Community Reviews
Author Louse Candlish asks readers to contemplate this question: "Could you hate your neighbor enough to plot to kill him?"
Lowland Way is a suburban dream street upon which to live. The houses are beautiful, all of the neighbors get along, and the kids play together on weekends. They've even set up a program, "Play-Out Sunday," closing the road every Sunday so that the neighborhood kids can play in the street together.
Darren and Jodie move into the house on the corner after Darren inherits it from the elderly previous resident. They don't fit in and don't demonstrate any desire to do so. Darren blasts music at all hours with no regard to the fact that the next door neighbors have an infant. Additionally, he begins renovating the property, setting up scaffolding, and appears to be running a business, selling used cars from the front yard. To top it all off, Darren and Jodie are rude and dismissive when the neighbors attempt to lodge their various complaints with them.
The neighbors grow increasingly angry, frustrated, and impatient with Darren and Jodie.
And then a tragic death occurs on Darren's property. It shocks the neighborhood. The police begin investigating -- interviewing everyone who lives on Lowland Way -- and accusations, suspicions, and tempers flare.
Candlish takes readers into a seemingly idyllic neighborhood. However, the facade of perfection cracks quickly and easily when Darren and Jodie arrive. Her intriguing characters include two brothers who live next door to each other, a young married couple with the aforementioned baby, and a divorcee who is trying to hold onto her son by converting her home into a bed and breakfast. Candlish illustrates the fragility of the status quo and how a sense of entitlement can cause otherwise decent people to behavior irrationally in order to protect their territory and their way of life within it. As the police investigate, it becomes clear that everyone is a suspect -- everyone had a motive -- and each neighbor reacts accordingly. Tensions escalate further when, in the aftermath of the crime, nothing changes.
Candlish relates the story from the perspectives of the various inhabitants of Lowland Way in alternating chapters, skillfully keeping readers guessing as to who merely thought about taking matters into his or her own hands . . . and who actually did. Candlish presents unflinching portraits of people who desperately want their lifestyle to remain unchanged and might be willing to take any steps necessary to ensure that "those people" -- the interlopers who have disrupted their peaceful, predictable existence -- suffer appropriate consequences for their nonconformity. Her cast of characters are multi-layered and fascinating, but each is also wholly unlikable in his/her own way and for myriad reasons. The story progresses at a steady pace to a conclusion that is not unexpected but comes about in a thoroughly surprising fashion.
Those People is both entertaining and thought-provoking, and would make an excellent choice for book clubs because its themes lend themselves to discussion.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
Lowland Way is a suburban dream street upon which to live. The houses are beautiful, all of the neighbors get along, and the kids play together on weekends. They've even set up a program, "Play-Out Sunday," closing the road every Sunday so that the neighborhood kids can play in the street together.
Darren and Jodie move into the house on the corner after Darren inherits it from the elderly previous resident. They don't fit in and don't demonstrate any desire to do so. Darren blasts music at all hours with no regard to the fact that the next door neighbors have an infant. Additionally, he begins renovating the property, setting up scaffolding, and appears to be running a business, selling used cars from the front yard. To top it all off, Darren and Jodie are rude and dismissive when the neighbors attempt to lodge their various complaints with them.
The neighbors grow increasingly angry, frustrated, and impatient with Darren and Jodie.
And then a tragic death occurs on Darren's property. It shocks the neighborhood. The police begin investigating -- interviewing everyone who lives on Lowland Way -- and accusations, suspicions, and tempers flare.
Candlish takes readers into a seemingly idyllic neighborhood. However, the facade of perfection cracks quickly and easily when Darren and Jodie arrive. Her intriguing characters include two brothers who live next door to each other, a young married couple with the aforementioned baby, and a divorcee who is trying to hold onto her son by converting her home into a bed and breakfast. Candlish illustrates the fragility of the status quo and how a sense of entitlement can cause otherwise decent people to behavior irrationally in order to protect their territory and their way of life within it. As the police investigate, it becomes clear that everyone is a suspect -- everyone had a motive -- and each neighbor reacts accordingly. Tensions escalate further when, in the aftermath of the crime, nothing changes.
Candlish relates the story from the perspectives of the various inhabitants of Lowland Way in alternating chapters, skillfully keeping readers guessing as to who merely thought about taking matters into his or her own hands . . . and who actually did. Candlish presents unflinching portraits of people who desperately want their lifestyle to remain unchanged and might be willing to take any steps necessary to ensure that "those people" -- the interlopers who have disrupted their peaceful, predictable existence -- suffer appropriate consequences for their nonconformity. Her cast of characters are multi-layered and fascinating, but each is also wholly unlikable in his/her own way and for myriad reasons. The story progresses at a steady pace to a conclusion that is not unexpected but comes about in a thoroughly surprising fashion.
Those People is both entertaining and thought-provoking, and would make an excellent choice for book clubs because its themes lend themselves to discussion.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
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