Sylvie and Matt are next door neighbors and also married to each other. Sylvie moved in her house before Matt purchased the property next door. She and her daughter- Jess moved into their home after Sylvie’s divorce.
Keeping separate houses have their own advantages for Matt as well as Sylvie. But it’s not always practical especially when Sylvie needs her husband in an emergency situation and couldn’t locate him.
Then she has no other choice but to lean on their new neighbor- Brenda who is more than eager to help Sylvie in her hour of need.
However, that hour of need stretches into weeks leading to Brenda taking total control of Sylvie’s home before the home owner could even realize. It’s also coinciding with the time of Matt distancing himself from Sylvie both physically and mentally.
For readers of domestic thriller, this might look like a familiar set-up where we start eagerly anticipating the skeletons to be tumbled out of old cupboards. They do to an extent but with such predictable twists that it becomes impossible to guess what happens next.
In the background there are cases of multiple girls going missing from the surrounding areas while in the foreground Matt and Brenda are brawling to get control of Sylvie’s life. Then there is Jess who is struggling to cope in her new reality of being a full-time mother. At some point in the plot, all this gets mixed up to concoct a heady mix of murder mystery. It might or might not take you by surprise depends on how prolific a reader you are of this particular genre.
This is a medium paced and interesting read which can be finished over a weekend. It’s good for one time read simply for maintaining the writing quality and plotline for almost three forth of its length.