Karen Cleveland's "The New Neighbor" was well worth reading. For the first half of the story, I wondeted if Beth, the CIA case officer and protagonist, had lost her sanity. But shortly after, the plot begins to fold over on itself and twists left the Ii s reader breathless. It''s a very good spy thriller, and I should know (I wrote the bestselling "Spies Lie" series, under the name "DS Kane)..

Thanks Netgalley for a copy of THE NEW NEIGHBOR .
The new neighbor was an interesting read, had a couple of twists and turns that surprised me. Quick read love to read more by Karen Cleveland.

The New Neighbor is a mystery with an interesting concept. I give it two stars because I was curious to the outcome but found myself scanning pages through areas bogged down with meaningless content. I would not describe this as a thriller, the pace was too slow and the characters fell flat. Upon finishing the story, I didn’t care what happened to the characters and I did not care for the ending.

Two stars – It was OK, I finished the book but it lacked substance.

Thank you NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, and Karen Cleveland for the electronic ARC.
#NetGalley #TheNewNeighbor

If you want an edge of your seat thriller that never lets up, I HIGHLY recommend this book! This is my first book by our author and what a pleasant surprise it was! Will for sure be checking out her other books, both past and future. .Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for a review.

This was a creepy, suspenseful novel about a woman CIA analyst who has devoted most of her career to hunting an Iranian spy who appears to be tunneling into her DC/Langley neighborhood by turning American citizens into spies! Beth Bradford loved her neighborhood. She raised her 3 children there and has made very close friends with the other families on her cul-de-sac, especially the other moms. Taking her youngest child to college is the beginning of the end for her 25 year marriage, as instead of selling their family home and downsizing with her husband, she finds that he has sought younger pastures. And to add insult to injury, she has been removed from her raison d'etre', the search for "The Neighbor." Being demoted to teaching new recruits and no longer having her phone calls answered by her prior coworkers makes her all the more determined to find "The Neighbor", even if it kills her. She starts to suspect all her old neighbors, as well as the family who bought her old house! Lots of Red Herrings made this a fun read. I do not usually enjoy spy-type novels as the technical jargon makes me feel dumb, but Ms. Cleveland gives us just enough knowledge to be able to enjoy the ride. I had to re-read the last chapter, it was such a whirlwind. In a good way. I received the ARC of this book from NetGalley and the author, but all opinions are my own.

A fantastic, fast-paced thriller you won't want to put down. Be prepared to read this in one sitting! Karen Cleveland has done it again. Her book"Need to Know" was one of the best debut novels I've ever read. This is her fourth and she has not slowed down. You'll find yourself in Beth's shoes, trying to figure out which neighbor is "The" Neighbor, and there are plenty of red herrings along the way. I would give it more than 5 stars for that ending alone. Did not see that coming!

If, like me, you read a lot of mystery and thriller novels; you’re well aware of the subgenre of “cozy” mysteries: a protagonist, usually female, stumbles over dead bodies (always free of gore) in the everyday course of business. Cooking is a favorite profession, so are crafting and bookselling. It’s a classic case of willing suspension of disbelief – after all, Crabapple Cove, Maine, is unlikely to have a higher murder rate than Chicago, Bogotá, or Mogadishu. Even with that in mind, though, today’s book is a new subgenre for me; something I call the "cozy spy thriller."

Meet Beth Bradford, heroine of Karen Cleveland‘s fourth novel, The New Neighbor.

Beth’s nest is suddenly empty: the youngest of her three kids is off to college, the Bradfords have closed the sale on their suburban cul-de-sac home, and – wouldn't you know it – hubby Mike has split to live with the stereotypical hot young secretary. Cliché much, Mikey? Worst of all, when Beth returns to the CIA office from which she’d spent the last couple of decades chasing an Iranian spymaster and his wily U S asset, “The Neighbor,” she learns that she’s been locked out and sent offsite to teach analysis to newbie agents. What a let-down…

Unable to drop the search that had consumed her for so many years, Beth worms her way back into the data and learns that the spy recruiter apparently lives on her old cul-de-sac in MacLean. Desperate to solve the case, she goes rogue; uncovering former neighbors she considered friends who’ve been “turned.” Neighbor by neighbor, she uncovers a dastardly plot that would cripple the agency… all the while getting ever closer to the real Neighbor. Will she find the culprit in time to save the day? Will she be shocked by the revelation? Yes, and yes. Of course.

Cleveland, herself a retired CIA analyst, concocted an incursion into the CIA’s inner workings worthy of a scriptwriter for “Mission Impossible,” a fragile network of remotely-controlled activities that would require some sort of clairvoyance to construct. With one's disbelief suspended, however, it’s an ingenious plot. Bradford’s methodology of uncovering that plot, unfortunately, is more hit-or-miss.

It’s almost painful to watch the woman work house by house up her old street, finding every one of her former neighbors (all of whom work at the CIA in some capacity or other) has been turned by The Neighbor. Some have been blackmailed, most have been given stacks of cash over lo, these many years.

Cleveland’s plot ultimately disintegrates in a couple of details. First, The Neighbor was originally turned by the bad guys for lying to the CIA on a routine background check. The lie, frankly, was about a fact that The Company should have known about before even asking a question. Second, the CIA knew The Neighbor was on Beth’s cul-de-sac because of an attempt to turn yet another neighbor with a video of him stumbling around drunk. In the video, the subject says, “Well hi, neighbor!” but can’t remember who was filming him. Yeah, sure.

