Before She Knew Him
Peter Swanson, 2019
HarperCollins
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062838155
Summary
From the hugely talented author of The Kind Worth Killing comes an exquisitely chilling tale of a young suburban wife with a history of psychological instability whose fears about her new neighbor could lead them both to murder.
Catching a killer is dangerous—especially if he lives next door.
Hen and her husband Lloyd have settled into a quiet life in a new house outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Hen (short for Henrietta) is an illustrator and works out of a studio nearby, and has found the right meds to control her bipolar disorder.
Finally, she’s found some stability and peace.
But when they meet the neighbors next door, that calm begins to erode as she spots a familiar object displayed on the husband’s office shelf. The sports trophy looks exactly like one that went missing from the home of a young man who was killed two years ago.
Hen knows because she’s long had a fascination with this unsolved murder—an obsession she doesn’t talk about anymore, but can’t fully shake either.
Could her neighbor, Matthew, be a killer? Or is this the beginning of another psychotic episode like the one she suffered back in college, when she became so consumed with proving a fellow student guilty that she ended up hurting a classmate?
The more Hen observes Matthew, the more she suspects he’s planning something truly terrifying. Yet no one will believe her.
Then one night, when she comes face to face with Matthew in a dark parking lot, she realizes that he knows she’s been watching him, that she’s really on to him. And that this is the beginning of a horrifying nightmare she may not live to escape. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 11, 1964
• Where—Carlisle, Massachusetts, USA
• Education—B.A., Trinity College; M.A., University of Massachusetts-Amherst; M.F.A., Emerson College
• Currently—lives in Somerville, Massachusetts
Peter Swanson is the author of several novels: The Girl with a Clock for a Heart (2014) The Kind Worth Killing (2015), Her Every Fear (2016), and Before She Knew Him (2019). Eight Perfect Murders (2020) is his most recent.
Swanson's poems, stories and reviews have appeared in such journals as The Atlantic, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Epoch, Measure, Notre Dame Review, Soundings East, and The Vocabula Review. He has won awards in poetry from The Lyric and Yankee Magazine, and is currently completing a sonnet sequence on all 53 of Alfred Hitchcock’s films.
Swanson has degrees in creative writing, education, and literature from Trinity College, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Emerson College. He lives with his wife and cat in Somerville, Massachusetts. (From the publisher and the author's website.)
Book Reviews
[A] neatly knotted suspense story.
New York Times Book Review
Swanson unfolds this creepy story with the assurance and economy of a master. Surprises follow one another with inevitability, until the final electrifying jolt.
Wall Street Journal
In trademark style, Swanson’s ingenious plotting throws up tantalising clues and then slowly unravels them through a series of shocking revelations, leaving readers confused, bemused and racing to the last page. Compelling, creepy, and psychologically astute, this is stylish thriller writing at its very best.
Guardian (UK)
This acutely perceptive writer has become a master of psychological chills and thrills, transforming what appears to be "cosy domestic" into something infinitely more dangerous and deadly.… A sizzling slice of his unique brand of domestic noir.… Tingling with tension [and] brimming with menace.
Guardian (UK)
Swanson] knows how to ration his twists and where in the narrative to place them, devoting just the right amount of time to exploring the ramifications of each new development before spinning the story off in an ominous new direction… De Palma, or Hitchcock… would kill for the film rights.
National (UK)
★ [An] exceptional psychological thriller…. Surprising twists help keep the suspense high to the end.
Publishers Weekly
What would happen if a serial killer met the perfect confidant, someone who would never be believed if they revealed his secrets? Nothing good…. Swanson has crafted another bar-raising psychological thriller with this tense, unexpected spin on serial killers and those obsessed with them.
Booklist
[T]wisty, fast-paced…. Swanson is at his best in exploring the kinship… between artist and killer, one of the themes of Swanson's great model and forebear, Patricia Highsmith. Swanson isn't quite up to Highsmith's lofty mark, …but for the most part, this novel delivers.
