Claire Douglas has come up with a plot that will resonate with readers. After all, haven’t we all, at one time or another, been suspicious of our neighbors? Strange noises or visitors may raise concerns. We may even have been tempted to listen at their door or look through their mail. Chances are we never found anything criminal. But what if we had? How would we react?
Hopefully, not like Lena whose curiosity has her sneaking into the home next door. Separated from her husband, Charlie, and living with their teenage son, Rufus, Lena works part-time at Citizens Advice, an agency that helps people navigate job problems and difficult living situations. Perhaps boredom leads to Lena poking into other people’s business. She nearly loses her job when she gets personally involved with Drew, who has been searching for his missing sister. But it’s her interaction with the new neighbors, Marielle and Henry Morgan, that sets in motion a situation that spins out of control.
Rufus has been taking a film course and creating a library of ambient sounds. One evening he asks Lena if she can help by using his equipment to record outdoor noises. Using his mike, she manages to do that – and more. She captures Marielle and Henry planning what could be a kidnapping. Lena still has a spare key for the house entrusted to her by the previous tenants. When the Morgans go away for the weekend, they ask if she wouldn’t mind keeping an eye out for their home. Lena takes advantage of their absence to go into the house. What she finds produces even more evidence that the Morgans are up to something.
A whole wall in one of the bedrooms is filled with clippings about an adoption ring, kidnappings, and missing women. Lena recognizes a woman in one of the photos. When she was training to become a midwife at St. Calvert’s Maternity Hospital, Lena worked with Simone Harvey, a slightly older woman who quickly took the younger woman under her wing. Lena learned that Simone was having an affair with one of the hospital’s doctors, Hugh Warrington. She was also warned by one of the other nurses not to trust Simone. Two tragic events at the hospital lead to Simone disappearing and Lena abandoning her studies to be a midwife. Lena has no success reaching Simone, but she does find her brother, Oliver, who says Simone has been missing for over a year.
Turns out that Drew’s sister Sarah, once worked with Henry, who was a surgeon and may have known Warrington. When Lena sees the Henry and Drew arguing outside the Morgan home, she wonders if the elderly doctor has something to do with not only Sarah’s disappearance, but also Simone’s. That recording leads Lena to believe the couple may be planing another kidnapping. Can she stop them and find out what happened to Sarah and Simone?
Douglas’ narrative bounces between people – Lena, Henry, and another woman named Natalie. In 1986 London, we learn how Henry and Marielle met and got married. Shifting to 1999, we find Lena and Simone at the maternity hospital. Pieces are slowly revealed that help us fit together the puzzle in present time.
The main characters are intriguing, but it’s Lena who holds our interest. Every time she thinks of going into the Morgan home, we know she’s taking a risk, possibly winding up as another missing woman. The supporting characters, good and evil, keep the pages turning. Douglas manages a surprise or two until a satisfying end.
The New Neighbors
Claire Douglas
Top Bigstock photo by tab62
Our editors love to read and independently recommend these books. As an Amazon Affiliate, Woman Around Town may receive a small commission from the sale of any book. Thank you for supporting Woman Around Town.
