Review: Someone We Know by Shari Lapena | @sharilapena @TransworldBooks @ThomasssHill @annecater #RandomThingsTours

Someone We Should Know Cover

About the Book

It can be hard keeping secrets in a tight-knit neighbourhood.

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.

I’m so sorry. My son has been getting into people’s houses. He’s broken into yours.

Who is this boy, and what might he have uncovered? As whispers start to circulate, suspicion mounts.

And when a missing local woman is found murdered, the tension reaches 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 secrets?

Maybe you don’t know your neighbour as well as you thought you did . . .

 

My Thoughts

I’m a huge fan of Shari Lapena’s writing so I was thrilled to receive a copy of her new novel Someone We Know and I’m really happy to say that it more than lived up to my expectations!

Someone We Know is set in a small community so when a neighbour goes missing everyone is talking about her and wondering what could have happened. Alongside this Olivia discovers that her teenage son Raleigh has broken into a couple of their neighbour’s houses and she is mortified and furious.

This book feels claustrophobic from the start, the idea of a small community is uncomfortable to me anyway (I grew up in a small town and now hate the idea of living somewhere like that) but with the break-ins and the missing woman, and the subsequent gossip about it all really made it feel like I was trapped in the neighbourhood with these people. I loved that about it though, it made me lose where I really was and I became so absorbed in the novel that I lost a whole afternoon to it!

I loved how it turns out that quite a few people in the novel have something to hide – some smaller things, some huge things and you’re constantly wondering if any of them have anything to do with the missing woman.

Shari Lapena writes red herrings so well – she misleads you and takes you down a path and then points you in a totally different direction and it’s always so brilliantly done! I had my suspicions and my thoughts about what was going on throughout the novel but I only partly clicked whodunnit right before it was revealed and I didn’t work out all of it so it was brilliant to be kept guessing throughout!

This is a novel about the secrets people hide, and how well you really know the people you think you’re closest too. It makes you question the truth that people tell and whether it’s the actual truth or their perceived truth. This is a perfect summer thriller – it’s gripping from the opening pages, it’s thrilling from start to finish and it’s a book to get lost in. I read it all in one sitting and loved it!

Many thanks to Transworld for my copy of this book and to Anne of Random Things Tours for my blog tour invitation. All thoughts are my own.

Someone We Know is out now and available here.

 

I’ve previously reviewed The Couple Next Door and An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena.

 

About the Author

Shari Lapena Author pic

 

Shari Lapena worked as a lawyer and as an English teacher before writing fiction. Her debut thriller, The Couple Next Door, was a global bestseller, the bestselling fiction title in the UK in 2017 and has been optioned for television. Her second thriller, A Stranger in the House and third, An Unwanted Guest, were both Sunday Times and New York Times bestsellers.

 

 

 

 

You can find the rest of this tour at the following blogs:

Someone We Know BT Poster

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8 thoughts on “Review: Someone We Know by Shari Lapena | @sharilapena @TransworldBooks @ThomasssHill @annecater #RandomThingsTours

  1. Great review, Hayley – I always love small community whodunits… The great Agatha Christie did it so well and since then, I’ve always enjoyed this sub-genre. Thank you for sharing:)

  2. This does sound suspenseful, Hayley! And there is something about those small-town settings that really does feel claustrophobic. I can see how that would add to the tension. Isn’t it great when a book lives up to what you’ve come to expect from the author?

  3. Pingback: Links I’ve Enjoyed This Week – 04/08/19 – Secret Library Book Blog

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