Kirkus Reviews
There’s a neat twist at the end, but the real surprise is the way characters are allowed to grieve their losses, a luxury not always allowed in stories of this type. For a fast-paced thriller, Before She Knew Him achieves an impressive significance in its pauses.
BookPage
Discussion Questions
(We'll add questions if and when they're made available by the publisher. In the meantime, use our generic mystery questions to help start a discussion for BEFORE SHE KNEW HIM … then take off on your own:
GENERIC DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Mystery / Crime / Suspense Thrillers
1. Talk about the characters, both good and bad. Describe their personalities and motivations. Are they fully developed and emotionally complex? Or are they flat, one-dimensional heroes and villains?
2. What do you know...and when do you know it? At what point in the book do you begin to piece together what happened?
3. Good crime writers embed hidden clues in plain sight, slipping them in casually, almost in passing. Did you pick them out, or were you...clueless? Once you've finished the book, go back to locate the clues hidden in plain sight. How skillful was the author in burying them?
4. Good crime writers also tease us with red-herrings—false clues—to purposely lead readers astray? Does your author try to throw you off track? If so, were you tripped up?
5. Talk about the twists & turns—those surprising plot developments that throw everything you think you've figured out into disarray.
- Do they enhance the story, add complexity, and build suspense?
- Are they plausible or implausible?
- Do they feel forced and gratuitous—inserted merely to extend the story?
6. Does the author ratchet up the suspense? Did you find yourself anxious—quickly turning pages to learn what happened? A what point does the suspense start to build? Where does it climax...then perhaps start rising again?
7. A good ending is essential in any mystery or crime thriller: it should ease up on tension, answer questions, and tidy up loose ends. Does the ending accomplish those goals?
- Is the conclusion probable or believable?
- Is it organic, growing out of clues previously laid out by the author (see Question 3)?
- Or does the ending come out of the blue, feeling forced or tacked-on?
- Perhaps it's too predictable.
- Can you envision a different or better ending?
8. Are there certain passages in the book—ideas, descriptions, or dialogue—that you found interesting or revealing...or that somehow struck you? What lines, if any, made you stop and think?
9. Overall, does the book satisfy? Does it live up to the standards of a good crime story or suspense thriller? Why or why not?
(Generic Mystery Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Sometimes I Lie
Alice Feeney, 2018
Flatiron Books
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250144843
Summary
My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me:
1. I’m in a coma.
2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore.
3. Sometimes I lie.
Amber wakes up in a hospital. She can’t move. She can’t speak. She can’t open her eyes. She can hear everyone around her, but they have no idea.
Amber doesn’t remember what happened, but she has a suspicion her husband had something to do with it.
Alternating between her paralyzed present, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood diaries from twenty years ago, this brilliant psychological thriller asks: Is something really a lie if you believe it's the truth? (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Alice Feeney is a writer and journalist. She spent 15 years at the BBC, where she worked as a Reporter, News Editor, Arts and Entertainment Producer and One O’clock News Producer.
Alice is has lived in London and Sydney and has now settled in the Surrey countryside, where she lives with her husband and dog.
Sometimes I Lie (2018) is her debut thriller and has been published around the world. (From the pubiisher.)
Visit the author's website.
Book Reviews
Alice Feeney’s twisty psychological thriller, Sometimes I Lie, her debut novel, slides neatly into the company of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train. With its various plot twists, it’s a dizzying, disturbing read that becomes hard to put down once Amber tells us, "I’m back now and I remember everything."
Minneapolis Star Tribune
A spine-tingling psychological thriller…the joy (and the stress) of this thriller is separating fact from fiction. The creepy feeling at the back of your neck is 100 percent real.
People
If you’re looking for a Gone Girl-esque fix, then this is the book for you.
Cosmopolitan
[An] insanely twisty thriller.
Entertainment Weekly
Almost nothing is as it initially appears in BBC News veteran Feeney’s bold if overambitious debut, a serpentine tale of betrayal, madness, and murder.… Feeney is definitely a writer to watch.
