A hugely enjoyable audiobook!
I wasn't expecting much from this, after not hearing of the author or narrator before. That should not detract from my enjoyment, as the combination of an extremely gripping plot and a wonderfully engaging narrator, makes a perfect thriller for me.
My attention was kept throughout which is hugely rare, and the character of Leah was likeable and I was completely taken in by her escapades and what would happen.
It says a lot when I only take 2 days to finish listening to the book!
Rose Robinson as the narrator is now definitely on my radar, as is Parker!
Thank you HarperCollins Audio, One More Chapter for the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

In essence, this story follows Leah Talbot who, after crashing her car on Valentine's Night, goes to the nearest house for her. The man who answers, Martin Tate, lets her in and helps her by calling the AA. Leah can't help but sense a connection between her and the man who helped her in her hour of need.

The next morning, Leah goes back to the house to thank Tate. Expect Tate isn't there, the police are. The police are called to investigate the murder of the home owner. The female homeowner who lived alone.

The man who opened the door and helped Leah is a killer. But why did he let Leah lived?

Like I said before, this is a popcorn thriller. A candy floss thriller that sucks you in, but is almost forgettable when you finished. And, like with most popcorn, airport thrillers, the start is strong but the ending is ridiculous. A thriller I would read on holiday, on the beach or by the pool with a ice-cold beer or coke. Or could easily be turned into a mid-afternoon made-for-TV thriller (something you would see on Channel 5, the Hallmark Channel or Lifetime).

This is a fun, silly thriller and there are elements I do like. But I have read better thrillers and I have read stronger thrillers that you would happily read on holiday. This is fun, fast paced and easy (I mean, I audiobooked this in less than three days) but it does go very quickly into the unbelievable.

It's like that gif of the raccoon and the candy floss. It's sugary mind-candy fun, but ask it for one question or if you go "Hang on a moment", the story instantly dissolves.

**Listened to the audiobook**

This book definitely started with a bang! Within the first few minutes there's a huge twist that is incredibly sinister and chilling! It made me think about how I would feel if I was in Leah's situation.
I haven't felt spooked by a thriller in a long time, and this book sure made me feel spooked... well the beginning did anyway.

The book started so strongly, but then dipped quite rapidly in my estimations. The ending was so far-fetched and out of control. Considering the opening few chapters, the rest of the book just felt like a dull cat and mouse game. I don't know how a book can go so downhill so quickly.

I enjoyed the narrator of this book, but would have preferred if she had changed up her voice a little more when referring to the different characters.

Overall, this book was really disappointing considering the explosive start. Much better thrillers out there!

This is an enjoyable, fast paced cat and mouse thriller which I listened to in one day. The action is none stop and I enjoyed the story despite being totally frustrated by the stupid decision's made by Leah. There isn't a lot of depth to the characters which made it hard to become invested in them. Nevertheless this was a good listen.

I enjoyed the narration by Rose Robinson, who did a good job with the different voices.

I listened to this as an audiobook and got into it straight away enjoying the quick pace and the fact that it grips you early on.  The chapters are short and keeps you listening on.
I did feel that it started to loose pace towards the end, but there is still that sense of needing to know what's going to happen.
A good easy listen, although if your looking for something with a big twist then perhaps this isn't the one for you.
Overall, I liked it and definitely worth a read.

Leah Talbot hits a deer on a deserted road late one night close to her village, her mobile is out of charge and she spots a light on in a nearby home, so she knocks to see if she can call the police and the AA. Martin Tate answers the door and he’s handsome and charming. He invites Leah in and she finds she has a connection with him. When she returns the next morning to say thank you, the police are there and the sole female resident is dead. It looks like Martin is the killer.

This is a fast-paced thriller that I really enjoyed to begin with. The idea of Leah spending time with a murderer after he just killed and walking away was an interesting idea. As the book progressed, it became a bit far-fetched. The decisions Leah was making did not ring true – a normal person would have called the police and her reasons for withholding certain facts from them did not seem plausible. It looked like the story was building to a big twist, but it didn’t happen! I could see a couple of different endings that could have worked so well, so I was disappointed with the actual predictable ending. It had the potential to be so much more.

I quite enjoyed this one, it was suspenseful and at times a bit heart racing - When Leah has an accident she knocks on the nearest door, where she meets Martin - who just happens to have murdered the person in the house and is VERY interested in Leah. Some of it shows what we are capable of if we feel our life is in danger, when Martin kidnaps Leah's soon to be ex husband he doesn't exactly show any loyalty and leads Martin to her father. Its a little far fetched in the context of him seeing her, becoming obsessed and she then knocks on the door of a house where he is committing. crime, however I did enjoy the suspense and almost horror -

Fast paced, well written, likeable characters and brilliant plot. I couldn’t stop listening to this - will definitely be looking out for more by this author. Great narrator, too.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the audioARC of this book.

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, 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, it isn’t Martin who answers the door this time. It’s the police.
There’s been a brutal murder and the female homeowner is lying dead in a pool of blood upstairs in bed.
There’s no sign of Martin…
Until he comes looking for Leah.

