Beth Bradford is an analyst with the CIA. She seems to have it all. She lives in a beautiful neighborhood with the perfect neighbors, she has the perfect family, and she loves her job.

Things are not always what they seem and lives can often change unexpectedly.

Beth has been following a target for years when she is transferred from the case to the school to teach future CIA analysts.

After selling the family home and finding out her marriage is over, Beth becomes obsessed with still following her target and solving the problem. After all, her reputation is on the line. Her path to the guilty party will have her questioning everyone and everything.

I have enjoyed all of Karen Cleveland's previous novels. This one just didn't measure up to the other novels. Beth was all over the place and at times I couldn't understand why she was making the decisions she was making. The end of the novel left me with more questions than answers. I will however read her next novel because I do enjoy Karen's writing so much. This simply could have been a case of the timing of reading the novel for this reader.

I voluntarily received a copy of this book from Random House Ballantine. All views are simply my honest opinion.

Book Review
The New Neighbor
Karen Cleveland
reviewed by Lou Jacobs


readersremains.com | Goodreads


Tighten your seatbelt and prepare for a roller coaster ride while confronting secrets, betrayal, long term friendships in question; all while your life is in shambles, as you battle jealousy and/ or paranoia.

The protagonist, Beth Bradford, is a CIA analyst, who is on the brink of facing an empty nest, a troubled marriage, while moving out of an idyllic cul-de-sac in a beautiful neighborhood where she’s raised her three children. Their daughters, Aubrey and Caitlyn, have finished college. Aubrey is a teacher and recently married, while Caitlyn lives in London, working as a travel reporter. With her husband, Mike, an attorney, her son Tyler was recently dropped off at his college dorm.

Mike drops a bomb on her: he intends on moving out and has no intention of trying to work it out. Beth relates, “The truth is, I don’t want him, I just want the life we used to have.” She returns to work, only to be informed by her boss that she’s being taken off the “The Neighbor Case.” She’s being involuntarily transferred to a teaching position, that removes her access from relevant databases. Beth has been working counterintelligence dedicated to the Iranian Intelligence Force. She has been working more than a decade to thwart the efforts of Quds Force commander Reza Karimi’s efforts to penetrate and gain access to the CIA’s communication system and its top secrets.

She has successfully uncovered many Iranian recruits before irreparable damage was done. But one recruit has eluded her for fifteen years. Referred to as The Neighbor, this access agent has recruited many US intelligence service employees, who prove to be very valuable assets due to their security clearance and possible access to sensitive information. Beth will not accept this set back, and embarks on a rogue investigation of her own. She surveils and even follows her old friends from the neighborhood, all which have some connection to the CIA or other intelligence agencies, in the hope of gathering information leading to the discovery of the identity of The Neighbor. Have some or all been compromised?

She is not above lying to garner the necessary data. She is aware of a recent intercept from Iran: “The Neighbor has found a new cul-de-sac.” She is immediately suspicious of “The New Neighbor” who has moved into her old home. Madeline is not the person she claims to be. A previous kindergarten teacher that is now a stay-at-home mom to three young children. Beth can find no trace of evidence to support her claim of being a teacher. She spies a vase of red roses on a table in the living room, against the front window of her old house. This is a common device of notification by Iranian intelligence agents, since red roses are the national flower of Iran. Beth is not above obtaining info in a reckless manner to further her off the books investigation. Friends and colleagues question her obsessions and consider her behavior erratic and even possibly paranoid.

Karen Cleveland cleverly mines her own experience as a CIA counterintelligence analyst to fashion an immersive and twisted tale with many red herrings and unexpected reveals. The gripping narrative boils over with menace , intrigue, suspense and escalates to a page-turning unexpected denouement. All the while, Beth is haunted by an old intercept … “remind the Neighbor to use the Children.” The risk of jeopardizing her career is worth the potential benefit of saving the security of the country. She vividly recalls how the neighbors became her best friends. She has visions of them sitting in lawn chairs, gossiping, drinking wine, and watching all the children play. Was their friendship ever real? Who can she trust?

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine Books for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review.

CIA working mom? Yes please! I love it when the wife/mother is the badass in the story and Beth did not disappoint. This book was fast moving (loved) and full of drama (not so much), but the CIA aspect and Beth's attention to detail had my full attention and I could not read this book fast enough. I was sure from the beginning that I had the book figured out, and I did, but I didn't! There are fantastic plot twists, and a lot of big energy and excitement at the end of this book that I truly enjoyed! This was my first book by Karen Cleveland and I would definitely read more of her work. I liked her writing style. I could not only easily envision the neighborhood where Beth lived, but I could put myself there in the neighborhood talking and chatting with the neighbors. Beth and her world felt instantly comfortable to me, as if we had been friends, or neighbors, for a very long time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

This was such a good story. It really sucked me in. Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy of this book.

This is a thriller. This book had too many twists in my opinion. I just didn’t connect with the plot or the characters. It just wasn’t for me, it took me forever to finish, which is unusual for a thriller. But just remember not every book is for everybody.