Publishers Weekly
A pathological liar, a woman in a coma,…an evil sister—this is an unreliable-narrator novel with all the options.…Though the novel eventually begins to sag under the weight of all its plot elements, fans of the psychological thriller will enjoy this ambitious debut.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. "Sometimes I lie." Amber lies to so many people throughout the novel—her husband, her sister, her colleagues, even herself. Do you think she always knew when she was lying? Don’t we all tell lies from time to time? Is it just human nature to tweak the truth?
2. "It took a lot of love to hate her the way I do." Amber spent over 20 years believing that Claire was keeping her safe, but does she love her? In Claire’s mind, the way she isolates and controls Amber is love—she genuinely thinks she’s being protective. But is it love or fear that destroys their relationship in the end?
3. Who is the real villain of this story? Madeline? Edward? Claire? Or Amber?
4. "I stand in front of the large range oven with my arms bent at the elbows. My fingers form the familiar shape: the index and middle finger finding the thumb on each hand. I whisper quietly to myself, whilst visually checking that everything is switched off, my fingernails clicking together. I do it again. I do it a third time." Amber’s OCD started after the fire in 1992. What other displays of OCD can you remember from the novel? How successful is Amber at hiding it from those around her?
5. What was your favorite twist in the novel?
6. "People say there’s nothing like a mother’s love, take that away and you’ll find there is nothing like a daughter’s hate." How much are the parents of both girls to blame for who their daughters grew up to become? Did you get the impression that Claire’s parents knew what she was capable of in the childhood diaries? Can Amber’s mother be forgiven for taking Claire in and wanting to save her despite how it made Amber feel? "I am the daughter they always had."
7. The color red is mentioned over 60 times in the novel (stolen red pens, red studio lights, red toothbrush, lipstick, traffic lights, wine, blood, and the robin’s red breast are just some examples). What other themes did you spot?
8. "For today’s phone-in, we’re inviting you to get in touch on the subject of imaginary friends… "Were you surprised to discover that Jo was an imaginary friend? When Jo leaves the hospital shortly before Amber wakes up, we never see her again. Why was Amber finally able to let her go at this point in her life?
9. "I can do 'Amber the friend,' or 'Amber the wife,' but right now it’s time for 'Amber from Coffee Morning.'" Don’t we all play different roles in life? Do you behave differently with your family/friends/colleagues? Do you feel able to be yourself with everyone you know?
10. "His success broke him and his failure broke us." Paul and Amber’s marriage is in trouble at the start of the novel—his struggles with his writing, her losing her TV reporter job, and their inability to have a child all seem to play a part. Why are they happier at the end? What "fixes" them?
11. Did you enjoy the nursery rhymes in the book?
12. "I hate hospitals. They are the home of death and regrets that missed their slots." What regrets do you think Amber is referring to when she says this? Do you think any other characters in the novel have regrets?
13. Let’s talk about that ending!
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Britt Marie Was Here
Fredrik Backman, year
Simon & Schuster
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781501142543
Summary
Britt-Marie can’t stand mess. A disorganized cutlery drawer ranks high on her list of unforgivable sins.
She is not one to judge others—no matter how ill-mannered, unkempt, or morally suspect they might be. It’s just that sometimes people interpret her helpful suggestions as criticisms, which is certainly not her intention.
But hidden inside the socially awkward, fussy busybody is a woman who has more imagination, bigger dreams, and a warmer heart that anyone around her realizes.
When Britt-Marie walks out on her cheating husband and has to fend for herself in the miserable backwater town of Borg—of which the kindest thing one can say is that it has a road going through it—she finds work as the caretaker of a soon-to-be demolished recreation center.
The fastidious Britt-Marie soon finds herself being drawn into the daily doings of her fellow citizens, an odd assortment of miscreants, drunkards, layabouts. Most alarming of all, she’s given the impossible task of leading the supremely untalented children’s soccer team to victory. In this small town of misfits, can Britt-Marie find a place where she truly belongs?
