The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena – a review

This was a book that was being heavily promoted at the recent festival, and although I got a key ring advertising the book I didn’t actually get to pick this one up (lack of money not withstanding, my lack of Olympic weightlifting prowess does mean that you have to draw the line at book buying once the bag becomes too heavy to lift) However the following day when I sat down to go through all my books I was lucky enough to find that the lovely Mr F had snuck a copy of this one into the pile.

The Couple Next Door is about married partners Anne and Marco. They have been invited to a party by their neighbour who is insistent that children are not allowed. When Anne and Marco’s babysitter cancels, rather than stay at home they decide to still go to the party and just take a baby monitor with them. Clearly this is all going to end in tears. When they return the baby has been taken, and their lives start to fall apart.

This was a fast fun read, that would make a perfect holiday book. You know straight from the off that the baby is going to go missing so there is no mystery there, but the story focuses on who has taken the baby and the interplay between the varying cast members.

This was a novel written in the third person which kind of works, although there were some aspects where you almost felt you were being spoon fed a bit too much. There was a lot of telling rather than showing, but that’s down to the style of writing. Once you get used to this then the story soon starts to take off. There were plenty of twists and turns along the way and although bits of it were easy to guess, there was enough red herrings and shocks to keep you interested. One thing that I liked was the fact that it focuses completely on the characters and you don’t really get a sense of place, it could be based anywhere.

The characters are all quite annoying and I didn’t really care about them, but yet I still really wanted to know what was happening. Some of the actions are  bit far fetched but the story carries you along so fast that you don’t mind. Overall I really enjoyed this book and it was clear why it was such a hit at the festival.