Lowland Way is an idyllic neighbourhood in South London where the houses are beautiful and harmony reigns - that is until new neighbours Darren and Jodie Booth move in to the street and they don't seem to be too interested in harmonious living! Loud music played at all hours, renovations and ugly building work at all times of the day and night and running a used car business from the front garden are just some of the reasons why they are not welcomed into the neighbourhood.
The neighbourhood - and property prices! - hit an all time low as the community unite against the Booths and it's not long before tragedy strikes Lowland Way and someone ends up dead. 
The suspect list is long and to be honest there is barely a likeable character in the whole street but I found this just added to mystery and I could quite imagine any one of them being the guilty party.
The story is told from varied POV including police interviews which I feel worked very well and kept the fast paced feel. 
I enjoyed this book and found the premise original and interesting.
3 stars and thanks to Netgalley and publishers for an advance review copy.

What would you do if someone moved into your picture perfect neighborhood and started to destroy it? How far would you go to stop them? The answers to those questions is basically the plot of Those People. Though there's nothing wrong with this book and I was always interested enough to keep on reading and find out where the story would go, there's also nothing truly exciting or exceptional about it.

An average domestic thriller perfect for a beach or plane read.

Having read the brilliant Our House last year I was really looking forward to this new book by Louise Candlish.  It deals with the subject we all dread – nightmare neighbours.  The residents of Lowland Way live in a suburban paradise – a nice community minded area of London, with nice neighbours who all get on.  Until Darren and his girlfriend Jodie move into the house on the corner.  Then they all have to deal with his loud music day and night, his noisy home renovations, and the used car business he runs from his house.   Until one day a horrific death shocks them all.

This is a slow burner, and although I didn’t enjoy it as much as Our House, it is still a really interesting story, the writing is superb and I would urge everyone to stick with it.  There’s quite a big cast of characters to get your head around, and to be honest I don’t think there’s a likeable one amongst them!  I’m quite glad I don’t live on Lowland Way, even though some of the houses sound fabulous.  In the end I even felt sorry for Darren and Jodie.  The setting is painted so well and you can imagine the gorgeous houses, and then the eyesore on the corner with the sound of power tools throughout the day and loud rock music into the early morning.

Wow, speak of neighbours from hell! I'm not funny, I would probably also lose it and kill someone......
Very gripping and strangely entertaining book - I could relate to the frustrations of the other neighbours!
Recommended.

This book took me a while to get into because there are a lot of characters but I am so glad I persevered because it was fantastic! The story was engaging, enthralling, enticing and with so many twists and turns that you can't ever guess what is going to happen next. I really enjoyed this book and I would highly recommend it!

3.5 stars
I am a fan of Louise Candlish and will buy her books even without reading the blurb.  However, I must admit that Those People was disappointing. As all her books, it is well written and the characters are realistic and believable but the pace is quite slow and not much is really happening. By the time I got to the end,  I've lost my interest and didn't really care about what happens. I hope this is just a dip and Louise Candlish's next book will be as good as her others. 
Many thanks to Netgalley and publishers Simon & Shuster for the ARC.

This was a real slow-burner, I really struggled to stay interested in this. I need action and excitement, I appreciate the format and the ideas, I just need more.

Those People is the second book I’ve read by Louise Candlish, the first being “Our House”. Those People unfortunately isn’t in my view as good as Our House.
This book is about a street, it’s not just “A Street” it is “The Street” with helpful neighbours that are all friends, with car free sundays enabling all the children to play in the street, free of any vehicles so ensuring everything is nice and safe, that is until Darren and Jodie move into number one, having inherited this beautiful house they then tear it apart to the background of loud music till early morning and treating the road as their car sales showroom. Then as you find out at the beginning, Darren has been found dead and here we follow the police enquiry into who did it. 
The premise of the book was good but the layout made it long and at times repetitive as residents being interviewed gave the same information out. 
I did enjoy it but think it could have been shorter and the characters could have been written about in a more personal way so ensuring readers felt connected to them as it was I only felt connected to Sissy and none of the other residents.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

Firstly, yes, you say it ‘THOSE people’ with a shuddery sneer of horror!!

Louise Candlish writes about houses, streets, communities and the people that live in them, her take on neighbours and ‘hoods is second to none, ‘those people’  continues this!

Lowland Way is perfect, an idyll in South London, not too far from ‘estates’ BUT far enough, the neighbours all get on, why they even have a ‘safe street sunday’ where cars lay idle and children play freely
Heaven 
Until its turned into Hell
New neighbours arrive at Number 1, Darren and Jodie, loud, uncouth, ‘common’, they are going to change the street forever, and they couldn’t care a less
Watsapp groups are started, FB secret groups updated with these intruders movements and neighbours form allegiances and stick together to rid the street and themselves of this menace
Never has a street been more united
Until tragedy strikes
And they are all under suspicion, now the ties that bind them loosen and fractures appear, maybe the neighbours are not as close, or as goodytwoshoes as we think
Brimming with characters and alive with descriptive vocabulary this tale moves you into Lowland Way and had me ‘setting up camp’ there to see exactly what happened, who was guilty and what would become of all the neighbours
As said at the beginning the author writes  just superbly on these themes
Only disappointment was it ended quite abruptly, I would have been happy for another 400 pages
Seamlessly eye waveringly great fiction
10/10  5 Stars

Grabs you from the start
Great plot
Good characterization (even if you don't really like them)
Full of crafty twists and turns
Cleverly written book and a must read

Thank you netgalley, Louise Candish and Simon & Schuster UK for allowing me to read and review this book.