Funny and moving, sweet and inspiring, Britt-Marie Was Here celebrates the importance of community and connection in a world that can feel isolating. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—June 2, 1981
• Raised—Helsingborg, Sweden
• Education—no degree
• Currently—Stockholm
Fredrik Backman, Swedish author, journalist, and blogger, was voted Sweden's most successful author in 2013.
Backman grew up in Helsingborg, studied comparative religion but dropped out and became a truck driver instead. When the free newspaper Xtra was launched in 2006, the owner reached out to Backman, then still a truck driver, to write for the paper. After a test article, he continued to write columns for Xtra
In spring 2007, he began writing for Moore Magazine in Stockholm, a year-and-a-half later he began freelancing, and in 2012 he became a writer for the Metro. About his move to writing, Backman said...
I write things. Before I did that I had a real job, but then I happened to come across some information saying there were people out there willing to pay people just to write things about other people, and I thought "surely this must be better than working." And it was, it really was. Not to mention the fact that I can sit down for a living now, which has been great for my major interest in cheese-eating. (From his literary agent's website.)
Backman married in 2009 and became a father the following year. He blogged about preparations for his wedding in "The Wedding Blog" and about becoming a father on "Someone's Dad" blog. During the 2010 Winter Olympics, he wrote the Olympic blog for the Magazine Cafe website and has continued as a permanent blogger for the site.
In 2012, Backman debuted as an author, publishing two books on the same day: a novel, A Man Called Ove (U.S. release in 2014), and a work of nonfiction, Things My Son Needs to Know About the World. His second novel, My Grandmother Sent Me to Tell You She's Sorry, came out in 2013 (U.S. release in 2015). (Adapted from Wikipedia and the publisher. Retrieved 7/23/2014.)
Book Reviews
Britt-Marie is the invisible woman. She’s been that way for most of her life, and her greatest fear is that she will die alone with her body undiscovered for days. Organizing, cleaning, and tending to others is the way Britt-Marie makes herself matter to those she cares about—and, hopefully, make herself visible to them.…The quirky characters are intriguing and engaging although some of their verbal eccentricities threaten to become annoying, and the author resists the temptation to make any of them two dimensional. READ MORE …
Cara Kless - LitLovers
[A] heartwarming story about a woman rediscovering herself after a personal crisis.… [D]etails of Britt-Marie’s character…endear her to the reader. Insightful and touching, this is a sweet and inspiring story about truth and transformation.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Universal.… Backman hits a nice note between overly sweet and hard-boiled fiction; excellent for book clubs.
Library Journal
[I]n Backman’s scattershot community of losers and loners, Britt-Marie’s metamorphosis from cocoon to butterfly seems all the more remarkable for the utterly discouraging environment in which it takes place. — Carol Haggas
Booklist
[T]he novel feels clunky and contrived. …[W]ithout the smart pacing displayed in his previous books, the problem is more glaring here. Fans of Backman’s style…will enjoy what this novel has to offer, but it needed to simmer longer.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. How is Britt-Marie’s character revealed by her interactions with the people in Borg? In what ways do Borg’s citizens change Britt-Marie? Use specific examples to demonstrate your point.
2. Think about the children on Borg’s soccer team: to what extent are they responsible for Britt-Marie’s growth, and how? Does one particular child have greater influence on Britt-Marie than the others? If so, who, and why?
3. Describe the book’s narrative style. How would you characterize it? How does it play into your perception of Britt-Marie, or influence your understanding of events?
4. "She has difficulties remembering the last time she said anything at all, until one day she left him without a word. Because of this it always feels like the whole thing was her fault" (page 151). Communication plays an important role in any relationship, and Britt-Marie’s reflection on her own silence raises a curious point; to what extent do you think Britt-Marie contributed to the unraveling of her and Kent’s relationship with her silence? How much blame, if any, can fall on the shoulders of only one person in these cases?
