Book Review: Someone We Know

The title is a dead giveaway — or as is the case in many whodunits, the killer is almost likely always Someone We Know. And author Shari Lapena takes this overdone conceit to narrate a sly tale of lies, adultery, and murder set in a fictional close-knit neighbourhood situated in Hudson River Valley. What thus opens as a case of disappearance soon becomes something else. Evidence accumulates. Surprises are revealed. Marriages are ripped apart... You know the drill. If the story's structure couldn't be any more predictable, its rotating cast of dubious characters and a couple of strategically placed red herrings help keep things afloat. Matters of characterisation and mood register less here than the mechanics of the plot, but Lapena, to her credit, offers up one effective suspense set piece after another. Fans of domestic thrillers, look no further.