I really enjoyed this book, the characters were well developed. It had an interesting plot. I would be interested in reading more

Louise Candish has found a fan for life! I loved "Those People!" Her story about a high-brow neighborhood upset by a new family is so relateable. How among hasn't had a less-than-perfect neighbor at one time or another? How far would you go to ensure peace and quiet on your street?

The extremes that Candish describes would drive a person, especially someone craving calm, control and consistency, to take matters into his - or her - hands. "Those People" is sad, yet often comical, in what the neighbors feel they must do to protect their little piece of Eden. Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable read.

ARC provided by NetGalley in return for my opinion.

First time reader for this author. Kept me engaged and wanting to know more. I needed to know the ending asap! Definitely picking up another book by this author!

Lowland Way is the perfect place to live, according to those who live there. With the beautifully cared for homes, neighbors who get along, kids who play together and an active community network, it’s a relaxing refuge from a hectic, stressful world.

Then one of the neighbors passes away and her nephew inherits her property. And life on Lowland Way becomes a very different story.

What would you do to protect your property, your family and the safety of your children? That’s the question Lowland Way inhabitants must now ask themselves. Who can help them—the council, the police, the families themselves? And when tragedy strikes, what is the recourse?

The style of the story takes a bit of getting used to, but it’s worth the effort. Each section begins with an individual resident’s police report and flashes back in time leading to tragedy, moving forward to the present.

Those People reveals how each resident reacts to those they consider interlopers in their community and each one has something to hide. But who was plotting murder?

I love Louise Candlish! I request her books even when the description doesn't sound like it will be exciting. The premises always sound somewhat mundane, but her writing has you hanging on every word. Another totally enthralling novel by Louise Candlish

A craftily written tale that illustrates how important it is to have a good relationship with your neighbors. It can be confusing at times trying to get the characters straight.

Louise Candlish's Our House was one of my favorite books that I read and reviewed last year. In my review, I said that "Candlish wrote every word for a reason, and by the time you get to the heart-stopping conclusion, you understand exactly how the dominoes started to fall from the very first page." Unfortunately, there is not as much excitement in her latest, Those People.

Just as in Our House, Those People takes place in everyday suburbia and begins when a couple moves in to an established neighborhood. This couple is a nightmare -- playing music at unbearable levels, running a car business from their house, and just causing general mayhem for their neighbors. When two deaths occur, one very unexpected, the neighbors are questioned and some become suspects.

On the surface, this premise sounds interesting, and believe me, it starts out strong. But the middle gets bogged down with too many details, and this makes the book seem very long. While I raced to the end of Our House to find out what happened, Those People was one that I was glad to finish.

MY RATING - 2

3.5 stars

Bad neighbours! You can’t control who moves in next door and when “those people” end up being the neighbours from hell, what can you do??? The people living at Lowland Way know all about it. When Darren Booth and his partner Jodie move in to #1, the tempers rise and sparks fly. The new neighbours play their loud music at all hours of the night, they host big parties, they have an illegal car selling business which takes up all of the street parking, their property is a construction zone with several do-it-yourself renovations happening at once...and the list goes on. To add insult to injury, when the good respectable citizens of Lowland Way try to approach Darren with their concerns, he rudely brushes them off and ignores them. This domestic thriller delves into the psychology and downward spiral of having neighbours like this. Relationships are tested and boundaries pushed to their limits as a group of self-policing neighbours take it upon themselves to “do something” about Darren Booth.

I found this story quite tense, as in “watching a train wreck happen” kind of tense. I felt like I was reading between my fingers as I tried to cover my eyes from the carnage! And although this tension was at times thrilling, it was also at times grating. Bearing witness to the back and forth nastiness lost its appeal after awhile. The mystery aspect was what kept me invested. I was keen to know the truth. I will admit that in certain moments I was drawn into the drama, but as a whole, the plot missed it’s mark for me.

I much preferred Candish’s previous book Our House with its unforeseen twists and turns. Those People is much more subtle and simmers rather than burns. It is a fast read that most people will be able to relate to at some level. I recommend this book to readers who enjoy a psychological slow burn with a mystery element.

A gracious thank you to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lowland Way is the place to live. Just ask the slightly smug and well-off group of residents who live there. But all that changes when Darren and Jodie move in. They don't adhere to the unwritten set of rules and suddenly their neighbors find themselves subjected to loud music at all hours, Darren's endless construction projects, and what appears to be a car business run out of their private home. Then, one weekend, a horrific death occurs on the street. The already high tensions reach a boiling point as the police start looking for witnesses, and the neighbors share their many grievances.

"He's the proverbial neighbor from hell."

So I was really excited to read my first Louise Candlish novel and while I found this one interesting enough, it wasn't as intriguing as I'd hoped after all the hype over OUR HOUSE. I'm all for neighborhood tensions and drama, but my goodness, it feels like this book took forever. And while I get that this was probably the overall point, these people were mostly all so insufferable that I really didn't care if they all just killed each other!

The book makes some good points about social class, but it does it all so slowly. There are a few twists, yes, but they don't come often enough, and I had a decent idea about a few of them. Maybe the drawn out element was meant to mimic the neighbor's "agony," but good grief. The book is told via police reports and narratives. We learn early on there was an incident in the neighborhood, but don't know what happened or who was involved. I was definitely interested in knowing what went on, which is why I kept plugging away. It's pretty clear early on that nearly everyone has a reason to harm everyone else; kind of makes me glad for my eight acres.

So, overall, while curiosity kept me reading on this one, and I enjoyed a few of the twists, it was definitely a slow read filled with a lot of annoying characters. Maybe if I'm brave enough to pick up OUR HOUSE, it will be more my jam. 2.5+ stars.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Netgalley in return for an honest review.

