A Stranger in the House|The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

Author: Shari Lapena
Original title: A Stranger in the House
Edition Language: English
Series: no
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery
Format: Audio book
Read by: Tanja Fornaro
Duration: 9h02m
Goodreads

Blurb:
     Karen and Tom Krupp are happy—they’ve got a lovely home in upstate New York, they’re practically newlyweds, and they have no kids to interrupt their comfortable life together. But one day, Tom returns home to find Karen has vanished—her car’s gone and it seems she left in a rush. She even left her purse—complete with phone and ID—behind.
       There's a knock on the door—the police are there to take Tom to the hospital where his wife has been admitted. She had a car accident, and lost control as she sped through the worst part of town.
      The accident has left Karen with a concussion and a few scrapes. Still, she’s mostly okay—except that she can’t remember what she was doing or where she was when she crashed. The cops think her memory loss is highly convenient, and they suspect she was up to no good.

My thoughts:
       I did not enjoy it as much as I was hoping, judging by the popularity of it, because the plot was somewhat predictable and the characterizations seemed to me unrealistic at some points. Also, I could not relate to the characters and found myself annoyed at the decisions they made throughout the novel. The last three pages were quite interesting, the rest of the story was not impressive. I would not recommend it.

Rating: 

         2/5 

Author: Shari Lapena
Original title: The Couple Next Door
Edition Language: English
Series: no
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery
Format: Audio book
Read by: Friederike Kempter
Duration: 6h43m
Goodreads

Blurb:
     Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all-a loving relationship, a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately focuses on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story.
     Inside the curtained house, an unsettling account of what actually happened unfolds. Detective Rasbach knows that the panicked couple is hiding something. Both Anne and Marco soon discover that the other is keeping secrets, secrets they've kept for years.

My thoughts:
       I liked this novel more than the above one, though the characters are also plastic and unrealistic. What I appreciated is the multiple hints in this or that direction, so we could constantly guessing who's done it. I guessed somewhere in the middle, but still I wanted to know why, so the story was going nicely for me. The ending though, was a bummer, which made the whole story pointless.

Rating: 

         3/5