I requested an ARC of Neighborhood Watch after reading the description of the book. I was intrigued by the dark humor/murder mystery premise of the novel. Overall, I was so impressed -- I loved the setting, loved the characters, and loved the plot. I truly could not put Neighborhood Watch down!

This was an excellent book. It is set within a fancy suburban neighborhood full of wealthy, unlikable, outlandish characters. The likable characters are few and far between. And a couple of characters who are meant to be likable are rather insufferable for most of the book.

I enjoyed the over-the-top elements in the book (who will wash the smoothie maker now?!) and the mystery. This book is a modern, dark, snarky version of the Agatha Christie book And Then There Were None...sort of like that book mixed with the Desperate Housewives TV show and the Death And Other Details TV show. And maybe some non-gory, Stephen King-like horror mixed in. I mean all of that as a compliment and in the best way possible.

I am knocking this down one star because one of the murder mystery elements (motive, means, and opportunity) could have been stronger in my opinion. I correctly guessed the killer early on, but the guess was based on instinct rather than clues for a good portion of the book. The mystery was fair.

I recommend this book to people who enjoy contemporary mystery, thriller, and suspense novels with diverse and strong female characters. I would read more from this author.

Thank you Turner Publishing Company for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

In Neighborhood Watch, readers are transported to the affluent enclave of Oleander Court, where a captivating mystery unfolds amidst the backdrop of wealth and privilege. The initial intrigue sets the stage for a thrilling narrative, drawing readers into a web of secrets and deception. While the storyline may falter in pacing around the 70% mark, the richly developed characters and intricate plot keep readers engaged until the very end. Despite the early revelation of the killer's identity, the novel maintains an air of suspense, with twists and turns that keep readers guessing. The abundance of characters and backstory adds depth to the narrative, immersing readers in the intricacies of life in Oleander Court. Overall, Neighborhood Watch offers an entertaining and suspenseful read, making it a worthy addition to the mystery genre.

This was a really fun whodunnit! I picked this book because the description said “for fans of Desperate Housewives”, which is one of my favorite shows, and I was not disappointed! I’m always down for juicy drama!

There are A LOT of characters in this book, which provides an array of personalities, but I had a bit of a hard time keeping them all straight. Trying to remember who is married to whom, which couples have kids, etc was a little difficult for me!

I am not typically great at predicting the bad guy in these types of mysteries, but I had it figured out right away. I really liked the story but I was a little bummed that the “villain” was so obvious for me!

Overall, this was a really entertaining, fast paced mystery and I thought it was fun.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Turner Publishing for the gifted copy!

This book was a quick and entertaining read.
I absolutely love suburban thrillers, and this one has everything, well except a map. I love when books have maps. Still, this story of a killer terrorizing a swanky neighborhood is absolutely worth the read.
The characters were great and it took me a while to figure out too. Read this book!
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

3.5 ⭐️’s

Life is about to change in the upscale neighborhood of Oleander Court. A killer is on the loose and none of the residents are safe. As suspicions are raised and secrets unfold, it soon becomes clear that there is a method to the killers madness. When one of their own (Ray) is arrested for the murders, some breathe a sigh of relief while others are sure there has been a mistake. Many scatter and several homes are now listed for sale, far below the market price of just a few short weeks ago. A small group have remained and have banded together to solve the case before it’s too late for Ray. This was an entertaining read, but with the crossover of so many characters, it had small areas of repetition and some storylines felt unfinished. It was easy for me to figure out the killer early on and this one was much more of a domestic drama than a thriller. Thank you to Turner Publishing Company and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

This selection is another example of why everyone should have a ride-or-die, NetGalley addicted book bestie like Shelby in their life. <i>Neighborhood Watch</i> was her most recent recommendation to me. She said to ignore the ugly cover and go request a copy pronto before reader copies got pulled from NG and since I am her minion I did exactly what she asked of me. And I do agree the cover is fug, but put “neighborhood” in a title and Imma be down to clown.

The story here is about Wysteria Lane . . . errrr, I mean Alpharetta, Georgia, but I"m telling you this puppy was soooooooooooooooooooooooooo <i>Desperate Housewives</i> - fully of rich beetches in their McMansiony hood. Everyone is up in each other’s bidness courtesy of the local “book club” – and then the body count starts rising. Good news is they all had it comin' to 'em.

