You know what makes this story REALLY creepy.. Somewhere in this twisted world there has probably been a man at some point of time that has actually done this to some poor individuals! And that's what makes this book truly terrifying.

Thanks to NetGalley, Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter Publishing, and the author R.J. Parker for this enticing read!

The good neighbour is about a young woman, Leah, who while driving at night gets into an accident after she hits a deer with her car. With her cellphone dead and her car not starting after the accident she decides to walk to the nearest home and call for help. The man living there let’s her into the home to use the phone and clean up while waiting for help to arrive. After arriving home safely that night, Leah returns the next day to thank the man for his help. When she arrives at the house, it’s surrounded by police, under investigation of murder. Leah finds out that the owner of the house, a woman, was murdered and comes to find that the man who helped her the night before was the murderer.

I read this book in two days and had a very hard time putting it down, it was a fast paced thriller, with well developed characters, and wasted no time getting to the point. The book was well written and left me needing to know what was going to happen.

The only thing that bothered me a bit was Leah’s decision making throughout the book, at times I found her frustrating, but I think this was just the nature of her character. Had she have made different decisions I don’t know that there would be much of a story, so I understand the reasoning behind this.

I will definitely try other books by this author, and suggest this book to anyone who likes a psychological thriller, and a fast paced read.

Whenever I am struggling to read, or even pick up a book, I turn to thrillers to bring me back into the habit and re-engage me. 2021's route back into reading was R.J Parker's - The Good Neighbour (out on 18th March 2021).

When Leah Talbot crashes her car one night, she spots a light on in a nearby house and approaches, hoping that someone is home. He is. Charming, handsome, Martin Tate answers the door to the bedraggled and traumatised Leah, inviting her in. Though she’s not there for long, they share a brief kiss, and Leah feels an indescribable pull to the man who has helped in her hour of need. But when she returns the next morning to say thank you, and with the hope of something more, it isn’t Martin who answers the door this time. It’s the police, and there's the dead body of the home owner Alice Booth upstairs.

The set up to this book is terrific. Man helps woman in trouble, immediate sexual chemistry; only problem is man is a murderer.

What follows is typical genre game of cat and mouse with 'Martin' leaving a trial of bodies as he 'woos' his kindred spirit Leah. Meanwhile Leah plays her own game of cat and mouse with the police, in an attempt to save the ones she loves. It is all good murdering fun. If the book has a problem, it is that the start is just so good that the rest of the book struggles to compete with that initial set up. That said, the book is well paced and I rattled through it in a few sittings. The bodies and the tension build nicely to the eventual show-down between the two protagonists.

Right, where's my next book.

Thank you to NetGalley and One More Chapter for this ARC.

Picture the scene. It’s Wednesday, football night. I’m in my chair, headphones on, angle poise lamp on so I can do some notes, and I am really engrossed in this book. I was conscious of my increased pulse rate and the sense of dread was growing every page I turned. I wanted to know what happened next, but , I also didn’t want to turn the page, as the horrors awaiting, were generally worse than the previous atrocities!
Then I felt a hand on my shoulder, screamed, jumped up and hit my head on the lamp, took off the headphones and saw the bemused face of the hubster! It’s half time, would you like a drink?
After we had pacified the dog, who was charging around the house, barking madly, and I had a glass of Vodka by my side, I felt confident enough to return to the book.
Leah Talbot is driving home at night , when she hits a deer and sustains damage to her car. Deer are capable of causing such damage to cars when they land on the car bonnet, and if the antlers are facing towards you, you run the very real risk of being impaled , or worse. She walks to the nearest house for help, and the door is opened by Martin Tate, who is concerned and friendly, calls the Police and the AA recovery, and lets Leah borrow his phone to call her estranged husband, Elliot. She gives Martin her address so he can pass on this information to the Police when they arrive, and she returns home.
That is just the start of an ever worsening nightmare for Leah and all those she holds dear to her. When she returns to the house the next day to thank Martin, she finds Police cars about , and is informed that the real owner of the house, is Alice Booth and she has been murdered. Leah is in grave danger, Martin begins to show his true colours, and the body count grows. The dangers of modern technology are revealed, as he has access to her contacts and their addresses, can send threatening text messages and basically use every detail of Leah's life to put his twisted plans into action.
This is a truly scary and horrific read. I let my imagination run riot, I found it to be nerve jangling, sick and twisted, a real page turner. It asks the question, whom is most important to you, and what would you sacrifice in order to protect the ones you love.
The ending is brilliant, devious and so clever, a real tour de force, revenge from beyond. This has to be made into a film, it would be fantastic.
This is without question one of the best books I have had the pleasure of reviewing. A genuine five star read. I have already recommended it to my daughter and her Zoom book club, after the husband had told her of my ‘ over reaction’, she is looking forward to reading it for herself, and then, no doubt, we will plan who we would like to see in the film version of this book.
Thank you to Harper Collins UK, Netgalley and R.J. Parker, for the chance to read this marvellous book. This review is my honest opinion. I have rated this as a five star read, I will post reviews to Goodreads and Amazon upon publication.

