Shari Lapena thriller 'Someone We Know' preys on our worst fears about our neighbors
Corrections & clarifications: A previous version of this story misidentified one of the characters. Paul Sharpe is the name of the lawyer married to Olivia Sharpe.
We see them every day. They are a fixture in our daily lives. We are more polite with some than others, and every now and then we count a few of them as friends. But when it comes down to it, do we really know our neighbors? That is the question Shari Lapena addresses in her latest thriller, “Someone We Know,” (Pamela Dorman Books/Viking, 292 pp., ★★★½ out of four stars).
It turns out, we really don’t.
Nestled in the Hudson River Valley, an hour from the Catskills and a couple from New York City, is the sleepy town of Aylesford. Lapena populates this particular neighborhood with middle-class families whose children are mostly grown and whose parents are entering middle age.
At the center of the story are two families, the Sharpes and the Pierces. Olivia Sharpe freelances as an editor and works at home, while her husband Paul is a lawyer. Their son Raleigh is a typical teen. The Pierces, Robert and Amanda, are a young couple who moved into the neighborhood a year earlier. Young and nubile, Amanda turns many husbands' head at a neighborhood barbecue.
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From the opening pages, both families’ lives are shaken. Olivia and Paul discover Raleigh has been breaking into neighborhood homes, and Amanda is brutally murdered. Olivia takes it upon herself to write anonymous notes of apology to a couple of the neighbors whose homes Raleigh has entered. Robert works to deflect the suspicion cast on him for his wife’s murder.
Enter the neighbors.
Among them are Carmine Torres, an older woman who has been in the neighborhood only a few months; Suzanne Halpern, who hosts a monthly book club; and Jeanette Bauroth, who lives across the street from the Pierces. Then there are the Harrises and the Newells. Becky Harris and her husband Larry live next door to the Pierces. Becky is friends with Amanda while Larry works with Paul. Glenda and Keith Newell, along with their teenage son Adam, live nearby.
When it comes to neighbors, there is the person they present to the outside world and the person they become behind closed doors. The folks in Aylesford are no different. The lives of the Sharpes and Robert Pierce become fodder for neighborhood gossip and innuendo. Because the book is told in a multi-narrative, we are aware of everyone’s thoughts on what is happening and the aspersions they cast on others – particularly after detectives Webb and Moen come knocking at their doors.
As the story quickly progresses, so do the clever plot twists and turns. Lapena’s prose is tight and the chapters unfold in staccato, unnerving and mirroring the hurried and scattered thoughts of the characters. With each passing page, the story unfolds at an increasingly breakneck pace. The reader begins to jump to conclusions as much as the neighbors do until the final reveal confirms our worst suspicions: that we don’t really know our neighbors at all.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Shari Lapena thriller 'Someone We Know' preys on our worst fears
