Author: Claire Douglas
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Format: Kindle ARC
No. of Pages: 393
Date of Publication: February 17, 2026
My Rating: 5 Stars
DESCRIPTION:
You know your neighbours are plotting a crime but no one believes you . . .
When Lena helps her teenage son gather sounds for his media studies project, she doesn't expect her boom-microphone to pick up a conversation between her neighbours, the Morgans.
And she’s certain they are planning a crime.
Her family and friends tell her that she must have misheard. After all, the Morgans are a well-respected, upstanding couple in their early sixties. They’ve never been in trouble with the law.
Yet Lena can’t stop thinking about it. Because what if she hasn’t misheard? What if she can prevent something awful happening?
After all, stopping it could help ease her conscience about her own dark past . . .
First published March 13, 2025
MY THOUGHTS:
Lena is a divorced mom simply helping her son with a project. He has borrowed recording equipment from his college for a project that includes capturing various sounds. One night while recording, Lena hears something that just does not seem right, something quite suspicious. What Lena hears is a conversation between her neighbors, a conversation that makes her certain that there is a crime about to be committed. Playing the recording again truly convinces her.
However, Lena has trouble convincing those around her that things are just not right, so she takes it upon herself to investigate. Who are her new neighbors anyway? For one thing, although they are an older well-respected couple, Lena just can’t let it go. What’s more is that Lena realizes the oddest of coincidences. One of her clients at her job asks her to help locate his sister. It doesn’t take Lena long to connect what she heard and what she learns from her client.
With her quintessential style, Claire Douglas will undoubtedly entertain her readers. This is just the story to pull you in right from the start, with suspense and tension that won’t let you go. For myself, I felt like I wanted to keep hearing the recordings alongside Lena. There’s more to Lena than her curiosity. There is the fact that she is at a crossroads in her life, having a strong sense of sadness and emptiness. While what she hears on the recordings leaves room for possibility, her loneliness might seem to make things a bit more fantastical.
With multiple points of view, and some interesting timeline changes, The New Neighbors is a riveting story with sharp twists that will shock you to the very end.
Many thanks to Harper Perennial and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
Her second and third novels, LOCAL GIRL MISSING and LAST SEEN ALIVE (Penguin), are Sunday Times bestsellers
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