4.5 stars.
Absolutely enthralling, from the very first chapter I was hooked. The author weaves a web of intrigue and misdirection, which plays on classic tropes and our assumptions. I loved the fact that there was such a large cast of characters, each overlapping and opening up cans of proverbial worms everywhere.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Josey and her husband Alfie have moved in with her brother and his pregnant wife. Josey is struggling with the day to day of being a grown up despite being 27 and married and becomes quite infatuated with their new neighbour, Tom. Tom is the local school headteacher, married to Nicola with their son, Freddie, a slightly troubled and creepy teenager.
The other neighbours, Jenna and her mother Frankie, are also integral to the story of the death of someone and who killed them?
At first I was confused by the number of characters and their significance but it soon fell into place and I was gripped. Lisa certainly has the handle on gripping reads that’s for sure! Definite book club recommendation.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest, independent review.

Although each character had a role to play in the storyline, I found there was too many of them, which made it slightly confusing.

The book was also slow to start and it too a while to pick up the pace with all the big drama happening towards the end.

Lisa Jewell knows people. She knows her characters, and she knows her readers. That almost sounds insulting, if read in a sarcastic voice, so let me explain.

Towards the end of her latest novel, Jewell has Tom tell his son Freddie, ‘I’ve been watching you. All along. Watching everything you do.’ Tom has been watching Freddie. Freddie has been watching - and taking photos of - Jenna, and Bess, and Romola, and a bunch of other schoolgirls, plus Joey Mullen and Frances Tripp. Frances Tripp has been watching Tom and a whole bunch of other people. Jenna uses social media to track Bess when she thinks her best friend is in trouble. All that watching going on. Everyone is watching everyone else. But no one is seeing anything, because although all the information they need is buried in plain sight, their personal filters make them ignore it. All of the watching. None of the thinking.

That might be slightly unfair. Jewell creates three main characters who provide us with the main points of view (POV) as the story unfolds. We pretty much know that they didn’t do it (we don’t know for sure what ‘it’ is but we know there is an ‘it’), and Jewell is careful to present them as three-dimensional creations; they are not just there to move the plot along. Freddie wants to be a spy, Jenna wants to be carefree and Joey who is approaching her thirties wants to be an adult. Their worlds come together (of course, it’s a story) but at the beginning they are just doing what they are doing. In their observations, we enjoy the playful but incisive descriptions we’ve come to associate with Lisa Jewell: the sodium gloom of a January afternoon, a rather kind homage to the dad bod, the unsentimental but yet sympathetic description of teenagers:

Girls oozing through the gates, a river of royal blue and grey, idly tossed hair and Fjällräven rucksacks, laddered tights, Skinnydip phone cases and loud, loud voices.

This approach is of course essential for a successful psychological thriller. We don’t just need to know who, we need to know why. So we have to care about the characters more than we care about the mystery. On the whodunit, Jewell dangles clues that her more perceptive readers (ie. not this reader) will work out in good time: this is all in plain sight, remember; but as she does so she lets the three main POV characters develop and think and grow and perform small acts of kindness or self-discovery that help you begin to root for them. Other characters aren’t fleshed out in nearly the same way: Tom, the head teacher, is a far more ambiguous creation (and probably the better for it), and I feel sorry for Alfie, until I don’t. This helps Jewell play with our emotions and our assumptions - about the relationship between Tom and Nicola, for example.

I don’t know enough about mental health to say whether Frances’ condition is well portrayed, but the exploration of Asperger’s is I think carefully done.

I am slightly intrigued to know whether Lisa Jewell has fallen out with Martin Amis. Freddie is compiling a dossier, called The Melville Papers which seems to me to be a shout out to The Rachel Papers - but, towards the end, Amis’s first novel is mentioned for real. And Freddie’s later dossier is called The Information, a reference to Amis’s novel about two novelists enjoying different levels of success. I don’t think Jewell makes these references without due thought. She is certainly aware of how to play with the emotions of her readers. In the epilogue, she sets up a nice, quite-romantic coda to bring us down after the truth-spilling of the preceding pages before punching us with a new revelation that is as shocking as Rose’s gramophone adventures at the end of Brighton Rock.