I read this book in one day it was that good. Such a different and imaginative thriller that I literally couldn't put down. I loved how this book unfolded it seemed at the end of each chapter I was left hanging with some sort of new twist or motive. I really liked how this book jumped straight into it, there wasn't any unnecessary detail that I didn't need to know it just cracked straight on with the main plot line. Seriously if you like a thriller read this book!

Ugh, so creepy! I loved this book but it did freak me out a bit! Lots of gory details and kept a fast past throughout. I was less than thrilled with the end which is the only reason I gave it 4 stars as I felt like the main character was making such stupid decisions which didn't seem plausible...Guess that is why it is fiction though!

WOW the Good Neighbour was such a great read! The plot was so different than most thrillers and I loved all the twists!

It's a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. When Leah knocks on a door after hitting a deer she gets more than she bargains for. She has stumbled on a crime scene and now she is involved. This book is an intense book with Leah carrying out questionable things. How will it end? It felt like Leah was on a hamster wheel that she couldn't escape. It will have you sitting on the edge of your seat.

Leah is driving home alone at night and gets into a crash on a lonely stretch of road. She sees a light on, and knocks on the door looking for help. She finds a charming man, friendly, polite, willing to welcome her in and offer her help, even though she interrupted his evening meal, is babbling and is covered in blood. His name is Martin Tate, and he is a perfect gentleman. He invites her in, tells her to get herself cleaned up, calls the police for her, catches her when she faints from shock, and calls roadside recovery for her. The perfect charmer, right? A building sense of unease and tension starts to urge Leah from the house, willing to wait in the rain for the recovery truck.

Despite this, she finds herself drawn back the next day, gift in hand, to say thank you. Unsure of quite what she was feeling the previous night, but wanting to find out more. However, when she arrives at the house she finds a crime scene and police swarming the area. Someone has been horrifically murdered. Mutilated. Graphically, brutally. The homeowner. But Martin Tate is not the homeowner….

This discovery sends Leah spiraling into a frantic race, with horror after horror unfolding, and a scramble against the clock to save all she loves. Or thinks she loves.

A fast paced read, the story doesn’t let up, with momentum continually gathering, and the story gripping you from the start. Highly recommend you read - and then think twice about EVER knocking on a stranger's door!!

The book started off strong and I had high hopes, which were quickly dashed once implausible events were introduced. It was a bit of a problematic read for me because of that, and despite it being a relatively fast-paced read, is not one I can recommend.

I found this book to be very enjoyable, if little bit creepy, no not a little bit, a lot creepy.
Great atmosphere and really I had to keep reading and reading to get to the end.
I loved it.

What an absolutely insane ride.

The good neighbour by R.J Parker is a fast paced crime thriller and follows the story of Leah. Leah was driving home on a dark country road when she collides with an animal. She has no charge on her mobile phone and spots a house not far away from the crash and knocks on the door. She is greeted by a gentleman named Martin Tate. Martin lets Leah in to use the phone to call her husband Elliot. Martin calls the tow people for Leah’s car and the police. He also charges up her mobile phone.

The next morning Leah turns up to Martin’s house to thank him for his hospitality and help to find the place surrounded my police cars, she speaks to the police and finds out that the owner has been murdered – Not Martin Tate. Nothing is at it seems. The story gets interesting on the turn of every chapter – Who is Martin Tate and what does he want with Leah?

The Good Neighbour is released on the 18th March 2021. If you are looking for a faced paced crime thriller this one is for you.

Thank you to Netgalley, HarperCollins UK and One More Chapter for this ARCC in exchange for an honest review.

