Book Review: SOMEONE WE KNOW by Shari Lapena

Title: SOMEONE WE KNOW

Author: Shari Lapena
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
Read: July 2019

Expected publication: 30 July 2019

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2

Book Description:

"This is a very difficult letter to write. I hope you will not hate us too much. . . My son broke into your home recently while you were out."

In a quiet, leafy suburb in upstate New York, a teenager has been sneaking into houses--and into the owners' computers as well--learning their secrets, and maybe sharing some of them, too.

Who is he, and what might he have uncovered? After two anonymous letters are received, whispers start to circulate, and suspicion mounts. And when a woman down the street is found murdered, the tension reaches the breaking point. Who killed her? Who knows more than they're telling? And how far will all these very nice people go to protect their own secrets?

In this neighborhood, it's not just the husbands and wives who play games. Here, everyone in the family has something to hide . . .

You never really know what people are capable of. 

My musings:

Do you enjoy books where a character makes one tiny bad decision, and that little fluttering of butterfly wings sets into motion a giant shitstorm that sets about to destroy everything in its path? I may have a little sadistical streak because I love those type of stories. I feel like settling down with a bag of popcorn and just watch it all go up in flames. Maybe it’s just that it instantly makes me feel better about the comparably small disasters in my own life! Well, if you appreciate this special form of entertainment, then you are in for a treat, because Lapena is a master at making her hapless characters stumble blindly from the frying pan into the fire without pausing for breath.

To be fair, it’s a teenager who sets into motion this particular undoing, and teenagers are renowned for making rash and often unwise decisions. Raleigh, an up-and-coming computer hacker, thinks it would be great fun to sneak into people’s houses whilst they are away to do some snooping around on their personal computers. Ha, you say – yes, I immediately spotted the potential as well! The premise is just asking for some skeletons to crawl out of someone’s search history! But it gets even worse for Raleigh when the wife of one of his targets gets murdered. From here on, Lapena sets out to spin a clever and captivating web that had me read this mystery in almost one setting (if not for life and work I would not have wanted to put this down).

SOMEONE WE KNOW relies heavily on neighbourhood dynamics and the terrible decisions people make in everyday life that will have devastating consequences. It’s a lighter mystery that will appeal to readers who do not like too much gore or tension in their books, even though the suspense built to such a crescendo that I had to find out how it would end! There were lots of suspects and everybody lies, which made this a fun mystery to try and solve – I am quite proud that I worked out one suspect quite early in the piece, but was not prepared for all the twists and complexities that developed in the later part of the book.

If you are looking for a lighter but nonetheless addictive and clever mystery this summer (or winter, if you live in Australia like me), then this book should definitely be on your TBR pile.

Thank you to Edelweiss and Pamela Dorman Books for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.