5. Britt-Marie is a curious combination of strength and assertiveness mixed with anxiety and shyness. How are these seemingly opposing qualities related to each other in Britt-Marie, like two sides of the same coin?
6. How have Britt-Marie’s experiences as a girl and a young woman made her into the woman she is at the start of the novel? Did learning about her childhood change the way you felt about her as a character? Is there a larger message here about forming judgments of people we encounter without knowing their full story?
7. When we first meet her, Britt-Marie seems to be a fairly traditional, conservative person, yet in the course of the novel she is exposed to many issues and situations that previously didn’t enter her life as Kent’s wife. Consider her reaction to Ben’s date with another boy, or her visit to a prison, or her encounter with a masked gunman. How do these moments affect Britt-Marie? What can they tell us about who she is and about the community she’s joined in Borg?
8. Despite its often humorous tone, this book touches on complicated real-world situations and issues like the economic downturn, social class, the state of the modern family, and children’s rights. What impact has the economic downturn had on Borg? Did the novel cause you to think differently about the power of individuals to have a positive impact on their communities?
9. Consider the role of soccer in this story. What does soccer represent to the citizens of Borg, particularly to the children? In a world marked by instability and uncertainty, why is this sport so important to them?
10. Throughout the book, the team that an individual supports plays a role in the way that person is perceived by others and often tells a lot about him or her. Can you think of analogous scenarios in your own life where you have made certain assumptions about a person because of something he or she is passionate about?
11. Why do you think Britt-Marie decides to call the girl from the unemployment office to tell her that one of the children on the soccer team hit what he was aiming for? What does this moment signify for Britt-Marie?
12. "What is love if it’s not loving our lovers even when they don’t deserve it" (page 283). Do you agree with this statement, or does love without limits tend to lead to a relationship like Britt-Marie and Kent’s at the start of the novel?
13. Why do you think that Kent decides to fight for Britt-Marie’s soccer pitch? Do you believe he’s really a changed man?
14. Why do you think Britt-Marie ultimately makes the choice she does at the end of the story? What was the deciding moment, the impetus for her choice?
15. Do you think Britt-Marie will ever come back to Borg?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
The Queen of Hearts
Kimmery Martin, 2018
Panguin Publishing
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780399585050
Summary
A debut novel set against a background of hospital rounds and life-or-death decisions that pulses with humor and empathy and explores the heart's capacity for forgiveness...
Zadie Anson and Emma Colley have been best friends since their early twenties, when they first began navigating serious romantic relationships amid the intensity of medical school.
Now they're happily married wives and mothers with successful careers—Zadie as a pediatric cardiologist and Emma as a trauma surgeon. Their lives in Charlotte, North Carolina are chaotic but fulfilling, until the return of a former colleague unearths a secret one of them has been harboring for years.
As chief resident, Nick Xenokostas was the center of Zadie's life—both professionally and personally—throughout a tragic chain of events in her third year of medical school that she has long since put behind her. Nick's unexpected reappearance during a time of new professional crisis shocks both women into a deeper look at the difficult choices they made at the beginning of their careers.
As it becomes evident that Emma must have known more than she revealed about circumstances that nearly derailed both their lives, Zadie starts to question everything she thought she knew about her closest friend. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Kimmery Martin won her first short story contest in the first grade, and was awarded a red stuffed elephant and publication in the school newspaper.
Her writing career then suffered an unfortunate dry spell, finally broken with the publication of the enthralling journal article Lymphatic Mapping and Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy in the Staging of Melanoma, followed by the equally riveting sequel Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy for Pelvic Malignancies, both during medical school.
Conscious readers remained elusive, however, prompting her to wait another decade or so before trying again. This time, spurred on by a supportive husband and three constantly interfering children, she produced an entire novel.
The Queen of Hearts, exploring the startling secrets in a friendship between a cardiologist and a trauma surgeon, became an instantly beloved classic amongst three of her friends. The novel was published in the spring of 2018.