On Valentines night Leah is making her way home to the village of Forley when her car hits a deer and is forced off the road. Although not being far from home, she seeks assistance at a nearby house and despite the late hour Martin Tate thankfully comes to her rescue, a kind and helpful stranger with whom she senses an immediate and mutual attraction. The next morning she mulls over the events of the previous night, one that could so easily have ended in tragedy and unable to seek comfort in the arms of her husband Elliot decides to return to Martin Tate’s house under the pretence of saying thank you. What she doesn’t expect to find outside his home is a number of police vehicles, the house now part of a crime scene in which a brutal murder has taken place. Martin Tate is nowhere to be seen so has Leah had a lucky escape or is her nightmare just beginning??

With such a brilliant and chilling start I was excited to begin this journey into the unknown, unsure what the author had in mind for these two characters. My first thoughts were that Leah would become a prime suspect in this murder investigation but instead events take a far more sinister turn. The police believe she could be in danger herself, her husband too so the chase is on to capture the killer before he can strike again. However, the killer has other plans for Leah which she must comply with in order to stay safe. What will she decide to do? Make the sensible decision to let the police do their job or enter into a game in which there are no rules and the consequences of losing don’t bear thinking about?

It’s my opinion that this thriller is very much a mixed bag of good and not so very good elements. This storyline begins so strongly with a surprising twist that augurs well for the rest of the novel and I thought the ending was inspired and clever but everything in between didn’t match up to my initial expectations. It’s frustrating when this happens but I think there are a number of reasons why I was left feeling disappointed. To a certain degree the author has created a wonderfully wicked and monstrous character in the shape of the ‘good neighbour’ Martin Tate, so that there is an undercurrent of creepiness throughout, keeping your senses on high alert for signs of danger which lurks around every corner .Coupled with some pretty gruesome scenarios you are kept in a heightened state of anxiety at what may befall some of these characters so in that sense this makes for a gripping and nail biting read. You can never quite prepare yourself for what’s coming next, knowing you’re in the presence of evil yet Leah’s frankly insane,foolhardy behaviour tips this storyline into the realms of the unbelievable. There were too many occasions when I had to question her actions, wondering whether she’s incredibly brave or incredibly stupid! I think the easiest way to sum up events that transpire following her ill timed car accident is that they represent a high risk, dangerous game of ‘ catch me if you can’ which Leah willingly entertains, her vulnerability targeted so that she becomes a plaything for her puppet master. The stakes are high and collateral damage is inevitable so you can expect this game to amass a few innocent casualties as it winds its way to a terrifying conclusion.

The weakness of this thriller lies in the lack of backstories for the two main characters which would add much needed flesh to their bones. Instead the author skims over their past histories, offering the barest of insights into their backgrounds so I never felt I truly understood what had led them all to this moment in time. I couldn’t imagine Leah beyond a woman stuck in a loveless marriage intent on behaving in the most foolhardy, frankly ridiculous of ways, nor visualise Elliot other than a coldhearted man who may or may not also be unfaithful or contemplate Martin Tate as anything beyond the monster he’s allowed himself to become. I was desperate to know the reasons WHY these three characters have reached their current state of being, exasperated by writing that only scratches the surface and offers no satisfying answers.

Although I preferred The Good Neighbour to R J Parker’s previous novel While I Slept I still have reservations about the plausibility of Leah’s behaviour and whether she happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time or if she’s being deliberately targeted. If it’s the latter which I assume it is, then I’ve failed to fathom out how, even though I can grasp the reasons why. Perhaps you’ll have better luck! This is a quick read so if you have a few hours to spare and can overlook the improbable behaviour of the lead female character then I promise you too will be held to ransom by this storyline that delivers in terms of the fear factor. My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC copy.

After crashing her car on a dark country road Leah doesn't know what to do until she spots the light on in a nearby house. Martin Tate opens up his home to Leah phoning the emergency services and letting her charge her phone. The next morning Leah goes back to thank Martin but finds the house swarming with police and a dead body in the bedroom. The deceased is the homeowner and is not Martin Tate. Just who was Martin Tate and what does he want from Leah? The cat and mouse game soon begins.

The action in this book is fast paced and twisted. I did mark it down as I felt no connection at all to the main characters. I found Leah and Elliot madly infuriating. The story line also got a bit far fetched at some points which put me off.

