Someone We Know by Shari Lapena

 

 Available on Amazon

Rating (1-5) - 📘📘📘
Genre - Domestic Thriller, Psychological Thriller
Format - Audio-book
Length - 7 hours and 50 minutes


*Amazon Blurb*

Maybe you don't know your neighbors as well as you thought you did . . . 

"This is a very difficult letter to write. I hope you will not hate us too much. . . My son broke into your home recently while you were out." 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. Who is he, and what might he have uncovered? 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? Who knows more than they're telling? And how far will all these very nice people go to protect their own secrets? In this neighborhood, it's not just the husbands and wives who play games. Here, everyone in the family has something to hide . . . 

You never really know what people are capable of.

*My Review* 

 

The starts out with a woman being murdered, but not sure who the killer is. Ok, I like suspense. Unfortunatley the book seems to then veer off course and it becomes more about a boy breaking into peoples houses. I mean it still went on about trying to figure out who the murderer was and giving all sort of suspects and possibilities, but for me the boy and his mother seemed to take over.

I couldn't really get into this. The mom writes a letter to apologize for her son breaking into people houses. I get why she feels bad, but her character annoyed the crap out of me. She kept doing things that made the situation worse...was that part of the story or was she just annoying?

A Stranger In The House by Shari Lapena

Available on Amazon

Rating (1-5) 📘📘📘📘
Genre - Psychological Thrillers, Women's Domestic Life Fiction
Format - Audio-book
Length - 8 hours 52 minutes

*Amazon Blurb*

Karen and Tom Krupp are happy—they’ve got a lovely home in upstate New York, they’re practically newlyweds, and they have no kids to interrupt their comfortable life together. But one day, Tom returns home to find Karen has vanished—her car’s gone and it seems she left in a rush. She even left her purse—complete with phone and ID—behind.

There's a knock on the door—the police are there to take Tom to the hospital where his wife has been admitted. She had a car accident, and lost control as she sped through the worst part of town.

The accident has left Karen with a concussion and a few scrapes. Still, she’s mostly okay—except that she can’t remember what she was doing or where she was when she crashed. The cops think her memory loss is highly convenient, and they suspect she was up to no good.

Karen returns home with Tom, determined to heal and move on with her life. Then she realizes something’s been moved. Something’s not quite right. Someone’s been in her house. And the police won't stop asking questions.

Because in this house, everyone’s a stranger. Everyone has something they’d rather keep hidden. Something they might even kill to keep quiet.

*My Review* 

How well do you know your friends? Karen is pretty sure she has built herself the perfect life, but isn't it always the perfect lives that have the biggest secrets? Karen finds herself in the hospital. She can't remember what happened, but is that the truth or just what she's telling everyone to hide something. Though it's easy to figure out the story so that there's no real suspense, I wasn't quite sure how it would end.

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

Availble on Amazon

Rating (1-5) 📘📘📘📘
Genre - Psychological Thriller, Crime Thriller
Format - Audio book
Length - 8 hours 40 minutes

*Amazon Blurb*

It all started at a dinner party...
A domestic suspense debut about a young couple and their apparently friendly neighbors - a twisty, roller-coaster ride of lies, betrayal, and the secrets between husbands and wives....
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 lands on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story. Inside the curtained house, an unsettling account of what actually happened unfolds.
Detective Rasbach knows that the panicked couple is hiding something. Both Anne and Marco soon discover that the other is keeping secrets, secrets they've kept for years. What follows is the nerve-racking unraveling of a family - a chilling tale of deception, duplicity, and unfaithfulness that will keep you breathless until the final shocking twist.


*My Review* 

To start with, who just leaves their baby home along even if you are next door with a baby monitor? I can understand running over or a few minutes, but definitely not hours. I didn't like any of the characters right off the bat because of this. I didn't real any sympathy for the parents at any point.

This isn't a book that'll keep you in suspense for the who did it, well initially. Turns out there's more than one bad guy in this book, but trying to figure out who that is may take some time. I honestly wasn't sure until the very end basically when they told me.

An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena

An Unwanted Guest

by Shari Lapena

Availble on Amazon

Rating (1-5) 📘📘📘📘📘
Genre - Murder thriller, Psychological thriller
Format - Hardcover
Length - 290 pages

*Amazon Blurb*

A weekend retreat at a cozy mountain lodge is supposed to be the perfect getaway . . . but when the storm hits, no one is getting away

It's winter in the Catskills and Mitchell's Inn, nestled deep in the woods, is the perfect setting for a relaxing--maybe even romantic--weekend away. It boasts spacious old rooms with huge wood-burning fireplaces, a well-stocked wine cellar, and opportunities for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or just curling up with a good murder mystery.

So when the weather takes a turn for the worse, and a blizzard cuts off the electricity--and all contact with the outside world--the guests settle in and try to make the best of it.

Soon, though, one of the guests turns up dead--it looks like an accident. But when a second guest dies, they start to panic.

Within the snowed-in paradise, something--or someone--is picking off the guests one by one. And there's nothing they can do but hunker down and hope they can survive the storm--and one another.


*My Review* 

I enjoyed this book for a few reasons. First is that is is set in Upstate New York where I live. I always enjoy reading books set in my local area. Second, the book takes place in the winter and I was reading it during that same time of the year. So when there was a snowstorm followed by and ice storm, I was able to relate with the weather. My third reason is that is was a really book.

The guests are all enjoying the looks of the beautiful resort they find themselves staying at. They are all looking forward to a weekend away, well most of them anyways. The first night one of the guests is found at the bottom of the staircase, dead. Was it an accident or did someone push her? That day a ice storm makes the power go out and travel impossible. When the second body is found the guests really start wondering if it was just a coincidence that another accident happened or worse.