"Melville Heights is one of the nicest neighborhoods in Bristol, England; home to doctors and lawyers and old-money academics. It’s not the sort of place where people are brutally murdered in their own kitchens. But it is the sort of place where everyone has a secret. And everyone is watching you."


-This book, my god this book was amazing! I could not put it down and finished it in 1 sitting. Watching you is a suspenseful, psychological thriller novel that will pull you in! If you love a good murder and hate neighbors this is the book for you! Very gripping and fast paced story.

I tried giving this book a go a few times over the year, but wasn't able to make it work. I think this book will be great for people newer to the thriller genre, but personally, the beginning was a bit slow for my taste. I truly believe this is a matter of personal preference, and not the book. Thank you for the early copy!

This book had several independent storylines that tied into the major plot. It starts with a murder of an unknown victim and begins telling each independent storyline. Tom Fitzwilliam is a husband to Nicola, father to Freddie, and the new headmaster at the local school. Jenna Tripp is the daughter of a single mom who is incredibly paranoid that she is being "gang-stalked" by none other than Tom Fitzwilliam. She remembers Mr. Fitzwilliam from a family holiday years ago, which makes her sense that he's hiding something. Joey, aka "Red Boots," is a newlywed who just moved in with her brother and his wife. She develops an infatuation with Tom Fitzwilliam that could ruin her life. All of these storylines could be quite confusing, but Lisa Jewell does a fantastic job of weaving them all together in the end.

I love Lisa Jewell's books and typically read them in a day or so. This one had a lot going on and took a bit longer to get through. 3.5 stars because it all tied up nicely at the end.

In Lisa Jewell's Watching You, the whole neighborhood knows what everyone else is doing. The setting is Melville Heights, a posh neighborhood that has become famous for the bright colors of all the houses. Freddie is a teenager obsessed with documenting everyone's departures and arrivals; Tom is the new headmaster at the local school who may have a few secrets he'd rather not reveal; Joey is newly married, but perhaps not happily so; and Jenna is a student at Tom's school who is hoping no one will notice how ill her mother has gotten.

Alternating between two timelines, the discovery of a murder and the events leading up to it, the reader is kept on the edge of her seat wondering not only who did it, but also who is dead. This book was a fun, fast read that I couldn't put down. Having just moved into a new neighborhood, this novel certainly made me wonder who was around me and how much they can see in our house. This was a book club choice and we had more than enough to discus about the characters' motivations and about the plot twists and turns. This is my first Lisa Jewell book, but I'll be reading many more.

This was a good domestic thriller. I wasn't sure who had done what until the very end and even at the very end it was a bit of a twisty finish. Jewell is a very talented thriller author so I was excited to read this one and can't want to get to her next one. I thought all the characters were well developed and you could really picture them!

While this was an interesting story, it wasn't my favorite by Lisa Jewell. The story did have some good twists & turns, and I was surprised by the ending, but I felt like it had a lot of build up & lagged a little bit in parts for me (compared to other good mysteries/thrillers I've read recently). There were some great characters in this that creeped me out, but it ultimately fell a little flat for me.

Another winner from Lisa Jewell! Listened on audio and read some of the ebook and was hooked from beginning to end. Learning how everyone’s lives were intertwined in this story was my favorite part. I will be recommending this to friends of mine who like suspense/thrillers.

Watching You was not the book for me although I know that many others loved this book. Lisa Jewell usually does not disappoint.

https://wellread1.blogspot.com/2019/11/watching-you-by-lisa-jewel-no-spoilers.html

Lisa Jewel's 2018 Watching You is a fantastic murder mystery in a small British town. The narrative alternates between short police interviews that take place a short time in the future and the actual story as it plays out. It's a bit difficult to describe without giving the whole plot away, but I will say that there was a kind of "twist" that truly surprised me and a zinger in the last sentence that was a real stunner! It's kind of fun to get to literally the last sentence and be stunned!

The school head (I think like the principle?), Tom Fitzwilliam, as charmed almost every woman and girl in town, but occasionally he'll creep out the ladies with a "wolfish" glance that hints at some nefarious interiority. Tom's son sits in his bedroom window spying on the neighbors and teenage girls, photographing everyone and tracking their movements in a notebook. Neighbor Joey has a hot, cuddly husband but also a crush on Tom.

