The Downstairs Neighbor was a riveting British mystery, where the real twists and turns came from those involved to thought provoking effect. It centers around a big house divided into three apartments in London, and let me tell you, not a single person of the seven living there are whom they seem to be!

There's Chris and Vic, who live in the bottom flat. He's a driving instructor, she's a nurse, and it seems like Chris is having massive doubts about their relationship. She seems not to notice or care.

Next is Em and Seb. She's into fashion, and has just had to close her shop. Seb has just left her. Neither of these things seem like mystery fodder but they are. They so are!

Then there's Freya, Paul, and Steph. Paul has a dull but well paying job, Stephanie is beautiful and a high flying* customer rep who works out of Heathrow (*couldn’t help it!) and Freya is their gorgeous teen daughter who, as the novel opens, has disappeared with Chris being the last to see her.

Freya's disappearance is definitely part of the book but a small part, because as The Downstairs Neighbor races along, it turns out that every person in the house has at least one secret, and some of them...wow!

There are so many twists here and what I liked is that they all worked! Every reveal felt genuine, not forced, and the layers to them kept coming to the very last scene. And it was fascinating (and so well done) to see how all the revelations conected, how The Downstairs Neighbor is really, at its core, a psychological thriller about hiding parts of yourself. We all do it, but the seven characters here take it to very extreme (and deadly) places.

I also thought The Downstairs Neighbor had a lot to say about the justice system. Though the book is set in England, its criticism of the legal systems are definitely, absolutely applicable in the United States as well, from how poorly and prejudicial police can conduct investigations to the arrests and trials and how justice isn't always served well or fairly, right down to a look at how and why the side of "the law" can try to hide wrong they've done.

I thought The Downstairs Neighbor would be a good British thriller and it definitely is but it's also a collection of fascinating character studies and an intense and searing look at the injustices of the justice system and those things end up what makes The Downstairs Neighbor so fresh and surprising. This is definitely smarter and more thought-provoking than your average thriller and is absolutely worth checking out!

With lots of moving parts and timelines, <i>The Downstairs Neighbor</i> will keep you on your game. Three families live in a sprawling house. Upstairs, there is Steph and Paul with their 17 year old daughter, Freya. Downstairs, living in the small apartment below them is Emma, a former shop owner. In the garden apartment is Chris, a driving instructor and his wife Vicky.

One day, Freya leaves for school and never returns. She was last seen by Chris, after their driving lesson, dropping her off at school. Or was she?

Everyone’s a suspect in this novel and everyone has secrets. Paul is not just the quiet data processor everyone thinks. And Emma also has secrets of her own she’d rather everyone forget. But time is running out and no one can find Freya.

Cooper’s novel has multiple narrators and timelines, which may be a bit confusing at first. But once you start reading, you are truly immersed into the world of the characters and each ones desperate attempts to do whatever it takes to make it out alive and keep their secrets intact.

Comparisons to Lisa Jewell are hard to live up to in my book, but I enjoyed this twisty thriller pretty much. A nice, quick read.

Ugh. Synopsis is solid. This was good. The story moved along nicely interweaving characters into a solid story. Problem is, while the author tried to wrap everything up at the end it all really fell apart for me. What had been plausible no longer was. Also, it went on and on for far too long. I'm all for knowing how everyone ends up but this just wore on to the point I thought of not finishing even though there was less than 10 percent remaining. Editing, editing, editing. I appreciated being granted the ARC of this book from Netgalley/GP Putnam and Sons. I would like to see more from Helen Cooper in the future.

Wild neighbors make wild stories. This was indeed a wild story. Once Freya disappears, you find out that there is all kinds of weird stories about everyone. This was a great book and you get hooked quickly.

I enjoyed this thriller with its twists and turns. Did not like the characters much. I think the title should have an S at the end, since it is about a few neighbors. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

I wanted to like The Downstairs Neighbor more than I did but it was just too much. Too many secrets from too many different people and too many coincidences, too long a book, and none of the characters were likable as human beings so I didn’t care what happened to them.

The entire book is predicated on every single character making catastrophically stupid decisions in an effort to keep things secret that shouldn’t have been secrets.

I always struggle with books or visual media that have this as their basis because it’s just so annoying. TALK TO EACH OTHER for crying out loud. Communication is such an easy concept but hard in action I guess. So for me, the book immediately drops down because of that. We had all sorts of random side stories that really didn’t need to be part of the drama, except the author needed to have reasons for characters keeping secrets. While I understand it, I don’t particularly love it.

That said, I still enjoyed the overarching plot enough to finish this fairly quickly. It was fun seeing what happened to Freya, although I’m a little upset that the people who wronged someone else most egregiously didn’t get their comeuppance. True to life I suppose, but still left be grumbling.

If you are looking for a suspenseful read that you’ll never guess, this ones for you.
Definitely keeping an eye on this author!
Thank you NetGalley!

Ultimately, I liked this book. I kept thinking that I had figured out the connections between each perspective, but time and time again I found that I was wrong - something that I love in a mystery. It kept me on my toes. However, it read really long. Despite being of an average length page wise, it felt like I was reading a 500+ page novel. Granted, I think that may be a symptom of my holiday brain, but it made it harder for me to pick the book back up again each day.

