A tony Washington DC suburb becomes the backdrop for Thompson’s thriller, The Neighbors Are Watching.
The focus is the fictional neighborhood of Eastbrook in Bethesda, where the closeknit families in one area are still reeling from the murder the year before of the nanny from one of the families. They have done their best to forget it happened, a blip in their carefully arranged perfection.
We are introduced to Caren, who lives in fear of her soon-to-be empty nest, at a party she hasn’t felt like attending in the most exclusive block. With her husband away, she’s walking home from the party when she blacks out. The next morning she’s found by a young man, Finn, new to the area, She has a head injury, and amnesia to the events of the night before. She needs to find out what happened to her during those missing hours. Who did this to her, and what do her friends know about it?
Finn has insinuated himself to find the murderer of his friend, Autumn, and can’t let Autumn’s death go. He was FaceTiming with Autumn from her employer’s home when the ring of the doorbell took her away for a moment, and Finn heard the gunshot that ended Autumn’s life.
The two become an unlikely duo in investigating what recently happened to Caren, and last year to Autumn.
With finely drawn characters of the neighborhood, some more likeable than others, the secrets that the neighborhood have been keeping will shock and surprise readers as much as the neighborhood status quo is shattered.
After several ending twists, there’s one more ending twist to this satisfying story.
Auntiemwrites Crime-Mystery Author M K Graff 