot without giving away too much. I liked how Lapena slowly unravels the revelations and shifts the focus from one character to the next. They all act suspiciously and at a certain point, I gave up believing any of them since it was too obvious that none of them is innocent in one way or the other. The author skilfully plays with the reader along these lines and this keeps you addicted since you eagerly want to find out what actually happened. It’s a brilliant, enthralling novel that you cannot stop reading once you’ve started. show less

Although no one knows it, a teenager has been sneaking into the neighbors’ houses and hacking into their computers. A couple of anonymous apology letters, promising that this breach will not happen again, has everyone in the neighborhood whispering, gossiping, wondering who might be the culprit.

Then a woman is bludgeoned to death.

Could the unseen intruder be the murderer? If not, then who? And why? What could the hacker have found in those computers, anyway? Who has the most to hide? Who is the guiltiest?

This little New York neighborhood could give Peyton Place a run for its money. EVERYONE is hiding something. EVERYONE is guilty of something and tries to obscure their misdeeds by lying to the police. And EVERYONE is terrified to show more think that those secrets might become public knowledge.

However, with one or two exceptions, all of the characters are quite shallow and flat, defined merely by their actions and their secrets. And, to make matters worse, the gossipy, insipid women disparage the victim [“A woman like that . . . such a flirt . . .”] while continually making excuses for their own husbands/sons/lovers. Somehow, they've unilaterally decided that the male contingent deserves a pass, no matter what.

Despite several loose ends, this quick-read narrative does wrap up the major plot points. However, as the story ends, the smarmiest, most reprehensible character in the lot remains, busily plotting against one of the women in an annoyingly abrupt cliffhanger ending that is sure to leave readers feeling frustrated and disappointed. show less