One reason I sort of hate reading books like this is that when I'm finished, I'm afraid I won't be able to find another book as good. "The Downstairs Neighbor" switches from character to character with each chapter. Paul and his wife, Steph, live on the top two floors with their teenage daughter, Freya, the single Emma lives on the first floor and Chris and his wife live in the basement of a three-unit apartment building. Chris is Freya's driving instructor, but other than that, the tenants enjoy only a passing acquaintance with each other. Also included in the alternating chapters is a character named Kate, whose story takes place 25 years before the present time. The story begins with the disappearance of Freya,. Despite the usual teenage drama, Paul, Steph and Freya were a strong and bonded family unit and Freya's absence is devastating. Paul and Steph's pain is intensified by feelings of guilt each has for secrets from their past lives which they have never shared with each other. Steph turns to Emma for information, comfort and assistance, which Emma provides, but we learn that Emma has problems of her own. Chris also has secrets of his own, and as the last person to see Freya before her disappearance, the police immediately take an interest in him. The story is like an onion - each chapter peels off another layer of the lives of the characters until in the end there is nothing left to hide and the truth is revealed. This book is so well-written that by a third of the way into it, I felt I knew each character and could actually picture them in my mind. The dialogue was realistic and natural. There were no "boring parts" to skip over. I read this book while eating and instead of watching TV and finished it in two days. This is definitely one of the best books I have read this year. I would also like to add that it was flawlessly edited, and that means a lot.

A teenage girl goes missing and everyone in the apartment complex has secrets they want to keep hidden. Steph and Paul seem to have a perfect life, until their daughter Freya, disappears. When the police ask if they have an enemies, the truth might be surprising. Neighbor Emma never has had much to do with them, but finds herself drawn into their ordeal. Driving instructor and neighbor Chris gave Freya driving lessons and was the last one seen with her - what does he know about where she went? When everyone has a secret, everyone is a suspect. This was a story that kept up multiple suspects only to surprise you with a new reason why someone could have done something to Freya. There was a lot going on to keep the reader constantly guessing.

The Downstairs Neighbor is an excellent thriller, one I won't soon forget! I was captivated by this story. How everything unfolds so delicately and precisely is perfection! I was flipping the pages, gasping, and finding myself being consumed. I loved this book and can't recommend it enough!

The Downstairs Neighbor by Helen Cooper is a thrilling tale of three London-based families with secrets. How well do you know your neighbors? How well do you even know your own family?

The upstairs family is a wholesome threesome of Steph, Paul, and daughter Freya. The middle family is Emma and Zeb, while the downstairs family is Chris and his partner Vicky. They each have their own stories to tell, but their lives collide as Freya turns up missing. This thriller has it all: murder, theft, blackmail, and lies!

The pace was quick. There was no reiteration of content. The characters are all interesting. I seriously couldn't put the book down.

Best story I've read since The Heatwave by Kate Riordan which was about six months and ten books ago.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Any fan of Megan Miranda or Lisa jewel is in for a new favorite author. This was one of the best written mystery stories I’ve read this year. Characters that you care about in a story that turns them inside out! Highest recommendation

I had a difficult time getting into The Downstairs Neighbor. Each chapter is told from one character's perspective, and some jump back 25 years. I just couldn't get into the story. I had a difficult time getting into the story with the multiple character perspectives and the jumping timelines.

The story revolves around a missing child and the secrets each character is hiding. The story details felt formulaic and didn't hit the mark for my taste for a mystery/thriller.

#TheDownstairsNeighbor #NetGalley

I'm somewhat torn on this book. It's absorbing, well-written, and the characters are deeply developed. And who isn't swept up by the emotional reverberations of a missing child? It's told in a variety of voices, and in two time frames, but each character is unique and fully three-dimensional and though it's not clear for some time how the past and present connect, it's easy to time-jump and hold it all together. But . . .

The plot depends on every major character hiding a dark secret from their loved ones, and none of them have ordinary, boring lives. With four families shaped by deep dark secrets all intersecting It began to feel a bit contrived and as if we were taking notes for a sermon on the theme of how important it is to be honest with your family. The pile=up of people withholding information and everyone suffering as a result became a bit too much for me and began to feel manipulative.

That said, the writing is lovely, the characters are distinctive and for the most part believable even if they're doing daft things, and the pacing never drags. Shame the plot demanded that some characters weren't allowed to be more human and less dramatically fallible. It's like eating a meal with great ingredients and beautiful presentation but too much seasoning.

This is the first Helen Cooper book I have read and I really enjoyed it. So many twists and turns. The ending - didn't see that coming. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the Advanced Copy. Definitely a novel that thriller/suspense fans will love.

Wow, what a great book. This is a get you the first few pages story. I was up till 4am reading this book!!! Many twists and turns the story takes. Makes one wonder about their own neighbors and town. Does everyone have a history they do not want others to know about? I will be recommending this when it comes out. Great story!!!