When not working on her next novel, Kimmery spends her time mothering her slew of perfect children. She’s also occupied with poorly executed household chores, working as a physician, and serving on various non-profit boards in Charlotte, North Carolina.
She exercises grudgingly, cooks inventively, reads voraciously, offers helpful book recommendations, interviews authors, publishes travel articles, and edits her son's middle grade book reviews. Finally, she is a world-class Boggle champion, which most people find to be sexy beyond all description. (From the author's website.)
Book Reviews
Martin leverages her own background as a doctor to great effect throughout.… Martin is equally insightful about many aspects of long-term female friendships, especially the blind spots that they often contain by necessity.… Martin's portrayal of the guilt born of selfishness, of knowing that a past version of yourself was capable of truly monstrous behavior, is also sharp. It's Emma's remorse that tips the novel's final third into darker territory.… But [her] story leads us to a place considerably more painful and, ultimately, affecting.
Angelica Baker - New York Times Book Review
Fans of Grey’s Anatomy are sure to enjoy this new release, a novel about friendship, success, and secrets set amid the day-to-day drama of a hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Southern Living
Martin’s extraordinary sensitivity and empathy shines through during moments of crisis, which draw out the subtle, complex shades of her characters. The novel is emotionally exhausting—partly because of its accurate depiction of the relentless 100-mile-an-hour pace of the lives of working mothers—but ultimately because it tests the furthest limits of forgiveness and understanding.… [A] thrilling read, and a fascinating look into the medical world. It’s an impressive debut, full of warmth and excitement.
Harvard Crimson
Emotional and difficult to put down, Martin’s excellent story of friendship is shrewdly plotted and contains a cast of flawed, rich, believable characters. The realistic and vivid medical angle (Martin is an ER doctor) adds to the novel’s appeal.
Publishers Weekly
Kimmery Martin’s excellent debut novel serves up an irresistible mix of romance, ER drama, friendship and betrayal. Martin, a physician herself, writes in a clear and lively way…. In her hands, dramatic hospital scenes and routine kitchen conversations are equally compelling.
BookPage
Martin’s debut novel, about pediatric cardiologist Zadie Anson and trauma surgeon Emma Colley, is a medical drama executed with just the right balance of intensity, plot twists, tragedy, and humor.… A remarkably absorbing read.
Booklist
A secret from two doctors' pasts may put what they cherish most under the knife: their friendship.… Martin distills medical jargon into digestible metaphors and sets scenes as carefully as her characters scrub for surgery.… A book about female friendships that unapologetically wears its heart on its sleeve.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Did Zadie and Emma’s friendship through the years always make sense to you or were you ever surprised they remained such good friends?
2. We witness both Zadie and Emma in vulnerable moments over the course of the book. Did you relate to one character more than the other?
3. Which of the two women would you most want to have as a friend? And which one would you choose as your doctor, Zadie or Emma? Why?
4. Kimmery Martin’s medical background as an ER doctor helped her to bring many of the hospital scenes to life. Was there anything in this behind-the-curtain look at a working doctor’s personal life that surprised you?
5. What personality traits do you typically expect a doctor to embody? Did Zadie or Emma fit the persona of a doctor in your mind?
6. Is it common for friends to share an interest in the same man at a certain stage in their lives? Have you ever experienced any similar kind of female competition in your life?
7. What do you think Graham brought into Emma’s life that she was missing out on before their relationship? Are there any similarities you can point to between Graham and Wyatt?
8. Dr. X has a few moral transgressions during Zadie and Emma’s medical school years. Which one did you find to be most egregious?
9. Did you connect more with Zadie’s style of parenthood or with Emma’s?
10. What meaning does the title The Queen of Hearts have for you?
11. What effect did keeping such a long-buried secret from her closest friendhave on Emma?
12. How did you interpret Emma’s analysis of her actions? Were you sympathetic with her?
13. How would you personally draw the line on forgiveness when addressing betrayal in a friendship? Would you have forgiven your friend in this instance?
