The Couple Next Door Author:Shari Lapena Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all -- a loving relationship, a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night, when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately falls on the parents. But the truth is much more complicated. — What follows is the nerve-wracking unraveling of a... more » family. Detective Rasbach knows that the panicked couple is hiding something. Anne and Marco both soon discover that the other is keeping secrets, secrets they've kept for years. The shocking truth will leave you breathless.« less
Ugh. I like a psychological thriller, but this was just stupid. It started out with some promise, but it quickly deteriorated. The plot was just over-the-top contrived, and the writing was that of a high school literary student. On the plus side, it was quick to read. Now on to something (hopefully) better.
After I read The Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena, I vowed to never read another of her books. Oh, such juvenile writing style. I'm sure the essays and stories I read in high school were better developed. But a friend gave me her copy of The Couple Next Door and gushed over how much she enjoyed reading it. I could have just declined the book, stating my aversion to wasting time on mediocre writing but I didn't want to insult her opinion. And I knew she'd want to discuss the book so I had to read it.
I trudged through the first 7-8 chapters, just shaking my head at the absolute stupidity of Anne and Marco, parents of Cora who is only 6 months old. The parents are invited to dinner party next door and when their babysitter cancels due to death in family, they argue about not going to party but Marco insists Cora will be ok at home as long as they take turns checking on her every half hour. And they take the baby monitor to listen in. When they get home at 12:30a, the front door is ajar a few inches (to build suspense) and Cora is missing. No spoilers here but a few red flags. This couple is rich (Anne's mother's money) so why do they use a baby monitor with a broken video screen? And Marco has been using back door to access house but front door is open. Did Anne leave it open? She can't remember.
Story twists and turns, lots of suspects and police questioning. Overall, I was somewhat surprised by the motive of the kidnapping even though I suspected the culprit. No more Lapena books for me!
I really liked this book. Usually I figure out the culprit pretty quickly but this had several twists and turns that kepf you guessing all throughout it. I would have given it 5 stars but it did have an open ending which I do not like.
Overall, not a book I would recommend to a friend. The first 20+ chapters has no foward movement and I had to force myself to keep reading. When twists finally started happening it was easy to figure out the end before the author got around to confirming. Disappointing.
