Chilling tense best kind of thriller had me hooked from the first pages.A twisty turning story a book I didn’t want to put down. # netgalley #kensingtonbooks

Just how well do you know your neighbors? As Garrett and Olivia Lockwood, reeling from a marriage crisis, move into their new home on The Avenue, the police are just removing a body from the woods behind the neighborhood. It’s not the first body either. There’s a serial killer, known as The Doll Maker, loose in the area and he/she is using the woods as a staging area.

Garrett’s dreams of flipping the house for profit and of finding a new job soon evaporate as the murder investigation escalates. Olivia grieves for her lover and takes out her anger on her family. Aster, their teenage daughter, looks for new friends while her brother Evan explores the new house and the nearby treehouse. DC Wildeve Stanton, harboring a deeply personal reason to solve these crimes, must rely on her intuition and fights interference by her fellow officers. Events move from the past to the present as the killer narrates his viewpoint. Neighbors are introduced, subplots begin, blind alleys and red herrings proliferate as this crime thriller rushes to an unseen yet satisfactory conclusion.

The first chapters of The Family Next Door move slowly as characters and plot are established. However, the action quickly picks up and pulls the reader in. You won’t be able to put it down. 4 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley, Kensington Books and Fiona Cummings for this ARC.

This book was good, definitely not the best thriller I have ever read but I wanted to see how it ended. The beginning is very slow and I had a hard time getting into it. It did eventually pick up and I did want to see how it ended.

I received this ARC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for allowing me to read an ARC of The Family Next Door.

The beginning of the book was all over the place and hard to keep track of what was going on. About half way the story picked up and started to come together. This was just an okay thriller.

A family moving in to their new home, police bringing out a dead body from the woods beyond. Not a good way to be introduced to the neighborhood. The murders are gruesome, the characters are plentiful. A good read.

Garrick and Olivia are making a fresh start out of London. The house is lovely and architect Garrick is already full of ideas to make it better. They could never have afforded such a house, but then no one is exactly clamoring to purchase Number 25 The Avenue. Maybe it has something to do with the murders in the park behind the house. 

The day they move in they see a body being removed. Not a good omen for a couple whose marriage is on the rocks and one of them is still hiding a secret!

Their children aren't thrilled with the move but the daughter is a teenager and not happy about anything. Their son who is nine is curious about the old treehouse at the back of their property and what he finds there will put his own life in danger.


Someone doesn't want Garrick digging around the cellar. And killing again won't bother them in the least.

This was a really well-done mystery/thriller. I was absolutely sure I knew who did the deeds. I was wrong. On both guesses! Wow! I did not see that ending coming!

Well Done!

NetGalley/January 28th, 2020 by Pinnacle Books/ Kensington

This book wasn’t for me. Not chilling enough or gripping. Not the strongest thriller I’ve read. The description drew me in at first.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

This is an amazing crime fiction who done it book that gripped me from the first few pages. I could not put this book down and the book twists and turns and keeps you guessing right until the end. With many suspicious characters you just can't pinpoint who the killer is which is one thing I loved about this book.
A fantastic read I highly reccomend!

This book started slowly and I really struggled to get into it. I eventually gave up. Sorry, this one isn't for me

This is the first book I have ever read by Fiona Cummins and all I have to say is wow!! It had me hooked from the very start and as a result I had it finished within 24 hours. There were so many twists I had no idea how it was going to pan out. It kept me guessing right to the very end. I will definitely be reading more books by this author.

A chilling, gripping and entertaining read that kept me guessing till the end.
I liked the fast paced plot, the solid mystery and the well thought cast of characters.
It's the first book I read by this author and won't surely be the last.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

I was disappointed when i read this book--I was expecting a more subtle form of horror. more in the style of Shirley Jackson or Susie Moloney. Instead the intensity of the descriptions were too graphic. I do not like detective- centered novels which is a personal quirk. So overall, I did not care for The Family Next Door.

Garrick and Olivia Lockwood couldn’t have afforded to buy number 25 The Avenue if the bodies had not been discovered in the woods behind their home.

But they figured, once the crimes were solved and they had finished remodeling, they would sell for a profit.

The moving van packed with their furniture and their hopes arrived-accidentally clipping the Rhododendron bushes...

Excerpt: “But as the heat trembled in the air around them, this family had no idea of how they would come to pray that 25 The Avenue had remained a blurry photograph on the real estate agent’s website, and no idea that by the end of the summer, their lives would be as scarred as the stem bleeding sap onto the concrete.”

Yes, the serial killer dubbed “The Dollmaker” is terrorizing this neighborhood, painting the faces of the victims, brushing their hair, and gouging out their eyes with a scalpel and replacing them with glass replicas...