Those People

I can only say I am completely in awe of Louise Candlish. Her writing style is sleek, slick and stylish. The characters are mostly unlikeable but that only seems to draw you in further to the story. 

Those People is about a well to do neighbourhood in London, the neighbours all get on so well and live in a perfect suburban bubble consisting of play out Sundays when all the cars are moved off the road to allow the children to play outside safely. 

Everything is running smoothly until the horrible neighbours Darren and Jodie move in. I felt myself raging at these neighbours as they were as obnoxious as you could possibly get with their loud metal music and second hand cars parked everywhere. 

But then it made me look at myself as the snob within me made me feel that this man was less that human and I hated him and I didn’t like that aspect of myself. Just as the focus is turned on all of the nice neighbours in the book. Louise has the ability to dissect the human psyche and push it to the limit. The effect those people had on the relationships that appeared to be happy is truly amazing. 

The book describes how far people will go if they are pushed to the limit which these neighbours were. It also shows the futility of the law abiding neighbours when faced with people like this who have no fear of the law and no regard for the extreme antisocial behaviour they are carrying out. 

This book is actually quite scary and I hope that I never get neighbours like this. 

The plot is so clever with its twists and turns but the observational psychology is completely genius. 

I loved Louise’s previous book Our House which was also devastatingly clever. 

I think Louise’s piece de resistance is the fact that at the end of the book we are always in for another heart sinking shock which leaves us thinking Oh Sh*t! 

Absolutely bloody brilliant.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and all the characters. I could really relate to the storyline as unfortunately I have had 3 sets of the neighbours from hell over the years and know how inept the local councils are in dealing with this situation.  However I was slightly let down by the ending, I really wanted some massive reveal I never saw coming but the ending was clear from some time before it came. This would not stop me recommending this book to a friend though. A true account of how some people's behaviour can affect others

Well this book just had me gripped from the moment I read the first page until the moment I reached the end. I had no idea what was going to happen and I absolutely had to find out. It is definitely one of those books that will stick with you long after you finish it!



This book is told in such a clever way that reminded me a little of Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty. You know that something bad has happened but you only discover what, why and how as you turn each page. This is an achingly slow reveal but that makes for an incredibly quick read since you won't be able to stop turning the pages. The structure is made up up police interviews and then a chapter told from one characters point of view. I love books with multiple points of view and it really made me feel immersed in the story. Half of the book takes place before an incident has occurred and the other half after that incident has occurred and I really think this helped keep the pace snappy and keep my wanting to read on...and on and on!



This book is somewhat different for me because i really didn't like any of the characters involved. I really began to hate most of them but boy did that make me want to find out what happened to all of them. These characters are so intriguing though-I found myself thinking about them when I wasn't reading the book and trying to work out how their stories would play out and what exactly was going on in their head. 



This book is definitely and thriller and I spent my time worrying what was going to happen next and to whom and I didn't really realise how it was going to end until the very end of the book. Whilst there are some violent moments in the book there is nothing too gory or too scary and so for me it was just the perfect balance of action and plot. 



In case you can't tell I really enjoyed this book. I don't want to go into anymore details because I don't want to give any spoilers away-you have to see for yourself. Order this one now-you won't be able to put it down!

My thanks to Simon and Schuster U.K. for an eARC via NetGalley of Louise Candlish’s latest domestic noir, ‘Those People’ in exchange for an honest review.

Lowland Way in South London is a suburban paradise: lovely homes and friendly neighbours. They have even worked together to establish a weekly event Play Out Sunday to allow local children to play in the street without fear of traffic.

However, when the occupant of No 1 Lowland Way dies, the house is inherited by her nephew, Darren Booth. He moves in with his partner, Jodie, along with a number of manky cars including a white van. Yes, a white van man has moved into their paradise! From first contact there is friction with the existing residents and it swiftly escalates into war.

As always with these kind of novels I will avoid saying too much about the plot. Still the premise of new people perceived as unsuitable moving into an established community provides plenty of scope for tension. Certainly stress about the availability of on-street parking is something that I am sure will strike a chord with some of readers.

Each chapter focuses on a particular character with many of them headed by notes from inquiries conducted by the Metropolitan Police that teases the reader about events to come.

None of the characters were particularly likeable (apart from Tuppy, the golden retriever, and the local swans). Still rolling my eyes at everyone being rather awful was part of the fun. 

While not a hundred percent my cup of tea, I would expect it to be very popular. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Yay!!! Louise Candlish is back with a stunning and unpredictable new novel. I have been waiting for her new book since I finished reading Our House and I wasn’t disappointed. My nose was stuck in this novel for two straight days and I couldn’t put it down.

