Although I read tons of mysteries, somehow I had never read one by Lisa Jewell. I found her book to be well-written and read it quickly.
Joey returns to Bristol with her new husband Alfie and shortly after her mother’s death. Her older brother Jack invites Joey and Alfie to move into a guest apartment on the third floor of a beautiful Victorian painted house in the quaint neighborhood of Melville Heights. Joey finds an ordinary uninspiring job in a children’s party house and soon begins to wonder if marrying Alfie was a mistake.
Since Melville Heights is a small neighborhood, everyone seems to be watching everyone else. Several of the women seem to be fascinated by Tom Fitzwilliams, the school principal who is frequently transferred to “fix” failing schools. His son, when not in school, sits in the attic of their house and watches and takes photos and writes down all the happenings of all the neighbors.
We “watch” the happenings in the neighborhood through multiple viewpoints; the author also incorporates transcripts of police interviews of the strange people who live in that area. The more we learn about each character, everything seems even creepier.
Joey returns to Bristol with her new husband Alfie and shortly after her mother’s death. Her older brother Jack invites Joey and Alfie to move into a guest apartment on the third floor of a beautiful Victorian painted house in the quaint neighborhood of Melville Heights. Joey finds an ordinary uninspiring job in a children’s party house and soon begins to wonder if marrying Alfie was a mistake.
Since Melville Heights is a small neighborhood, everyone seems to be watching everyone else. Several of the women seem to be fascinated by Tom Fitzwilliams, the school principal who is frequently transferred to “fix” failing schools. His son, when not in school, sits in the attic of their house and watches and takes photos and writes down all the happenings of all the neighbors.
We “watch” the happenings in the neighborhood through multiple viewpoints; the author also incorporates transcripts of police interviews of the strange people who live in that area. The more we learn about each character, everything seems even creepier.