Watching You is a story that will take you back to your teens. Told with style and with an all-too-human cast of characters, it’s a taut, psychological thriller which brings the reader in and gets them really involved.

Brilliant. A clever plotline, great characters with plenty of twists and turns. Well written Lisa Jewell's words flow keeping the reader interested till the very end. I cannot recommend this book enough. Loved it.

Another amazing book from Lisa Jewell. And another book where I have read the last page and then immediately gone back and read the beginning again to see how it all ties up. Lisa always does an amazing job of drip feeding the important information and the clues to the big reveal throughout the story through mini revels and through characters revealing things to one another and I am just in awe of the way she writes and the way she structures her novels. So clever and just so gripping. Just like her last novel, this one had me holding my breath and gasping at regular intervals throughout the book. Yet again it is hard to comment too much on the narrative or the characters without giving too much away!

There is quite a big cast of characters in this novel and the way they all intertwine with one another must have taken a lot of planning. We have some classic unreliable narrators but we also have some characters who are much more difficult to work out and keep you intrigued right up until the last page. I wouldn't say I particularly warmed to any of the characters particularly, perhaps with the exception of teenager Jenna who is a young carer for her mother. But boy was I obsessed with finding out more about every single one of these characters, what made them tick and how they fitted into the story. They are people you know, people you recognise from everyday life, they are your neighbours! Characters we can all relate to is just something else which this author excels at!

To say this book was a thriller, there isn't a lot of gore or violence in it, there are definitely moments that make the reader uncomfortable and moments that lead you down a path you never saw coming. This is definitely a slow burn but the short chapters will mean you will continue to turn those pages way past your bedtime. Some of the ways things that seem trivial are connected to the story are just mind-blowing and I am just in awe of how cleverly written this novel is. I enjoyed every moment and would love to have the chance to read it for the first time all over again. Another amazing Lisa Jewell novel to add to your reading list right now!

Watching You is my first Lisa Jewell novel and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The story is told through different characters all living in the same small area. There's Joey and her new husband Alfie who've recently returned from Ibiza and are living with Joey's brother and sister-in-law. There's Jenna and her paranoid and delusional mother. There's the suave, sophisticated and devilishly handsome head master Thomas Fitzwilliam and his wife Nicola and their son Freddie who is quite the neighbourhood peeping tom. As with all small villages everyone knows everyone else's business, or at least they think they do. Behind every door lurks a secret and behind every secret is yet another tangle in the web that brings them all together.
All the way through the novel you are switching backwards and forwards in time until the past catches up with the present. The story and plot are convoluted but thoroughly enjoyable, you think you've worked everything out and then the next chapter twists everything into a different direction. I will definitely be reading more from this wonderful author

A clever story with an original idea behind it. I very much enjoyed it and found myself quickly gelling with some of the characters especially Freddie who was oddly endearing. I didn't guess the ending until it was revealed and I always enjoy an epilogue so that suited me too!
On the negatives I think (without giving any spoilers) it highly unlikely the group of people would have ended up living so close to one another without some spectacular coincidences but it didn't spoil the book for me and I would recommend it.

Unputdownable, compulsive thriller. This is a five star read, brilliantly plotted with great characters. The plot slowly builds pace until the cracking conclusion. Perfect summer read.

I really enjoyed this book. The story is told from the points of view of 3 people. Joey is a young, newly married woman who has just returned from living abroad, and is lodging with her brother and sister in law. Freddie is 15 and lives a few doors down. He is the son of Tom, the head teacher of the local school. Jenna is 16, and is a pupil at Tom's school. She lives with her mentally ill mother. When Joey becomes infatuated with Tom, it sets off a chain of events which lead to a murder. But who is the victim, and how is each of the main characters involved? This is a real page turner that will keep you guessing. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

As a big Lisa Jewell fan I was very excited to find this available to read, and it hasn’t disappointed. It’s a fast paced thriller about obsession, lies and intrigue. Full of suspense and exciting twists it kept me on the edge of my seat, and just to add to my delight it’s set around my home city of Bristol.
Top marks for another fantastic book.