It's sort of the perfect mystery novel - keeps you guessing, easy to keep track of the characters - a very clever twist that had me flipping back to the beginning of the book the moment I collected myself at the end! Highly recommend!

Nota Bene: I've also read her The Girls in the Garden - and at least based on these two books, Jewel doesn't seem to obsess on the details of the destroyed female body for her novels, which all-too-many people do. I appreciate not having to wade through what feels like obsessive, masturbatory glee in the violence acted upon women. She's not ignoring violence against women, just not resorting to the objectification of women that you often find in mystery novels.

I definitely dig the story written in reverse. It adds a new element to the plot, especially with the large number of characters that all play their role in this novel. This is a fast paced novel, I found myself getting sucked into the perspectives of each character and unable to put it down until I figured it out. Lisa Jewell is definitely making her mark in the genre of psychological thriller.

RATING: 3 STARS
2018; Atria Books
(Review Not on Blog)

I really enjoyed Jewell's [book:Then She Was Gone|35297426] so I was excited to start her newest novel. I finished this one, but it was a bit tough. From the beginning you could see where this novel was going, and I hung in there to see if I was right. Even when you know what the ending is sometimes it is the journey that holds the story together. I could not get connected to the characters and could not get into the story. Had I not enjoyed my first Jewell novel, I may not have tried so hard to finish this one. I would try another novel by Jewell.

***I received an eARC from NETGALLEY***

Lisa Jewell has quickly became one of my favorite go to authors for domestic suspense thrillers. Beautiful Melville has everything going for it but there is always someone watching you. What you may think does not tie you to someone, maybe does. There are a lot of characters with story lines but as you get further into this twisty mystery you will see how they make sense. It is written from several POV which adds even more to the mystery of this neighborhood. Settle in and grab some tea, this mystery will have you questioning your neighbors and your windows.

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley. This book had me from the very beginning. I love that it kept me engaged the entire time. I couldn't wait to see how it ended. I would highly recommend to all my fellow readers. Thank you for the chance to review this book!

Oh my geeze this book had me from the beginning. I loved it and definitely reccomend it. I loved all the POVs and the twist at the end. I didn't really care for her sister in law but I now know why I didnt.

This was such an interesting, yet creepy read. There were definitely shady characters and the ending was vague, but great. Highly recommend this book.

-Description-
A neighborhood woman is brutally murdered and the cast of crazy characters surrounding it are what this book is all about. As a reader, I spent the book trying to figure it all out!

-Thoughts-
1. First, I love a book with various viewpoints. This was done so well. These characters were flawed and interesting and crazy....which I also love. Some of the outlying people were pretty one demential...but that’s understandable.
2. The flow was really well done. The author had me guessing. I did guess who the murderer was, it wasn’t a huge surprise or anything. But I was surprised by the flip that was revealed about the husband and wife duo. (See...no spoilers!)
3. The believability of it was ok. I had a hard time believing that people could recall little details like buttons and watches years and years after they occurred.

-Rating-
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

-Similar Recommended Reads-
The Silent Patient
We Were Liars
It Ends with Us

Melville Heights is a charming village in Bristol England. Victorian painted houses are home to doctors, lawyers and esteemed educators. Overlooking the Avon river, Melville Heights provides a serene environment to its residents.
Why then is there a dead body lying in a pool of blood in the kitchen of one of these painted houses? Lisa Jewell will unfold the mystery as she introduces us to the large cast of Watching You.
Tom Fitzwilliam is a well respected educator brought to Melville Heights to fix a failing school. He has been successful in prior schools. His socially inept wife Nicola spends most of her time trying to keep in shape. You can most times find her at the gym or out running. Their teenage son Freddie spends his time after school in his room using high tech binoculars to watch his neighbors. He recounts his findings and thoughts on his computer.
Joey Mullin and her husband Alfie have recently moved in with her brother Tom and his wife Rebecca. Joey is unsure of the future of her marriage. The offer of a place to live is a welcomed gift.
Tom, a successful surgeon, is seldom home. Rebecca, working on her computer in her closeted office, doesn’t complain.
Jenna Trip is a student at Fitzwilliam school. Unlike the locals, Jenna doesn’t trust him. She questions the attention she gives to her best friend. Jenna’s mother suspects that she and Jenna are being spied upon and attempts to prove it.
Lisa Jewell spins these characters in and out of each other’s lives in an effort to disperse who among them has the dark motive for watching. You will receive clues along the way but be sure to question everything. Remember reality is all perspective. Question everything.
I enjoyed Watching You. I changed my mind about several characters several times as I read along. I do think the ending was too neatly tied up. Take the time to delve into Watching You and watch what happens. I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley. #Netgalley #WatchingYou

Creepy, deliciously creepy. I love thrillers, but this one had me turning pages so fast. I couldn’t stop reading! I loved all of the twists and turns!

