Someone We Know

Product Information

In a tranquil, leafy suburb of ordinary streets - one where everyone is polite and friendly - an anonymous note has been left at some of the houses. Someone We Know is a new domestic suspense thriller from New York Times bestselling author Shari Lapena, where a murder shakes a quiet NY community that might have some dark secrets among neighbors.

In this neighborhood, it’s not just the husbands and wives who play games. Here, everyone in the family has something to hide . . .

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I love a Shari Lapena novel and this one kept me entertained and guessing throughout. I am still wanting to discuss the end! I think I swiped my kindle several times after the last paragraph. What?

Riveting read by the New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door…Fast-paced with lots of twists and turns and an ending I didn't see coming.” AS USUAL TOO MANY UNLIKABLE CHARACTERS: Of course I’m not quiet fan of cheaters, liars, fake friends, noisy neighbors who were watching (mostly stalking) the other houses’ inhabitants. Don’t forget Carmine Torres who threatens everyone just show them how smart and good detective she is. Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. Olivia is mortified by her son Raleigh breaking into neighbors’ houses. Do you think the apology letters were a bad or good idea? To what degree should parents feel or be held accountable for the actions of their children? Discuss. No-one does suburban paranoia like Shari Lapena—this slowly unfurling nightmare will have you biting your nails until the end.” —Ruth Ware

In Someone We Know , Raleigh, a teenage boy, is the person of interest in a series of home break-ins. What was your inspiration for the book, and how does it compare to your previous thrillers? We know from the very beginning of the book that a horrendous murder has taken place. We know the murder weapon used and the fact that the murderer was male. We also learn the identity of the victim: Amanda Pierce is reported missing by her husband Robert. The murderer is someone who lives in one of these houses. It is in all likelihood someone we know... But to discover who it was and why, we'll have to doubt every single person, no matter how nice and friendly they appear to be. Although her last book was an "Agatha Christie" style mystery, this one is more like her first two books, returning to a neighborhood FULL of secrets. Olivia is mortified by her son, Raleigh, breaking into neighbors’ houses. Do you think the apology letters were a bad or good idea? To what degree should parents feel accountable, or be held accountable, for the actions of their children? Discuss. The many never-saw-them-coming twists and questionable characters . . . will keep you on the edge of your seat. First-time novelist Lapena’s writing is spare and tense, and it makes The Couple Next Doora compulsive read. The last line is absolutely a killer.”

Still, Raleigh's mother Olivia feels awful about her son's transgressions, and - without telling Raleigh or her husband Paul - Olivia writes anonymous apology letters. She slips these missives under the doors of the two houses Raleigh admits to entering (though there were many more). One house is the residence of a widow named Carmine Torres and the other is the home of Amanda's husband Richard. The premise of murder in a cozy neighborhood has been a theme in the genre lately and I thought I knew where this was going, BUT it takes so many swerves and has such a perfect pace that I was eager to find out who was wearing the mask ( So many hands in the cookie jar)!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. They all sit. The sound of the chairs scraping against the floor rips at Raleigh's raw nerves like nails on a chalkboard.

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. The fantastically flirty Amanda Pierce has turned up dead. As our story opens with her brutal murder with a hammer, and her husband Robert's general relief as he files a missing persons report a couple of days later, this seems to be an open and shut case and just another instance of "it's always the husband." However, the small suburban neighborhood holds its fair share of secrets, as teenage Raleigh has been breaking into homes just for the sheer thrill of the hunt and taking a look at everyone's internet history (and deepest secrets) while he's at it. I'm a huge fan of this author. Recommend to those who enjoy a twisty who-dunnit, and a clever plot with plenty of suspense and neighborly (or not) suspects.

More from The Author

The new domestic suspense novel from the New York Times bestselling author of THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR, A STRANGER IN THE HOUSE and AN UNWANTED GUEST, Shari Lapena Well done, Ms Lapena! This was such a finely crafted thriller that I literally could not put down! This would make a perfect beach read! Highly recommend! This compelling and realistic modern take on the country-house mystery will gain new fans for the author and is definitely one to hand to devotees of Agatha Christie (and her modern interpreter, Sophie Hannah).” I never base a character on any particular person, although I’m sure I take the occasional trait here and there from different people I see and incorporate them into my characters. I develop characters organically; I put a character into a particular situation—usually a difficult one—and see what they do and say. They grow and develop as the story goes on and they face ever greater challenges. There’s no better way to learn about your characters than to put them in a situation of conflict and see how they react. For me, it’s much better than creating a chart with eye color and shoe size and how they take their coffee—although that would help to keep the details straight! It was inspired by something I saw on the internet about a kid breaking into someone’s house in the middle of the night to use their wi-fi. I guess he’d had his own wi-fi restricted at home. It got me thinking about what a teenage boy might do, and what the repercussions might be. I knew the boy had to stumble onto something big—I needed a murder. It’s always easy to come up with a dead body—it’s how that dead body got to be there that’s more difficult, and a lot more interesting. That’s where the story comes in. In many ways, Someone We Know is similar to my other thrillers—it’s fast paced, it’s twisty, and you want to get to the bottom of it all. But this one also focuses on whole families, on parents and sons in particular, rather than focusing only on couples. It feels richer and deeper to me in that way.