The Couple Next Door is a well-crafted thriller which concerns Anne and Marco, a couple who leave their baby at home on her own when the babysitter cancels and continue to go to a party next door, with terrible consequences as they discover that their baby is gone when they go home. They have not been totally irresponsible: they check on her regularly and carry a monitor with them – but still, she is taken.
The book then deals with finding out what has happened to Cora, and Detective Rasbach is the person in charge of getting to the truth, a man of insight and determination but also, sympathy.
As with all good thrillers, the plot unfolds carefully and tensely, each nugget of information about the characters, their relationships, the events of the evening and the possible motivations for any of them to take Cora adding an extra aspect to the story and more questions for you as the reader to ponder, and Rasbach to reveal answers to. In this, the execution and revealing of the detail, Lapena is very accomplished, the right pace set to encourage further reading and guessing.
There are secrets from the past that resurface as well as family tensions and a hint of money trouble. As Lapena uses third person narration, we get to see into the consciousnesses of Anne, Marco and Rasbach during the course of the book so we, as readers, are aware of their thoughts and, in particular with Anne and Marco, their fears, insecurities, dislikes and desires.
This all leads to an ending which is explosive and raises, in some ways, more questions, although the disappearance of Cora is resolved. However, if I’m honest, the ending felt strange – I can see why Lapena chose to do it but it almost creates a furtherance of the story, which will never be revealed. Which brings me to the title of the book: I am a little curious as to why Lapena chose to call it this really and you may ask yourself the same question as you read it. It is difficult to discuss in this review as to do so would reveal the story too much but it is a curious choice – maybe because that is where all the action of the book started: with the Contis going to the couple next door to their party…
Find out for yourself.
Scuffed Granny 