You'll never look at your Neighbours the same again! (The Neighbour - Lisa Gardner)

Member Name: AmyAmy

Product:	The Neighbour - Lisa Gardner
Date:	31/10/09 (23 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: strong characters, plot, cover

Disadvantages: /

I'm quite fussy when it comes to books. Usually will go for autobiographies, or fiction by the same authors . I don't normally read anything by a new author unless I've heard an awful lot of praise about them. Until recently though I had not heard of author Lisa Gardner, and when faced with her latest, 'The Neighbour', something inside me made me rather keen to give it a read!

I have to hold my hand up and admit that I do judge a book by its cover, despite the fact that I shouldn't! Clearly, a lot of thought has gone into the cover of The Neighbour, as it caught my attention immediately. It has a main background colour of deep green, quite a murky colour. On the front is a faded image of a front doorway, wide open suspiciosly. It looks incredibly eerie and mysterious, enough to tempt anybody into reading.

The book itself tells the story of a 'disappearance' in New England. The event takes place in the first few chapters, when Sandra Jones is faced with a 'figure' in the middle of the night. While her daughter, Ree, is sleeping in the next room, all we know is that Sandra is faced with another character in a threatening situation, and no more. Her husband Jason returns home and finds his wife missing, only to report it to the police a few hours later. As usual, the husband is a suspect but with others popping up left right and centre, its hard to tell just what happened that night...

Ever since I fell in love with the work of Anne Cassidy, I have adored crime and mystery novels. So from the word go, this was one book I knew I was going to adore. I must admit, it has been quite a long time since I have enjoyed a book to such a level. Often books set out with the UK can sometimes annoy me, but I found each and every word of this one to be an utter delight.

There is quite a number of characters in The Neighbour, and while that can sometimes create confusion, I found that I actually took to each one with ease. They were so vivid and realistic, especially four year old Ree who was simply adorable! The descriptions in general throughout the book are so powerful too that I had such a clear picture in my head too, it was almost like watching television! Indeed, this would make a great film!

The Neighbour has an RRP of £6.99, which I feel is quite a reasonable price to pay. I don't normally buy books unless they're special, and luckily I won this one in a Waterstones competition along with four others. I would not buy this one, I'll admit, but if you happen to enjoy buying books or are a fan of Lisa Gardner then I would definitely suggest you give this one a look into - its well worth the money. If not, I recommend you give your local library the time of day to search for this one.

I'm thrilled that I have discovered the wonders of Lisa Gardner - it's opened my eyes to a whole new level of crime novels. This is definitely one I have enjoyed throughout each of its chapters and most certainly one I would recommend. I think I may just go in search of more books by the same author! The Neighbour is well worth the read - it's very addictive and simply thrilling.

Amy 2009

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