FOR SALE: A lovely family home with good-sized garden and treehouse occupying a plot close to woodland. Perfect for kids, fitness enthusiasts, dog walkers . . .
And, it seems, the perfect hunting ground for a serial killer.
On a hot July day, Garrick and Olivia Lockwood and their two children move into 25 The Avenue looking for a fresh start. They arrive in the midst of a media frenzy: they’d heard about the local murders in the press, but Garrick was certain the killer would be caught and it would all be over in no time. Besides, they’d got the house at a steal and he was convinced he could flip it for a fortune.
The neighbours seemed to be the very picture of community spirit. But everyone has secrets, and the residents in The Avenue are no exception.
After six months on the case with no real leads, the most recent murder has turned DC Wildeve Stanton’s life upside down, and now she has her own motive for hunting down the killer – quickly.
I’m a huge fan of Fiona Cummins’ books – Rattle and The Collector are both brilliantly creepy with a fantastic (if that’s the right word) serial killer that you won’t forget in a hurry. Both books have made my ‘books of the year’ lists in 2017 and 2018, so it was with no small measure of excitement that I rushed to buy a copy (yes, bookbloggers *do* buy books!) of Fiona’s new book, The Neighbour.
Reader, I was not disappointed. I started reading on my commute into Leeds and was immediately hooked. Snatched a few more minutes with the book over lunchtime, then again on the way home, where I promptly settled down with a large mug of tea and promptly lost myself in the delightfully mysterious goings-on at The Avenue.
Garrick and Olivia Lockwood move into a quiet little street with plans to turn around the property and make some money. Except the house backs onto some woodland, where several people have met a rather sticky end. Enter DC Wildeve Stanton, who has her own reasons for tracking down the murderer. But it seems that everyone has secrets…
Told over the course of a few days over the long, hot, sticky summer of 2018, The Neighbour is wonderfully atmospheric, and not a little claustrophobic in places. The cast of neighbours on The Avenue are an intriguing bunch, and you’re never quite sure who to suspect, though you’ll end up questioning what you think about pretty much all of them along the way. I particularly liked DC Stanton, though Cummins does rather put her through the wringer in this one. I’d love to see more of her in future books.
Loved it from the first page to the last. Very highly recommended, and will be most surprised if it’s not on my books of the year list for 2019!
The Neighbour by Fiona Cummins is published by Macmillan and is out now.
You can find Fiona on twitter @FionaAnnCummins.
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