Last, in order to construct what has to be described as an elegant plan to crawl inside the CIA’s computer network, someone needed to know not just the departments where Beth’s neighbors worked but also their physical locations and small details of the building’s infrastructure. It seems to me that the operation had to be controlled by someone well up the food chain at Langley; something Bradford (and Cleveland) never seemed to consider.

Overall, I thought the Mission Impossible plot was well-thought out, but the plot holes I mentioned above really dragged down my score. As a result, Cleveland’s latest just gets an average score from me, three stars out of five.

[NOTE: I received an ARC of The New Neighbor in exchange for my honest review.]
copyright © 2022 scmrak

I enjoyed this fast paced thriller. At times, I got bogged down with some of the spy lingo. But overall, it was a great read that kept me guessing.

I requested to read and review this book from Random House. This book had some many twist and turns. The ending was shocking! I could have never predicted how it was going to end. I hope the author comes out with a follow up book about this book The Neighbor. Beth thought she had it all until she didn't. Can she prove herself not just to herself but to others. The cul de sac families have a special bond or so you think. Can you really know the people around you family or friends? Can someone but so right about something but also be so wrong. Can two people who don't like each other work to make sure people are safe? This book is for any type of reader and can be read anywhere.

I have read Karen Cleveland's other books and have loved them all. This one does not disappoint. It was so hard to put down once you get into it. I never would have guessed the ending and I highly recommend buying the book when it is published.

This book was good, not my favorite but good. I enjoyed the story and the plot. Thought the author executed it well!

Thank you to Ballantine and NetGalley for granting me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book had me questioning how much information I should be giving my neighbors. I was lining up the suspects left and right. Everyone was guilty of something. No one could be trusted.

I was perplexed and kept turning the pages in suspense until the very end.

Cliffhanger....

There had to be book 2.

Karen Cleveland first baffled me in Need To Know a number of years ago. I have really enjoyed each novel since then. Cleveland has a way with storytelling and words and writes an absolute knockout of a novel with The New Neighbor. It's a fast-paced book, jam packed with intrigue and mystery. This is a great novel that any thriller reader would love.

Let me start by saying that Karen Cleveland’s writing is mesmerizing. I found myself out of sync with reality and transported completely into the book.

I was thinking about The New Neighbor, when I wasn't reading it. I had dreams about it. It stayed with me long after I would put it down for the night and haunted me once I turned the final page. The New Neighbor was twisted and brilliant, like nothing I've ever read before.

I can not recommend this book more . Buy the book, it was absolutely incredible

This was my first Karen Cleveland novel and I thought it was well done., The New Neighbor is a good ol’ who-done-it, full of twists & turns that will keep you guessing right to the end. I felt the ending left it open for a possible sequel and I wouldn’t be upset if there was.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was my first Karen Cleveland book and I really enjoyed it. Beth Bradford is a CIA analyst married to a lawyer living in a beautiful house with their 3 kids on a cul-de-sac near CIA headquarters. She is very friendly with the other families living on the cul-de-sac and most of them work for the government. Beth has been working on a case for many years tracking The Neighbor - someone sharing classified information with the Iranians. Her life starts unraveling when she is abruptly removed from the case, her marriage falls apart, and she and her soon-to-be ex-husband sell their home after their youngest child goes off to college. Beth can’t let go of the case she was removed from and becomes suspicious of Madeline Sterling - the woman who bought and just moved into her former home. But many of Beth’s former neighbors have been keeping secrets for many years, and one of them could be The Neighbor too. The story moves back and forth in time as Beth remembers events of the past that she now realizes are tied to her case. The book was hard to put down and I recommend reading it when it’s published in July. Thanks to #netgalley #ballantinebooks and #karencleveland for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was an fascinating look at the kind of work an analyst for the CIA does. Our main character and her family live on a cul de sac that a dangerous operative also lives on. After they sell their house things get interesting in her old neighborhood.

This book started out slow for me, I tend to not love a book with many character introductions within the first few pages as it tends to make remembering them harder. As the book went on it was key to the set up of the cul de sack and development of characters to do it the way it was done and I ended up really enjoying this book.
Lots of twists and turns, some a little predictable once you go back to the introduction of characters, but still it was very enjoyable and once I got into the book I breezed through it. I gave it four stars on Goodreads.

Beth lived the perfect life. With her husband and three children, they lived on a cul-de-sac where all the families gathered together in the evening to watch the kids play. All the kids grew up together. All the families work for the government and everyone loves their jobs. The perfect life for all, until it wasn’t! Beth and Mike sell their home in the cul-de-sac as their last child goes to college. Mike announces that he is not moving to the rental with Beth, as he is leaving her, and for some reason she has been released from her duties of finding a mole that is assisting the Iranians to access the U.S. intelligence system that she has been looking for 15 years.

The story is told from the perspective of Beth, as such you the reader know she is not crazy, however the author does a good job of also showing you the perspective from everyone else, which from their perspective, Beth has cracked under pressure. She begins to see the mole in the person that purchased her house, then in an old neighbor, then a different old neighbor, etc. In the end, she identifies the mole, and thwarts this malicious attempt, but will there be other attempts? Beth is sure there will be, as there is a new mole.

The author did do a great job of leading the reader astray and providing he logical explanation for why what the clue appeared to be wasn't what you were led to believe. Good character development, you truly felt what Beth was feeling, without frequently saying what she was feeling.

I really like this author and the premise of this book was interesting. I did feel it fell flat in the middle and could have had better pacing but overall a quick read! Thanks for letting me review this book to Netgalley and the publisher