Unfortunately I couldn’t finish this book as there was a character in it that had MS & it wasn’t shown in a positive light, nothing against the author, but as someone who ho is living with MS this hit a little too close to home and I had to put it down.

I did get 35% of the way through though and found it a very compelling read, I’m a little sad that I won’t get to see how it all wrapped up.

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy. This book was very average to me. The suspense wasn't there. I didn't realize we were going back and forth through time until the end of part one where it was revealed who the body was. The first part was definitely better than the rest, as it just kind of dragged on for me at that point,.

Sarah Heyes, a woman who's studying journalism at University is moved to Nelson Heights with her son Alex to live. One morning a body is found from a flat on the ground floor. The body is in bad condition, head and arms more like a skeleton. Detective arrived at the crime scene and further investigations are made and they learnt that the body was of a woman. But the flat is registered on the name of a man named Robin Hertley. Who's that woman? Who killed her? How the killer will be caught?
The story has an interesting plot but it also has some loose ends which aren't fixed. Like i didn't understand why the character of detective is introduced if the whole process is done by other characters. In the middle of the story, it seemed like i was reading a simple story. The end of every chapter in the middle of the story didn't force me to read the next one but i kept my reading and felt good that i did so. Although some things could be cut off from the chapters but still its a good read.
Thanks to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for a digital arc.

A good and well thought out tale. Kept my interest and I liked the characters and use of social media was very clever x

The Woman Downstairs tells the story of two women living in the same block of flats.. after a body is found downstairs their stories come together to reveal a shocking twist!

You need to suspend belief with this story but once you do it’s one heck of a read! There’s a bit of social media comments / posts but this was done much better than other books in the same genre. The inner voices of Sarah and Laura didn’t have enough differences for me and I did confused at parts but I still found this an enjoyable, dark read.

A body is found dead in a block of flats, no one had missed them for two years. We follow Sarah and Laura as the devastating truth of what happened is revealed.
What an intriguing and heartbreaking book. The mystery is carefully woven throughout and kept me interested all the way through. But aside from that, the two main characters felt very real and I connected with them so much, that I would have been happy to just follow the thread of their lives indefinitely.
4.5/5 stars.

I much preferred the first half of the book,which felt like a slow reveal of how you could find a body in a flat that nobody had missed for two years.
How does NOBODY notice when a person goes missing??
The second bit in comparison seemed a whole lot of working out the lies,suspecting everyone but knowing exactly where the story was going.
It kept me engaged for a few hours.

The Woman Downstairs is told from the perspective of two characters: Sarah takes up the role as ‘detective’ albeit a journalism student who just happens to live above the flat where a body has been discovered. Laura tells her story in the time leading up to the murder some two years prior.

The characters are well thought out and there is the typical sense of vulnerability you often feel with this genre of book. Despite the numerous characters being closely linked by friends, location and family, Elisabeth Carpenter does a good job of interweaving the storylines so they come together in a believable way.

Carpenter also references and makes use of social media throughout the story. I feel this is not overkilled like in some modern, mystery books, however I am still not sure how I feel about this style that is becoming quite prevalent.

The story itself was not as much a mystery as I had hoped however, I did find it enjoyable and easy enough to read. It will not go down as a must-read for me but I do hope those who come across the book enjoy it.

This story is told by two people. Sarah who is in the present day, a single mother of Alex who is studying journalism and Laura who is telling the story two years previously. Both live in the same block of flats.

When a body is found in one of the flats Sarah is determined to find out more.

Even though each chapter says who it is telling the story, it can get a bit confusing, especially when there is dialogue. That apart, it made for an engaging read. Not an edge of your seat read by any means and there were lots of loose ends that weren't tidied up. There were also too many coincidences going on.

It seems to be an in thing at the moment to use social media content, doesn't really work that well, just adds to the confusion.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for my ARC in return for an honest review.

“Can you ever really know your neighbours?”
Sarah lives with her son in a block of flats. She is a journalist student and also works at the local cafe to help pay the bills. On going out early one morning she finds the police at the flat below hers- they have found a body which has apparently been there for at least a couple of years. She thought the flat was empty. No one really knows who lived there or whom the body may be. She picks up a piece of mail which has blown from the flat and finds a name. Could this be the deceased person and why has no one missed them in all that time? Laura lived with her father until he recently died. She has to find a new job as his savings won’t go very far. Her mother left several years ago and Laura hasn’t been out of the house for a long time herself. We know she has some sort of secret but not quite what. Oooh! This got me enveloped early on and kept me within its pages. I liked the tenacity of Sarah and felt for the naivety of Laura. A cleverly thought out plot and wonderful characters. A gripping read.
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