The Neighbor - Lisa Gardner
Originally published at Nightfalling. Please leave any comments there.
I’ve only read/heard 1 other by Lisa Gardner (Hide) and I’ve enjoyed both. As far as I can tell, this is the book following that one but you don’t really need to read 1 to follow the other. It’s just the same characters; the events are self standing.
In this, a beautiful young mother and wife disappears and the husband is the prime suspect. There are plenty of others however including the neighbor, a 20-something sex offender, the wife’s estranged father who comes back into the picture conviently right after her disappearance, setting his sights on taking guardianship of her 4 year old daughter, and even a possible lover no one knew about.
I didn’t feel like the detective work in this one was as strong as Hide. They pretty much narrowed in on the husband and didn’t really explore anyone else, even though there was plenty of evidence. And then the twist at the end throws things and they STILL are interested in the husband.
The audio performance of this one is better than most, as was Hide when I listened to it. There are 3 readers - 1 who acts as the missing wife/mother, 1 who is the sex offender next door neighbor, and 1 who’s an overall narrator. This is a good listen.