Talk about a chef’s kiss of poolside perfection. Add this to your summertime stabby TBR for sure!

All the Stars.

<i>Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley!</i>

This was an enjoyable story about rich people behaving badly and the consequences some of them must face. I found the multiple perspectives confusing at times since there were so many of them and I figured out the killer fairly early, still the book kept my attention.

I loved this book! Originally, I picked it up for the cover but quickly became obsessed with the story. Ray was my favorite character ❤️ I need everyone to read this!! I had an idea of who the killer was and my suspicions were confirmed.

'Something so perfect can only hold for so long until it falls apart.'

Set in Oleander Court, an exclusive and privileged community where neighbours meet up for regular book clubs, openly and not so openly judge each other's houses, style and lives, and hire the help to do just about anything and everything from organising closets to childcare, a string of murders shakes the community.

I usually find books told from many different points-of-view hard to follow (and this had more points-of-view than any other book I've read), and this was no different, however, it was redeemed by a host of quirky, exaggerated characters. There was a mix of catty, superior women, everyday families and ones who came off as somewhat mysterious. I enjoyed their interactions and how each interaction revealed a bit more about their personality and background, often with humour thrown in.

I guessed who the killer was fairly early on, but it didn't take away from the experience. It was a fun murder mystery with insight into how the other half live.

Deliciously snarky and fun. Someone is bumping off rich people in an exclusive Atlanta suburb -- but only the ones who are jerks (which sadly, is not just a few).

It has to be someone in the neighborhood, and as the body count increases, the suspect pool decreases. Some of the neighbors are decent folks, but they have more than their fair share of shallow, narcissistic, racist, homophobic jerks.

Who is safe? And who is meting out justice?

A fun and suspenseful read. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was gooood! Imagine trash tv coming to book form.

Snooty suburbia in Alpharetta GA. I can picture the exact subdivision in my mind because I had an ex-brother in law that lived in one. Perfection in describing the setting.

Then the characters. Most of them are some high class butt holes. There are a few exceptions but even they have secrets.
Then it gets real juicy when people start getting murdered and their secrets start coming out.

AND the author even did something I love. She knew that magistrate judges in GA can't do a murder bond.

Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.

Did you enjoy the show Desperate Housewives? If so, you must add Neighborhood Watch to your To Be Read list. It had a similar feel, with an exclusive, wealthy neighborhood full of good and bad people, and so much salacious gossip...and murder! The chapters were told from the viewpoints of several of the neighbors, and I enjoyed each one. I loved learning a little of their back story, and reading about how they lived now. Some of them were truly terrible people, but I even enjoyed their viewpoints, and the murder scenes were on the fun side instead of scary, if that makes sense. I had a pretty good hunch about who was doing the killing, but I changed my mind a couple times, and I wasn't positive until closer to the end. Even figuring that out did not ruin this fun book. I will say the ending was not realistic in many ways, which is why I docked it a half star, but that didn't bother me because I enjoyed it all so much.

4 1/2 stars rounded up to 5, and a huge thank you to NetGalley and Turner Publishing Company for allowing me to read an ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

Wow, I enjoyed the heck out of Sarah Reida’s Neighborhood Watch. This delightful humorous domestic mystery/thriller pulled me right in. The upscale neighborhood of Oleander Court may to be a slice of paradise, but don’t be fooled. This neighborhood is filled with all array of interesting characters, each with their own secrets. And you can forget that old expression ‘love thy neighbor’. When it comes to the residents of Oleander Court many of them harbor deep-seated resentment if not flat out hatred for their neighbors. And when people start dying the real fun starts! (That probably sounds bad, lol, but it’s true). I understand that this is Sarah Reida’s first foray into adult fiction and I’d say she knocks it out of the park. I might never look at my neighbors the same way again, lol. Thanks so much to Turner Publishing Company | Keylight Books and NetGalley for the chance to read and review an Arc of Neighborhood Watch.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/neighborhood-watch-sarah-reida/1142468890?ean=9781684429646&bvnotificationId=5f7d50b6-f106-11ee-9ef0-12478c3c84db&bvmessageType=REVIEW_APPROVED&bvrecipientDomain=gmail.com#review/275752460

Oleander Court in Alpharetta, Georgia is a sought-after and exclusive neighborhood outside of Atlanta. The people who live there are all very wealthy, though very diverse. This is your typical story about a neighborhood dealing with a killer, but kicked up a notch with amazing characters and wry humor.

