The Neighbour by Fiona Cummins #bookreview @FionaAnnCummins @panmacmillan

I’m absolutely delighted to be sharing my thoughts on Fiona Cummins brilliant new crime novel The Neighbour on my blog today.

BLURB

FOR SALE: A lovely family home with good-sized garden and treehouse occupying a plot close to woodland. Perfect for kids, fitness enthusiasts, dog walkers . . .

And, it seems, the perfect hunting ground for a serial killer.

On a hot July day, Garrick and Olivia Lockwood and their two children move into 25 The Avenue looking for a fresh start. They arrive in the midst of a media frenzy: they’d heard about the local murders in the press, but Garrick was certain the killer would be caught and it would all be over in no time. Besides, they’d got the house at a steal and he was convinced he could flip it for a fortune.

The neighbours seemed to be the very picture of community spirit. But everyone has secrets, and the residents in The Avenue are no exception.

After six months on the case with no real leads, the most recent murder has turned DC Wildeve Stanton’s life upside down, and now she has her own motive for hunting down the killer – quickly.

MY THOUGHTS

I absolutely loved this one. Having been a fan of Fiona Cummins’ first two novels, I was more than intrigued to see what she would write next, and the answer is The Neighbour which is a crime novel of pure brilliance. Fiona’s writing makes her books exactly the type of read you could race through in one sitting. Genuinely chilling and with short, snappy chapters that will have you itching to read the next, this is top-rate crime fiction.

Fiona develops her characters so, so well. We have the Lockwood’s who have just moved into The Avenue and the creepy neighbours who will have you examining and thinking about each and every one of them. I had so many suspicions about all of them, and I loved how Fiona led me down several different paths and how she then thwarted my thoughts at the end as the final truths were revealed, and this was done so very brilliantly.

There is such a creepy premise to this book that will have you looking at your own neighbours with suspicion, perhaps, depending on how well you get on with them I suppose and how well you know them. We hear from the killer’s thoughts throughout the book, and there were some lines in these scenes that did give me chills. The characters will also have you thinking just what lengths will you go to protect your loved ones, especially from the secrets you hide. You will see what I mean when I say that this is a genuinely chilling read.

The Neighbour is a novel I did not want to put down. The only problem I have now is that I have to wait a while for Fiona’s next book. This is very much a character-driven crime novel, and they will all stay in your mind for a while after you read it. This definitely comes highly recommended from me.

Publisher: Pan

Publication date: 4th April 2019

Print length: 416 pages

If you would like to purchase The Neighbour you can do so by clicking on one of the following links below.

Amazon UK  Kobo  Waterstones