I love how each chapter is introduced by one of the characters being interviewed by the police for something that happened in the neighbour’s house (in true Big Little Lies fashion). What do we discover from these interviews? We know that the people in Lowland Way have been complaining about their new neighbours for months. We know that a terrific accident happened. We know that someone got hurt. Who did get hurt? Who is responsible for the accident? And how did things go so badly? To find out, the author takes us back to the beginning, when Lowland Way was a beautiful quiet neighbourhood where the street was closed off on Sunday so children could play freely and safely outside, where the people living there are not just neighbours but also friends, where everyone is happy without a care in the world. Until Darren and Jodie move there. From then on there is loud music, house working, and old cars parked in the street at every hour of the day and the night. As the residents try to find a solution to their problem, their secrets come to light and it seems that Lowland Way is not as idyllic as we thought…

Louise Candlish created a cast of characters that are completely unlikable. They are selfish, arrogant, and self-entitled, and just a few of them got my sympathy. A closed community of well-off families made of well-behaved wives and husbands with high-flying jobs: these characters kept me glued to the pages because I wanted to see how far they would go to protect their lifestyles and they didn’t disappoint. The story is told from different points of views and, as I read their sides of the story, they all seemed guilty of something.

THOSE PEOPLE is a carefully-plotted novel full of twists and with a surprising ending that shocked me and made me laugh at the same time (you will really need to read it to see the irony of the brilliant ending of the novel). Highly recommended!!!

A huge thank you to Simon and Schuster UK and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of the novel.

I loved reading Candlish's last title Our House earlier this year so was delighted to see there was another book on the horizon for release! There is a lot about the titles that are kind of similar, in particular as they are based in residential settings. The premise of this story was pretty straight forward and it included a lot of interesting characters, however, I found it really difficult to stick with the book whilst I was reading it. There were only two dramatic things that happened so everything in-between that was kind of lost with me. It very much sits in the crime genre and had a great writing style but I was hoping for more!

Wow, Louise Candlish is back with a bang! Those People follows the story of a utopian neighbourhood which rapidly descends into a dystopian nightmare due to selfish, badly behaved couple Darren and Jodie moving into the street. Before Lowland Way was apparently a quiet, respectful and friendly place to live but now people are living in fear after some explosive bust-ups. If the residents of the street thought the arguments and vile threats were bad then just wait until a cataclysmic incident takes place which will change everyone forever. So are the new residents, Darren and Jodie, the problem or does the street look down on them viewing them as inferior leading to them being ostracised? 

This is a refreshingly original domestic thriller with a cast of intensely unlikeable characters; characters you will love to hate. Right from the get-go you are pulled into the story and held hostage by the superb writing which flows well page-to-page. It's beautifully plotted and the incident about halfway through the book had my jaw on the floor — something that rarely happens these days. You can always rely on Ms Candlish to provide a quality tale of suburban noir. It certainly shows the very worst humankind has to offer, and although we know many of this bullying nastiness goes on to read about it through fictional characters still has the power to shock. A truly gripping page-turner. Many thanks to Simon & Schuster UK Fiction.

I have read other Louise Cavendish books so was delighted when my wish was granted, and I was approved for These People.

The title says it all.  Those People are Darren and Jodie who move into a suburban paradise.  The street has Play Days, and people can park their cars in front of their houses.  Privileged people who are most disgruntled when Darren and Jodie move in and start to lower the tone of the neighbourhood. 

Not to mention what the Darren’s car business is doing to the property prices.

The novel starts in the middle.  Something has happened to Darren and his neighbours are closing ranks.

I found this novel quite a funny one to read.  The nasty ones in the novel are not Darren and Jodie, who whilst being inconsiderate with their loud music and parties, did not go out initially to be nasty.  What goes on is like some Soap Opera drama, but at the end of it I really felt bad for Darren and Jodie, who turned out not to be the horrible people living in the street.

Its hard to do this review without issuing spoilers.  For me, the incident half way through the book was unexpected with a complete OMG open mouth.  But the outcome of this came to soon, and I found the novel lost its way after that.  I was left at the end slightly unsatisfied that  most of the self-entitled will go back to their on street parking and Sunday playdays,

Thanks for letting me read an advance copy of this book.  I really enjoyed Louise Candlish's last book and this one was also a good read.  More complex that you realise.

"Those People" by Louise Candlish is a wonderful and thoroughly enjoyable tale of suburban noir.

I really loved this book. The plot was well-written and brilliantly executed and the author's masterful structuring helped to make sure that I got to know all of the different characters really well, thus making it easier to remember who was who. In fact, I had no trouble at all keeping all of the people straight in my mind. Most of them though were not particularly likeable! This, however, was a necessary part of the story and I am sure it was intended. I found that whenever I started to bond with one just a little, I was then made aware of just how truly nasty and horrible some of the residents were.

Regardless, the overarching feeling I had while reading "Those People" was not its nastiness, but that it was such an engrossing and thrilling read. I was always happy to pick it up, eagerly anticipating what was going to happen next. 

This was an extremely worthwhile read and I really need to pick up a book from Louise Candlish's extensive backlist.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel, at my own request, from Simon & Schuster UK via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.