The New Neighbor by Karen Cleveland introduces us to Beth a highly accomplished intelligence officer for the CIA. Recently empty nesters and downsizing, Beth finds her husband is not coming to the new home with her. Then she finds out she has been marginalized to a new position without security clearance. As she mourns her life changes she becomes even more obsessed with the woman who has moved into her old home, Madeline. Is she just sad and lonely or is there more to the secrets and behavior she uncovers? I enjoyed the twists and turns in this story and would highly recommend it. I received an ARC of this book, all opinions are my own.

This is a thriller like I haven’t read in a long time. Karen Cleveland weaves a story like a roller coaster ride that doesn’t end with twists and turns that you hate AND love!!! I read this book in one sitting and will now be looking for her other books! Thank you Netgalley for the copy of this book to read and review.

Kept me guessing till the very end!! One shocking plot twist after another.
Not predictable! Great thriller

Cat and mouse story with an ending I never saw coming! Just when you think you’ve got it figured out you don’t! Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy,

I received this book as an ARC and this is my review. I really enjoyed this unusual spy story - it is rather like a game of cat and mouse or musical spies. I love flawed characters and they are rampant in this story! It is fairly impossible to pick the ultimate bad guy - or girl. I totally recommend this book to readers who enjoy a creepy thriller with twists and surprises throughout.

This book follow CIA agent Beth, who is currently moving out of her house after her children move out and she's divorced. She is taken off her latest case of finding an Iranian Intelligence called THE NEIGHBOR. Madeline moves into Beth's house, and quickly following Beth starts to believe that Madeline has ties to the Iranian intelligence. I loved that this book had an unreliable narrator, and you are not sure if Beth is right, or if she's just jealous and trying to ruin another woman's perfect life. This book had SO many twists up until the very ending and that truly kept me on my toes and I kept reading because I HAD to know who the neighbor was. Overall, a great slow burn mystery.

The beginning was a little slow for my liking, but once it picked up, I couldn't stop reading! I thought I had The New Neighbor pinpointed but boy was I wrong. This is my first book by this author and I'll definitely be reading more from her!

Beth Bradford has it all, the perfect house in the perfect neighborhood, perfect family, perfect job, and all of a sudden it all comes to an end. Her last child moves to college, her husband asks for a divorce, they sell their home, and she is downgraded at work. While the new person that moves into her house now seems to have all that Beth has lost. She continues to work on her case that she was taken off of at work. Did she really know her old neighbors, or is she starting to imagine things?

This is a good story with many twists and turns to keep your attention. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in return for my honest review.

The New Neighbor is quite the cat and mouse game with surprising twists and turns, oh my! Great story, thoroughly enjoyed it! Thank you @NetGalley@BallantineBooks@TheNewNeighbor

The new neighbor everyone always wonders who’s going to move in and they hope for a nice good new neighbor. You have to read this to find out just exactly who moved it and can they be trusted?!

The majority of the characters in this book live in one cul-de-sac. How well do you actually know your neighbors? Beth works for the CIA. She has been searching for someone referred to as The Neighbor for many years. At the beginning of the book, her son is graduating from high school and leaving home to attend college. Her husband tells her that their marriage is over and he’s moving out. She goes into work and is told she’s no longer on this case. She’s transferred to a different job. She doesn’t stop her investigation. There are many twists to the story. Towards the end of the book, I felt that too many different people were suspected of being The Neighbor.
I appreciate receiving the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is the first book I've read by this author, but now I can't wait to read her other books! I couldn't put this fun read down and read it in a day! The New Neighbor will keeps readers in suspense and make one wonder how well do ANY of us really know our neighbors! It was twisty and although I caught on to about half of the twists, the surprises kept me intrigued. Beth works for the CIA and finds herself in a midlife-crisis--losing her position at work to a demotion, her last child leaves the nest for college as the family home is downsized, and her husband announces he's unhappy in their marriage. She begins to unravel as she notices possibly sinister occurrences in her previous home's cul-de-sac and wonders about her best friend's (also previous neighbor) truthfulness and loyalty. Everyone just thinks Beth is over-stressed and seeing "evidence" that doesn't truly exits, so it is up to her alone, to prove them all wrong.

My brain is spinning from this story. This is my first book that I have read from Karen Cleveland, and I will definitely be looking into others of hers to read next! I really liked the storyline and character developments we got to see with the author’s knowledge of being former CIA. It was a slow burn for me to begin with, and took me a little while to really get into it, but the ending made up for that for me. A solid 4/5 star read for me! Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine for the ARC of this book!

If you love twists and turns thus one is fiord you. So many twists I could barely keep, but I loved it. Fast paced and well written. I will definitely be reading more of this author’s work.

This is my first book by Karen Cleveland, but it will not be my last. Although I felt it started off a little slow, once it got going it turned into a page turner. It’s a spy thriller that had me constantly questioning characters and their motives. I always love it when a book has me change my mind multiple times as to “who done it”. I believe the author’s history with the CIA definitely came into play, making it a believable story. I just wish the main character’s son had gone to VT rather than UVA – go Hokies!

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for gifting me with an advanced copy to read and review.