The chapters are written from different neighbors’ perspectives, people like:

-Adelaide, a struggling actress, and her surgeon husband William
-Laura and Pete, parents of two and the newest to the neighborhood
-Faith, the neighborhood babysitter/housekeeper/organizer
-Jade, a health food influencer
-Helen Beecham, a famous artist who is now a widow
-Pam, the HOA president
-Ray and Juliet, wives who are both lawyers
-Soon-Li and Tran, quiet Vietnamese parents
-Beverly, the requisite racist older lady
-Tracey, a harried housewife, and Connor, her philandering husband
-Bambi and Marv, a trophy wife and coffee tycoon, and
-Tripp, an attorney, and his abused wife Sandy

When I say these people are characters, I mean CHARACTERS! Some you’ll love, some you’ll hate, but I promise you’ll be invested in all of them. They really took this book to another level. Then we get to the murders…one by one, residents are being killed. Jasmine Avenue is now being called “Murder Avenue”, and the neighbors are all looking at each other with fresh eyes. Who among them is a killer?

I did figure out who the killer was, but if I had been wrong, it wouldn’t have surprised me - there were so many ways the story could have gone! The writing was great, with a touch of black humor that gave this a different tone than regular old neighborhood thrillers. Many the people in Oleander Court were both funny and endearing, and the rest were awful humans whose deaths you will enjoy. 4.5 stars, rounded up for being the author’s adult mystery debut!

(Thank you to Keylight Books, Sarah Reida and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)

Thank you NetGalley for the copy - this was such a fun mystery!

Rich people become the hunted in this cozy, upscale, tight-knit neighborhood. As these crazy, evil neighbors begin to unravel the who-dunnit, it becomes clear this is a murderer with a personal vendetta.

Each character was wild in their own way and the murders were so absurd that this book captured every emotion I can have when reading something dark, but sarcastic.

I loved this and couldn't look away, even though characters were not likeable. Super fun, easy read however, if you like a challenge, this isn't it for you - I called the murderer from the first half of the book.

This book is so much fun! A murder mystery with more than a bit of snark, some social issues deftly woven in, and characters you love to hate (with a few good apples you love to love).

Oleander Court is an enclave for the rich and (mostly) obnoxious. A residential area harboring the self-involved or worse (often much worse). Someone begins killing off residents in this "perfect," generally placid neighborhood, one at a time. Why? Is there a pattern? Who will be next, and how will the deed be done? Is it only the obnoxious ones getting picked off? Who can possibly be the murderer?

Reida does a couple of quite wonderful things to introduce us to everyone. There are many "key" characters, so how will we keep them all straight? She employs two inventive devices. She begins the novel with a party of many of the neighbors, where each is described and acting out their personalities, plus backhanded gossip about some. So we get a great introduction to characters. After that, the next part is a veteran of this neighborhood taking a new resident on a walk, talking about each of the residents as they pass houses. A splendid and easy "shoehorning in" to this tale. She also will continue the book by having each character introduced in bold as their parts of the story (what they are doing, thinking) come up. So although multiple POVs, it works seamlessly. I wonder if her background as a children's author helped her to think of all of this. Works for me! I utterly loved how easy it was to devour this book.

There's nothing subtle about the characters; they are painted with broad strokes (the incredibly annoying HOA president, the "Did you know they're lesbians?!" gal, the blonde bimbo starving herself, etcetera). However these exaggerated stereotypical caricature-like figures work very well here, and are quite amusingly drawn. FYI, there are no blacks in this mainly white place, but there is Latino, Asian-American, LGBTQ+ representation, and an elder. Rieda does a fantastic job of weaving commentary into the story about the issues these folks are grappling with, with no heavy-handed political correctness.