What a rollercoaster of a book, the story starts off as Leah was driving home on a dark night and ends up hitting a deer and needs a tow truck but of course her cell phone is dead. Leah sees a house in the distance and decides to see if she can use their phone, a man named Tate answers the door and is very kind to help her but Leah is feeling weird about the situation and has passed out twice now from shock but how long had she been passed out? and what were the intentions of this nice neighbor? the next day she goes back to the house to give the neighbor a bottle of wine for helping her and the house is swarmed with cops, there was a tragic accident. The generous man she met last night was not the owner of the house in fact the owner of the house was upstairs and Tate had killed her.

I read this book in 24 hours it was definitely one you cant put down!

I found this to be a fast paced gripping read which kept me interested from the beginning. All the characters were excellent and it was well written.

I can definitely recommend this book and thank you to Netgalley and Harper Collins One more Chapter for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for the arc of The Good Neighbour by R.J Parker.

4 stars- This follows Leah Talbot whom is driving home alone on Valentine's Day when she accidnetally hits a deer.. and ends up wrecking her car,... Sadly her phone battery is all out, she see's a house nearby so she goes to knock for help to ask if she can use the phone to call the recovery team to collect her car as well as her husband too. When she gets to this house there is a man whom is named Martin Tate, there is some sort of connection between the two to the fact Martin actually calls his own recovery team to Leah's Aide. Leah goes back to Martin's the next day to give him a present of some wine to say thank you for what he did... but when she got there to find out that the house is cordoned off by police and that in fact the man who answered the door Martin doesn't actually live there but in fact is the murderer of the woman who ACTUALLY lives there!!! (This was a shock for me!!)

This was such a fast paced, gripping and very interesting and crazy book, with lots of unexpected twists and turns and definitely some shocks! Loved this very much!

4 STARS⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Lies We Tell by RJ Parker

Some days are just filled to the brim! For Leah Talbot driving late at night returning home to an empty house, she hits a deer, kills it, then has to move the corpse off the road so as to avoid other drivers crashing into it. Then her phone is dead. Never mind, she will walk to the next lot of houses; ah, there is one with lights on. I will try there. The whole of the action takes place in 24 hours.

During her encounter with the home-owner (Martin Tate) who assists her by letting her use the phone, the bathroom and even calls the police for her – she is utterly charmed by him, hesitant but interested: oh and of course they kiss. Naturally?

Interestingly enough, the following day, as goes to see Martin Tate once more, she is met by the police, Martin was not the homeowner. She has been murdered – the previous night.
Clearly, you have to suspend belief in reading this novel, but suspend, suspend. This is really fast paced thriller which I thoroughly enjoyed even though it is a stretch – but then again I also believe in fairies.

Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

This book centres around Leah. Leah is married to Elliot, but their marriage is pretty much dead in the water. They sleep in separate rooms and have separate lives, and only communicate the practicalities of living together. Leah thinks Elliot may be seeing someone else, but can’t be so sure. She works from home, and helps care for her father, who has Alzheimer’s. On Valentine’s Day, she is driving home, after being at a work thing, and hits a deer, which also pretty much ruins the front wheel of her car. Her phone is dead and so can’t ring for help, and she is on a lane which is deserted. Then she remembers a house down the road, and heads for there. When she arrives, she meets Martin Tate, who helps her inside and calls the AA, as well as helping her after she becomes unwell from shock at the car accident. The AA arrive and pick her and her car up and drops her back home. Elliot arrives after her, and she explains about the accident. The next morning, she takes a bottle of wine to drop back to Martin as a thank you for his help, but she’s alarmed when she is faced by a heavy police presence at the house and a dead body inside. Soon after this, she receives a text, and must play along if she wants everything to work out.

This was a really great book, and a really easy read. The writing flows nicely, and the characters were ok, I didn’t really relate to any of them, but I think it’s because I found Leah quite irritating, and I spent a lot of time berating her for her actions, but that made the book better. I’ve read all of this authors works and the books get better and better. Can’t wait for the next one. Would happily recommend to all.

I was so intrigued by the title and blurb that this jumped to the top of my read folder and I did not regret it. This is a very disturbing and also poignant novel about chance encounters and the choices people are forced to make. It had me double checking that our doors and windows were locked on more than one occasion! Threaded through the plot are key issues such as who can a person really trust, what would someone do for love, what does parental love mean and what the impact of aged parents forgetting things that are important to their children has on the choices the (adult) children have to make. I think a lot of energy went into writing this novel and it was worth every moment I spent reading (and being terrified by) it.