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley. This book had me from the very beginning. I love that it kept me engaged the entire time. I couldn't wait to see how it ended. I would highly recommend to all my fellow readers. Thank you for the chance to review this book!

I am currently dealing with a really, really, terrible neighbor, unfortunately, which is sort of why I requested this book from NetGalley. I thought it might make me feel better to read about a neighbor that MUST be worse than mine! And Darren and Jodie Booth are truly horrible. They have ruined this picturesque neighborhood with trashy cars, loud music, and constant construction projects. Even worse, like all bad neighbors, when people complain, they somehow think it's just the neighbors being oversensitive. They don't know, or care, about the stress they're causing the people around them. This novel does a great job of creating that claustrophobic helpless feeling of having a problem you really can't do anything about. Beyond that, though, I had a hard time sticking with this book. The pacing was incredibly slow--I almost quit several times. And I get that we're supposed to see that even the "good" characters aren't all good, but they were all pretty insufferable. The conclusion was a let down. The mystery part of the book wasn't that compelling so the ending fell flat. Overall, a disappointing entry in a field of great thrillers on shelves right now.

This is a generally intriguing story of an infuriating turn of events in a pleasant neighborhood in an English town. The cast of characters is varied and interesting, and when the “bad” neighbors move in, the reader is led to sympathize thoroughly with them. Anyone who has fumed at thoughtless or mean neighbors will certainly feel a kinship. Of course, very few real humans are all good or all bad, so as the story plays out we see some interesting by-plays and back stories. I docked it a star for some repetitiveness, slow movement, and difficulty identifying with the characters, but it was overall enjoyable. It was a quick read, and played out with speculation as to who was responsible for what!

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Interesting look at class and prejudice through the lens of a thriller. Unfortunately, I didn't find it as compelling as Candlish's "OUR HOUSE" from last summer.

This novel was many times funny, though it was not meant to be. The self-absorption and narcissistic nature of most, if not all, the characters make this a sort of parody of the situation. The character development and the clear agenda each one has feels very color-by-numbers and, even though they are one-dimensional, they are very realistic and relatable. The concept is novel although the plot is a bit discombobulated. I enjoyed the thoughts and feelings this book evoked in me perhaps more than the book itself. The exploration into the human condition and how the relationships begin to break down was fascinating.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of Those People by Louise Candlish. This had so much potential for me. Everyone has that nightmarish neighbor, right?! This was unfortunately such a slow burn that I had a hard time sticking with it. I ended up not finishing the book due to the pacing and the fact that I had zero connection with any of the characters.

Firstly, let me say I am a big fan of open-ended conclusions to stories. I am NOT a fan of abruptly-ended stories which cause me to wonder if my book was missing pages. Such is the experience with this book.

Secondly, I am not opposed to unlikeable characters. I AM opposed to a whole book of them (and there were A LOT of them here). The only human character I even came remotely to caring about was Sam (and the other children, although they were essentially window dressing).

I found it a little hard to believe new people would arrive in the neighbourhood and immediately act the way Darren and Jodie did, but I’ve had a pretty consistent neighbourhood in a pretty nondescript part of town. Sure, some properties are better maintained; some are louder than others; some people are friendly while some keep to themselves; but I honestly don’t give it much of a thought. To each their own, and all. The people of Lowland were WAY too precious and busybody for me. Perhaps the lot of them should have moved into condos...

This book was a bit hard to get through. I stopped reading it several times in favor of other titles. It moved very slowly, but by the middle, it had picked up and I breezed right through it. I thought there were far too many characters thrown in. It was difficult to keep track of who was who. Darren and Jodie are new neighbors who immediately do not get along with the current residents. Loud music at all hours of the night, cars parked in the road, etc. Tragedy happens, and everyone is a suspect. I thought that by the time it picked up, the "whodunit" aspect was quite interesting. Overall, though, the story took way too long to get to the point.

I'd like to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book. in exchange for a fair, unbiased review.

If I had to describe this story in one word, it would be frustrating. Initially it moves at a snails pace. I enjoyed the writing and character development (although they were all infuriatingly snobbish). I finished the story because I did want to figure out “who did it” so the author was successful in hooking me.

Not a great read, but decent. Closer to 2.5 ⭐️ rounded up.

*Thanks to NetGalley and publishers for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was an interesting novel about community and how one can be disrupted by a new couple moving in. Candlish does a good job of describing the unrest the people on the street experience when a couple move in that are obviously unlike those already living there. There are lots of characters in this book and I suggest drawing a little map of the street with the house occupants and a little about them. Had I done that I might not have felt confused at times, not remembering which character said what to whom and why.

Reading the publisher's synopsis and promotion material, I thought this would be more in the mystery and thriller genre. It is not. There is not much mystery and really no suspense. An aspect of the novel I did find particularly interesting was the frustration existing dwellers felt when the police and other authorities did not respond to their complaints about the disruptive neighbors.

Readers who like an exploration of character reactions when life is not what it has been may like this book.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

4.5 stars
Loved this book! It had everything I look for in a good mystery/suspense book. I liked it almost as much as “Our House”. The story was VERY original. Good solid writing. Unlikable characters all around... I see some people didn’t like it because of that, but I didn’t mind that. You can’t have a good murder mystery without a few nasty characters. Great build-up of story. Lots of twists and turns. I can’t wait for Ms. Candish’s next book.
I read the book and listened to the audible version when I couldn’t read. Great narration and very one credit worthy. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good domestic suspense/mystery.
A very special thank you to Berkeley Publishing Group and NetGalley for the advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.