I saw in reviews that many figured out the killer sooner or later (but all said they enjoyed the story in spite of that). I myself am not at all good at this sort of thing, and had NO clue!

So to sum up: Reida keeps a great balance between tension and humor, addresses transphobia, classism, racism, domestic abuse, ageism with no heaviness, and skewers the rich while keeping one well entertained. I enjoyed the ending (set up for the next in a series? I agree with several other reviewers that this could make a great TV series too). It's a fine adult genre debut for the author.

My thanks and appreciation go to Key Light Books, Turner Publishing, Sarah Reida, and Net Galley for allowing me to read and objectively review this ARC.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

Neighborhood Watch is a darkly humorous and suspenseful mystery that explores the secrets and lies of a seemingly perfect suburban community.

Sarah Reida, who has previously written middle grade books, makes an impressive debut as she steps into the adult / mystery / domestic psychological suspense genre with this clever and witty novel.

The story follows the residents of Oleander Court, a neighborhood with manicured lawns, high property values, and impeccable taste.

However, each resident has secrets, but which secret is worth killing to hide (an extramarital affair, gambling addiction, or a shady past)? When a series of killings rocks the neighborhood, and only the obnoxious residents are knocked off by a serial killer who lives in Oleander Court, neighbors turn against each other as each one attempts to determine who they can trust (if anyone).

Reida does a great job of creating a diverse and colorful cast of characters, each with their own voice and personality. She balances the humor and the horror of the situation, making the reader laugh at the absurdity of the suburban lifestyle, while racheting up the tension of also impending danger. The plot is fast-paced and full of surprises.

Neighborhood Watch is a highly entertaining and engaging read that will appeal to fans of Desperate Housewives, Big Little Lies, and Gone Girl. It is a smart and satirical take on the dark side of suburbia, where nothing is as it seems and everyone has a motive.

Thank you Netgalley and Turner publishing company for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.


Neighborhood watch is about a place of rich and affluent people living in a likewise society named oleander court.

This started out great. I was quite invested in the story but in about after 70 % book started dragging. I was able to figure out the killer from the very start but then the explanation given for how killer killed all the people in oleander court is funny and unreal.

We are talking about smart and rich people, even though some might be dumb, no one is dumb enough to die like the way they died. And even after 2 murders, when 3 more murders happened that made it even more unreal because everyone was spooked.

Also there are no clues at all. Given who the killer is, he/she leaving no clue makes her a planned murderer which he/she wasn't really.

Murderer was killing on impulse rather and without any clues felt too far fetched to be true. There's really only one clue towards the end which makes it clear who the killer is exactly. Also killer's reasons to kill felt petty and poor attempts to sound reasonable. From that one can say that killer was not of sane mind but given the tone of the book, the killings has been justified which makes it totally wrong.

There are too many characters to remember. I was so confused at many times when new character came up and I just couldn't figure out who was who. And Soon Li felt like a main character, I don't know why her story ended in such a way when author made us all invest in her life as well.

In my personal opinion, some backstory is important in mystery thriller novels but in neighborhood watch I felt that too much time was spent on it for many characters which make it slow and boring especially when you are experiencing a thrill of having read another murder which really slows down the narrative. I skimmed lot many pages because I wanted to know who the killer is. Where the clues are to find the killer. I was totally disappointed there.

Overall an okay read.

Title: Neighborhood Watch by Sarah Reida
Publication Date- 04/02/24
Publisher- Turner Publishing Company
Overall Rating- 3 out of 5 stars

Review: Review copy given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately this one started out strong for me but around the 40 percent mark I lost interest. Let’s talk about the strengths first. Neighborhood Watch is a hilarious commentary on wealth and privilege, pointing out the ludacris things people complain about and use their money for. Honestly, that aspect was a 5 star for me. There were times where I was literally laughing out loud. Now, shortly after the spark of that wore off, I didn’t enjoy the mystery element as much. For some reason there was no pull for me to pick this back up and after almost two weeks of forcing myself to read it I decided I would DNF. I do think there are people who will enjoy both the mystery and the satire. I would say go into this knowing it’s a slow burn and a character study. Do not go in expecting a thriller. This book as a lot to offer, I hope you give it a chance.