(Discussion Questions issued by the publisher.)
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The Family Next Door
Sally Hepworth, 2018
St. Martin's Press
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250120892
Summary
Small, perfect towns often hold the deepest secrets.
From the outside, Essie’s life looks idyllic: a loving husband, a beautiful house in a good neighborhood, and a nearby mother who dotes on her grandchildren.
But few of Essie’s friends know her secret shame: that in a moment of maternal despair, she once walked away from her newborn, asleep in her carriage in a park. Disaster was avoided and Essie got better, but she still fears what lurks inside her, even as her daughter gets older and she has a second baby.
When a new woman named Isabelle moves in next door to Essie, she is an immediate object of curiosity in the neighborhood.
Why single, when everyone else is married with children? Why renting, when everyone else owns? What mysterious job does she have? And why is she so fascinated with Essie?
As the two women grow closer and Essie’s friends voice their disapproval, it starts to become clear that Isabelle’s choice of neighborhood was no accident. And that her presence threatens to bring shocking secrets to light.
The Family Next Door is Sally Hepworth at her very best: at once a deeply moving portrait of family drama and a compelling suburban mystery that will keep you hooked until the very last page. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—June 10, 1980
• Where—Australia
• Education—Monash University
• Currently—lives in Melbourne, Australia
Sally Hepworth is a former Event Planner and HR professional. A graduate of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, she started writing novels after the birth of her first child.
She is the author of Love Like The French (2014, published in Germany). The Secret of Midwives (2015), The Things We Keep (2016), and The Family Next Door (2018).
Sally has lived around the world, spending extended periods in Singapore, the U.K., and Canada, and she now writes full-time from her home in Melbourne, Australia, where she lives with her husband and two children. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
(Starred review.) [S]earing secrets and riveting realizations. Readers will be sucked in from the first page, as fast-paced …chapters make it hard to put down. With jaw-dropping discoveries, and realistic consequences …not to be missed. —Erin Holt, Williamson Cty. P.L., Franklin, TN
Library Journal
Hepworth deftly keeps the reader turning pages and looking for clues, all the while building multilayered characters and carefully doling out bits of their motivations.
Booklist
Discussion Questions
1. The novel opens with quite a dramatic scene: Essie, a new mother, forgets her baby in the park and panics as soon as she realizes what she’s done. How do you think this chapter sets the tone for the rest of the novel?
2. What was your initial impression of Isabelle and, more specifically, the interactions between Isabelle and Essie? Were you as suspicious of her motives as Ange and some of the other residents of the neighborhood? Why or why not?
3. Throughout the novel, Essie struggles to balance taking care of her children, taking care of herself, and maintaining a healthy marriage. How do you see this balancing act playing out in your own life, or the life of someone close to you? How do you think this struggle shapes the experiences of women in particular?
4. The story moves between the present time and the story of an unnamed narrator in the past. How do you think this structure affected your reading experience? When the unnamed narrator was revealed, were you completely surprised?
5. Fran and Ange use running and social media, respectively, as a way to cope with the stressful situations in their lives. Do you think that Isabelle became Essie’s coping mechanism? Or did she have something else? Are the coping mechanisms the women use healthy or unhealthy, in your opinion?
6. At the core of The Family Next Door are questions about the bonds of the family you are born into vs. the family you choose for yourself. Do you have strong familial bonds in your own life, whether biological or not, and how do they affect the choices you make? Can you see any of your own relationships reflected in the novel?
7. On page 193, Leonie says to Ange, "If you tell yourself enough that life is perfect… somehow, it is." Ange disagrees, thinking, Or maybe you end up living a perfect-looking lie. Which of them do you agree with, and why? Do you believe in the power of positive thinking to create change in your life?
8. Do you think that the events of the novel led to a lasting change in Essie’s neighborhood, or only a temporary one? Do you think the women will be closer now, after their respective familial dramas, or will they still feel distant from each other?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)