So I’ve recently discovered that I am a huge Lisa Jewell fan, and I’m devouring her books as quickly as I can (in a day or two), and Watching You was no exception. I loved the diversity of the characters, thought the setting was very realistic (well described without being boring), and thought the plot was superbly twist and turny. Every time I thought I had it figured out, I didn’t (until 5 minutes before it was revealed when my brain was shouting “I knew it!” Heads up, brain: you didn’t). I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on more of Jewell’s books!

Watching You by Lisa Jewell may well be her best novel to date. Jewell is often referred to as a mystery author and while many of her novels have to do with mysteries and crime, she is a novelist who writes character driven tales of people whose secrets and past impact the pivotal moments in their present lives and the consequences that follow. Consequences that end up with death.

"...It's an innocuous room, bland even. A kitchen like a million other kitchens all across the country. A kitchen for drinking coffee in, for doing homework and eating breakfast and reading newspapers in. Not a kitchen for murdering someone in.
But there, on the floor, is a body, splayed face down inside a large, vaguely kidney-shaped pool of blood. The knife that had been used is in the kitchen sink, thoroughly washed down with a soapy sponge. The attack on the victim had been frenzied: at least twenty knife wounds to the neck, back, and shoulders. But little in the way of blood has spread to other areas of the kitchen-no hand prints, no smear, no spatters-leading Rose the conclusion that the attack had been unexpected, fast, and efficient and that the victim had had little chance to put up a fight..."

In Bristol, England, Melville Heights is one of the best and most sought after neighborhoods to live in. It is home to lawyers and doctors and professionals from all walks of life. It is not the kind of neighborhood where people are brutally murdered in their own kitchens. But Melville Heights is the kind of place where good people live with old and dark secrets. Melville Heights is the kind of place where people are always watching each other.

Tom Fitzwilliam is the headmaster at one of the local schools with a reputation of turning struggling schools into institutions of higher learning. Unfortunately Tom has another reputation, that of a man who encourages young women to become infatuated with him. Living in Melville Heights with his teenage son and much younger wife, Tom is garnering plenty of attention from young women and even some of his students as well.

One of the young women who find Tom so appealing is Joey Mullen, a newly married neighbor who finds herself in lust with this older man. She thinks she is hiding her desire well but Tom's son, Freddie, an aspiring stalker in his own right, has noticed Joey. There is also Jenna Tripp, a student of Tom's who lives on the same street, who is convinced that Tom Fitzwilliam is not the wonderful man everyone thinks he is. That there is something horrible going on between her teacher and one of his students.

What none of them are aware of is that twenty years prior, another young school girl had written about her desire for her teacher Tom Fitzwilliam in her diary and that this girl had ended up dead.

As a reader, we often come across novelists whose work we enjoy so much that we start to hunt down and devour all their prior novels and then when we have done that, eagerly wait for the next morsel to come along. Too often, not all the novels are on the same level as the ones we fell in love with, and became such raving fans of the writer for. Even more rare, is the novel that is levels above the prior work. The novel that demands to be read and loved. The novel that leaves the fan, who thought they knew the author and her work so well, blown away.

Watching You is that novel.

Each character is on a journey and each one has great and terrible moments of discovery. About others and about themselves. The narrative of the story is driven by multiple characters as they weave a history around the strange events that led to the corpse stabbed to death in the Fitzwilliam home. Several of the characters have a motive to kill and Jewell is masterful at diversion and feints as the reader is led down path after path and when you are sure you know who the killer is, you are left with a sense of wonder as to whether you are sure of anything about the mystery at all.

With Watching You, Jewell has taken her craft to the next level and as a fan, I am excited for what is next to come!

A really good read!