Lisa Jewell just gets better with each book she writes, and she was pretty good to start with. Her books began with boys meets girl, then headed into family dramas and now she is emerging as a gifted suspense writer. Jewell is without question my favourite author. The only sad thing is that once I’ve finished one of her books, I have to wait nearly a year for the next one. It’s a milestone in my book reading year and I have never missed one of her books.

Watching You is a fascinating and multi layered tale of modern life and a tight knit community seething with both secret keepers and voyeurs. Much of the action centres around restless, directionless Joey- a young woman who married in haste and always seems to be looking for something else in life. Then a “Superhead” is brought into the local school and lives in the same terrace as Joey. Tensions sizzle, and secrets emerge, one by one, that suggest that several people in this scenario are not being honest. The story is a guessing game and will not lead you in the direction you think it will.

I found myself pitying the so-called villain and misunderstanding the character that was looking more suspicious than anyone. I’m trying to say this without spoilers so excuse me if that sounds cryptic!
Lisa Jewell is a masterful storyteller who writes so well that you end up living the story in your head and forgetting that you are reading from a book.

The prose is vivid, the suspense is measured out in addictive doses that keep you reading and the creeping menace of people watching each other builds a tense atmosphere. The dénouement was at once a shock and a jigsaw piece fitting together quite naturally. Once I read it, I could see that clues had been planted all along, but I was paying attention to other characters.

Brilliantly done.

I would firstly like to thank Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

" You're back home after four years working abroad, new husband in tow. You're keen to find a place of your own. But for now you're crashing in your big brother's spare room. That's when you meet the man next door. He's the head teacher at the local school. Twice your age. Extraordinarily attractive. You find yourself watching him. All the time. But you never dreamed that your innocent crush might become a deadly obsession. Or that someone is watching you. "

I loved Lisa Jewell's previous book so I had high hopes for this one, and honestly I was a tad disappointed. I enjoyed this one but it is no where near as gripping as 'Then She Was Gone'. The plotline itself was intriguing but there wasn't really any massive twists or turns; so it wasn't really a page-turner for me.

The story was quite slow to begin with so I took a little time to get into. I wouldn't describe this book as a thriller but more of a slowly-unravelling mystery. I found the whole book very slow-paced with certain chapters being more likeable then the rest. Despite of this, I definitely enjoyed the story and the way it carried out. I particularly enjoyed 'Freddie's' perspective. I found his parts creepy, but intriguing to read.

Although I enjoyed the story and the ending was well-written in terms of the reveal and the epilogue, this book fails to compare to the last book. Worth a read but not a page-turner.

So sorry, but I find this book very disappointing
.not very keen on the subject and find it quite hard to follow. I will not be finishing this book.

A slow start and an obvious storyline but a good read overall. . .
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A compelling read in that I couldn't put it down however I felt it wasn't as good as her previous books.

This story follows the lives of a small group of Bristol residents.

Joey (woman) has just come back from working in Ibiza and she's brought her new husband, Alfie, with her. They’ve no money and they’re looking for work. They stay at Joey’s brother’s house. Joey’ brother, Jack, is a successful heart surgeon and it seems he has everything – a sunny personality, money, a wife he adores and a baby on the way.

Their next-door neighbours are head teacher Tom Fitzwilliam and his wife Nicola. Tom’s son, Freddie, has a habit of watching people through his digital binoculars and taking photographs of them. He likes to log the details of people’s lives - the times they leave, the route they take to work. He’s particularly interested in three girls from the local school – Bess, Jenna and Romola.

The story starts with a murder and, in the background of the story, we follow the police interviews of each of the key residents.