To me, this book is a mixture of CRIME and HORROR, but despite many of my friends LOVING it, I struggled with the very descriptive writing like the excerpt I shared above and just felt a disconnect the whole time.

If that type of writing did not bother you, I think YOU will find the book more satisfying.

Originally published as “The Neighbour” the name was changed for the US release, but since I read another book titled “The Family Next Door” (Sally Hepworth) this past year, I don’t think this title was any better!

I would’ve called it Number 25, The Avenue...but, they didn’t ask me! 😏

Available January 28, 2020.

Thank You to Netgalley, Pinnacle and Fiona Cummins for the digital ARC I received in exchange for a candid review!

This book is a slam dunk with chills, shocking twists, originality, and mystery. I very briefly had a hard time finding my reading groove with how the chapters are told by different characters, but it all works in keeping the mystery going. I kept thinking I knew who was killing people in a small town and leaving them in the woods behind a street called The Avenue, but I was wrong more than once.

4.5 stars, and I highly recommend to anyone who is in the mood for an original take on a serial killer in a small town.

Thank you to author Fiona Cummins, Pinnacle Books, and NetGalley for an ARC.

Rating: 3.5 Stars
The beginning of the book was quite slow and looked like it was another boring thriller. Then things started picking up and I wanted to find out what happens next. I guessed the whole story at the 77% mark, but it was too interesting to leave unread by then.
The story of a neighbourhood reeling from a spate of killings by a serial killer known as The Doll Maker. When a detective becomes one of the victims of this killer, his wife has no choice but to find out who among the residents of The Avenue is the real killer, and what, if anything, would it take to stop the killer from claiming more lives.
Thank you Net Galley and Kensington Books for sending this advanced copy of the book in return for an honest review.

I could not get into this book. I read about 15% and had to stop. The storyline is tedious and odd with very little dialogue. Life is too short to read a boring story.

The Family Next Door (aka The Neighbour) was like a breath of fresh air after a stuffy room full of run of the mill thrillers

There is a serial killer on the loose dubbed The Doll Maker who has been removing the eyes of his victims, replacing them with glass eyes and painting their faces to resemble a doll. DC Wildeve Stanton has more reasons than most to find the killer, but can she trust her instincts or are her emotions clouding the investigation.

In need for a new start, the Lockwood family has just moved into their new home at 25 The Avenue when another body is discovered in the woods by their house. There is a lot of unrest in the neighbourhood and it seems everyone has something to hide.

This book told from multiple perspectives, definitely hooks you from the start. I loved every character in this book and the story as a whole. From the sinister atmosphere and creepy vibes, the secretive neighbours and plenty of red herrings along the way, this was a great read. Rounding down because the story did jump a bit, especially in the beginning, which was a bit confusing and distracting 4.5⭐️.

I'm honestly not sure what to say about this book.

The first 20% was all over the place, and I was feeling pretty frustrated. But then things started coming together, and I was engrossed. The red herrings were good, each and every one with dark secrets of their own. I thought to myself frequently, "This is one effed up neighborhood." About halfway through, I suspected who the killer was, and was ultimately proven correct. At that point, unfortunately, the story lost some of it's urgency for me.

There was something about the writing, too, which bothered me. I can't put my finger on it exactly, but I think, ?maybe?, it was the lack of cohesion. So many new characters were introduced, and instead of giving some sort of background on each, their chapters would start in the middle of one of their thoughts. I was frequently floundering around trying to figure out who in the bloody hell this person was. I'm sure it was an intentional technique to foster confusion in the reader...and it definitely worked!

The conclusion was okay. I can definitely see people being surprised.
Recommended to those who enjoy the thriller/suspense genre.

**Many thanks to the publisher for providing my review copy.

Well, that was certainly a dark, graphic and harrowing. read! The writing is excellent, and the mystery simmers in the beginning building to a heartbreaking reveal. The plot was complex, confuted and rather confusing until you settled in and let Cummins take you through the story and the pacing until it began to make sense. I did not guess the killer until I read the last few pages despite the myriad of red herrings thrown out to cast doubt on all the neighbors. At one point I actually speculated that the whole street was in on it. It’s an adult thriller which expects the reader to stay glued until the end - well with the journey.

Definitely a psychological thriller that will have you in suspense until the very, very end!
People are being murdered!
Who is doing this? What is the motive? Who will be next?
You never know what secrets are in the neighborhood you live in, but eventually people will find out!
This is intense and although slow in the beginning, stay with it! You will be looking around your own home by the time you read the last page!