Those People by Louise Candlish
The Blurb:
FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF OUR HOUSE, WINNER OF THE CRIME & THRILLER BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 'One of this summer's most anticipated thrillers' Stylist 'Scarily plausible' Observer 'Guaranteed to have you vibrating with impotent fury … a carefully crafted psychological thriller’ Laura Wilson, Guardian ‘A feverish atmosphere is built up, with Candlish again skewering the peccadilloes and prejudices of her middle-class characters’ Sunday Times MEET THE NEIGHBOURS YOU'LL LOVE TO HATE Until Darren and Jodie move in, Lowland Way is a suburban paradise. Beautiful homes. Friendly neighbours. Kids playing out in the street. But Darren and Jodie don't follow the rules and soon disputes over loud music and parking rights escalate to threats of violence. Then, early one Sunday, a horrific crime shocks the street. As the police go house-to-house, the residents close ranks and everyone's story is the same: They did it. But there's a problem. The police don't agree. And the door they're knocking on next is yours. 'You're in for a treat!' Lisa Jewell 'Prepare to be gripped; Those People is nail-bitingly tense from the first page to the last. Louise Candlish shows us the dark side of suburbia – and of ourselves' Erin Kelly ‘Sharp satire and a plot that builds to a roiling boil with a couple of oh-so-clever final twists in close succession: Louise Candlish is one very clever writer’ Sarah Vaughan 'Beautifully modulated and terrifically suspenseful' Washington Post ‘Twists aplenty, and such wonderful observation - I loved it' Clare Mackintosh 'An addictive, twisty page-turner about the neighbours from hell that will give you nightmares about the suburban dream' Alice Feeney 'A delicious slice of suburban noir. I loved it' Harriet Tyce 'Candlish is a master at peeling away the veneer of middle-class respectability, and utterly nails the trials of living cheek-by-jowl with awful neighbours. You’ll be asking yourself, “How far would I go?”' heat 'Candlish shows us, through multiple points of view, how Booth’s boorish presence causes sleep-deprived couples to bicker hatefully and grown siblings to become enraged with one another, until the whole community seems to turn on itself - with fatal consequences' Wall Street Journal 'A smart and twisty tale about a murder in a seemingly idyllic neighbourhood. Oozing with scandal, it's a compelling read' Woman & Home 'A devilishly good thriller about smug middle class house price obsession with a wicked ending. Loved it' Laura Kemp 'Utterly gripping' RED 'Lowland Way is a sought-after place to live, with friendly neighbours and real community spirit, that is until the Booths move in. The other residents are up in arms, but how far will they take things to restore their peace? A read that will make you rejoice for nice neighbours!' Prima 'Louise Candlish captures the mores of middle-class life and our worst, curtain-twitching tendencies like no one else' RED, online 'Full of marvellously toxic characters' Best 'Candlish has a keen, satirical eye for social hypocrisy, and she skilfully explores the tensions that the situation exposes in her entitled, privileged characters with compassion and nuance. An unsettling, darkly funny, artfully composed novel about the way we live now' Irish Times
About Louise Candlish:
WINNER of British Book Awards 2019 Book of the Year - Crime & Thriller for OUR HOUSE Hello and welcome! I am the author of thirteen novels, a fact I can't quite believe myself. My thriller OUR HOUSE has sold over 200,000 copies in the UK and won the 2019 British Book Awards Book of the Year - Crime & Thriller. It was shortlisted for the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award 2019, the Capital Crime Amazon Publishing Best Crime Novel of the Year Award 2019, and the Audible Sounds of Crime Award 2019, and longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and the Specsavers National Book Awards 2018. A #1 bestseller in paperback, ebook and audiobook, it was picked as a Book of the Year by the Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, Real Simple, the Guardian, the Daily Mail, the Sunday Express, Red and Heat. It was Waterstones' Thriller of the Month for September 2018. OUR HOUSE is now in development for a major TV series with Red Planet Pictures, makers of 'Death in Paradise.'
My Review:
Those People by Louise Candlish is a great story about Those People who we all know. You'll find them on every street. It's a tale of a street, Lowland Way, where all the neighbours get on well, a little too well for comfort. In an effort to restore the community spirit that was commonplace during a bygone age, to make the place a safer place for the children, they campaigned against the council's plans to turn the street into a rat-run, and for a 'Safe Play' Sunday, when the road would be closed so their children could play hopscotch on the street to get them away from tablets and screens for a few hours. These nice sentiments were supported by a closed residents Facebook Page and WhatsApp group, with the occasional residents meeting. All a bit too cosy and suffocating, but they meant well. Enter the neighbour from hell, who inherits Number 1 Lowland Way, who is too busy repairing beaten up old cars, and making lots of loud noise to pay heed to the residents sensitivities. Parking, noise, and the fact that Number 1 soon becomes an eyesore become issues. The neighbours do not handle the situation very well and things go seriously out of hand, dividing the community and causing much marital and family disharmony. If you like domestic noir, what more could you want? It's a brilliant tale with more twists than you could throw a corkscrew at.