There’s a knotted history between the lives of these people. Tom Fitzwilliam is the top suspect (but is he also the victim? We must wait until the end to find out). He’s suspected of having affairs with previous students of his schools.

Joey is having second thoughts about her whirlwind marriage and falls headlong in lust with dashing headteacher Tom. She keeps encountering him, at first by chance and then deliberately, and it seems he feels the same way about her…

It’s all a volatile mix and it’s going to end in murder. The question is – who? And then we must find out why?

My favourite character was Jenna. Jenna is fifteen years old and living with her mother who has mental health issues. Jenna has her head screwed on and will prove key to the solving the whole tangled mess.

All the characters were very well written – they had depth and interest and real life dilemmas and troubles which made them feel ‘real’.

The plot pulled me in from the beginning and kept my interest to the end. This one is the real deal – a great page turner, with some creepy aspects and utterly absorbing at the same time. A very enjoyable read and highly recommended.

This novel had me hooked immediately and kept me dangling all the way through. There has been a frenzied killing in a village near Bristol but the facts of the case are not revealed. Who is it? Who is the killer? Why? Motive? DC Rose has to investigate. What I most liked about the book are the fascinating characters. Joey who had a whirlwind marriage to Alfie but her body and common sense war against each other over the charismatic Tom Fitzwilliam who is the local school's Headmaster. In fact his magnetic qualities have everyone in his thrall. Freddie his teenage son is another interesting character - a lonely boy who is the net-twitcher of the village. The relationship between the girls Jenna and Bess is perfectly painted. Jenna's mother who believe she is the victim of gang stalking. The story is interspersed with police interviews of all the characters and there's plenty of humour and other well defined side issues. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK Cornerstone.

Oh my, this was a delightfully convoluted journey that both started and ended with a bit of a bang! We begin with a body but who and why is not divulged. Rewinding to a couple of months before the murder, we meet Joey who, with her new husband Alfie, has returned from working and living abroad; currently living with her brother whilst they find their feet. She starts to become obsessed with one of their neighbours; Tom, the headmaster of the local school. We then meet Tom's son Freddie who has a strange habit of documenting the neighbourhood, fixating on some of the young schoolgirls with his camera. One of which, Jenna, has a mother who is certain she is being gang stalked, mostly by Tom who she recognises from a previous holiday. Told you it was a bit convoluted! But don't worry, there is a big cast, most of whom we meet at the same time quite early on but they are all distinct and well drawn which meant that even I who normally struggles with such things, never got confused. Especially considering that the majority of them were, shall we just say, a little distasteful.
As well as a big cast, we have a story that has more tangles than a ball of wool that has been over played with by a hyperactive kitten! The unravelling of which is the most delightful part of the book. Talk about secrets, lies and what goes on behind closed doors! Things that at first seem unconnected suddenly come together. Misconceptions are revealed. Assumptions blasted away as slowly the author peels back the layers to expose the truth of what really happened at the beginning. To say that I was completely floored and shocked by it all would be an understatement. Not that it came completely out of left field by the way. The pointers were there, it was just my interpretation at the time that was severely lacking. Not that I feel cheated at any of the duplicity. Indeed, hats off to the author for such an ingeniously well plotted book.
I'll leave you with a warning. This book will get under your skin. You will need to get to the end. It's not really the best book to start if you have anything important to do. once I started it, I read through right to the end with very few pauses. I needed to know. I got a bit obsessed. Even considering I was pretty much flummoxed throughout, I was left completely satisfied with a big grin on my face, thanking the author for a job very well done.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Have always adored Lisa Jewell’s books, but it seems with each one the stories get better!
The characters are well thought out and with each page you are constantly kept on tenterhooks.
You have no idea who to trust, who you should like and who you should be wary of.
So many times you guess wrong and then you have to read on just to know what happens next.
The plot twists in ways you couldn’t guess and has you gripped from the outset!
Going to be the thriller hit for this year!