The first few chapters were really gripping and had me hooked, but unfortunately that's where it ended. The plot was completely unbelievable, I didn't relate or like any of the characters so didn't really care what happened to them. There was no real back story or motivation as to why the characters did what they did.
The audio book was well read and easy to listen to, shame about the story.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for a honest review

Leah Talbot hits a deer while driving late at night and ends up killing the deer and damaging her car. She seeks help from the nearest house, which send to be inhabited by the charming and friendly Martin Tate. When she decides to gift him a bottle of wine the next day to show her gratitude, she gets the shock of her life: Martin Tate is the killer of the actual owner of the house. (Not a spoiler; this is revealed on the book cover itself.) What follows is a deadly game of cat and mouse, and Leah scrambling around to make sense of the sudden upheaval of her mundane life.

The book starts off very well and hooks you in till a few chapters after the discovery that Tate is a murderer. Though I wish the tagline on the cover wouldn’t have revealed such an important spoiler, it is still interesting to see Leah initially converse with Tate as if he is a neighbour while you know all the while that he is a “killer” though you don’t have any more details. After this initial interaction though, the plot just goes haywire. It's repetitive, it's dragged out, and it has hardly any surprise twists/thrills. The ending contains the best twist of the book but by then, my interest was dead and buried.

What could have helped was the presence of a strong lead character. Unfortunately, Leah Talbot is one of the silliest leads I've ever seen in a thriller. She takes such foolish decisions at so many points that you can't help but wonder if the entire mess is a result of her stupidity alone. At hardly any point do her decisions make sense, especially when she knows that she is dealing with not just any ordinary criminal but a sadistic psychopath.

What could have also helped (somewhat) was crisper editing. Sadly, the narrative structure and writing style isn't up to the mark. Throughout the book, and especially in the initial chapters, every single action made by Leah gets a sentence of its own. I think except for instinctive actions like breathing or blinking, everything else found a place of mention. A varied sentence structuring might have worked to a certain extent. But we have paras and paras of "Leah (insert verb) A and she (insert verb) B. She (insert verb) C. Leah (insert verb) D. She (insert verb) E." I mean, gerundial and participle modifiers exist in the language for a reason; use them to enhance the thrill!

Another problem with the writing is with the way the chapters are ended. The chapters are very short (which is ok) but end at any possible small suspense.
"Leah opened the door to see who it was." - Chapter ends.
"Leah turned around." - Chapter ends.
"Tate walked in the room." - Chapter ends.
(These are not actual lines from the book but an approximation of how it goes.)
Ending a chapter on important points of suspense is expected in a thriller. But if there's a new chapter at every tiny bit of tension, it just irritates rather than enthrals, especially when you are hearing the audio and at every such point, the next thing you hear is the new chapter number rather than what happened next.

The narrator of the audiobook, Rose Robinson, does a pretty good job, especially with the way she voices Leah and Tate. She helped me complete a book I would have certainly DNFed if I were reading it. 1 of the stars I’ve given is entirely for her efforts to insert life into a dead book.


Thank you, NetGalley and HarperCollins UK Audio, for the Advanced Review Copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and R J Parker for an ARC in return for an honest review.

This is the first book by R J Parker that I have read. This is a great book, it is dark, thrilling and scary. It is very well written and the story flows nicely. This book was very clever and with a few twists.

could not download. Now I can not get this off the "your shelf" and I have to write at least a 50-word review or letter review.

Leah crashes her car one night and luckily there’s a house nearby with lights on. She knocks, and a charming man answer and lets her in to use his phone. She goes back the next day to drop off a thank you gift and there are police surrounding the house. There’s been a murder. The person who lived there. Except...the victim is a woman. What does this mean?

This book! There were so many twists and turns, and although I had started to guess what would happen after a bit, that didn’t stop me enjoying this book at all. Even when you think everything is resolved there’s one final twist!

A great read, I would definitely recommend.

A very enjoyable thriller!

When Leah hits a deer, she’s far from imagining that the lovely man whose house she finds refuge in, and even shares a moment with, is a serial killer; when she finds out... it is too late!

Fast paced and easy to listen to, time flew by whilst engulfed in this audiobook.

I can only recommend!

Thank you Net Galley and One More Chapter / HarperCollins UK Audio for giving me the opportunity to listen to this advance copy.

Fast paced and exciting, this book was a sharp and clever read. There is not an awful lot of back story and filler which for me is a good thing. The drama starts in the opening chapter and continues throughout, but because of this I felt I didn’t form a real attachment to the characters. A really good, easy listen, the narration was fitting to the story. A great read for lovers of quick and clever crime and mystery novels

I received a copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book really intrigued me. Leah has an accident on her way home. She finds a house nearby and asks for help. The man who answers the door is kind enough to help her out. The next day she goes back to thank him and finds the house cordoned off and p9lice guarding the house. She finds out that somebody has been murdered.

The premise that I have just outlined was the best part of the book for me. After this it all goes downhill. I really didn’t understand why Leah did the things she did. I was constantly rolling my eyes and the plot just didn’t keep my attention. There was also unnecessary violence in this book that is something I normally avoid if I can

⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ (more a 3.5)

If you fancy a fast paced, dark thriller this is your book

I did enjoy this book, especially at the beginning and was gripped & intrigued straight away.

I liked the way it was set over the course of approximately 24 hours

I did however find myself frustrated with the main character and the decisions she made.

I didn’t feel as if I knew the characters very well at all

I was also waiting for a bigger twist

All in all - I would read this if you want a dark, fast read

With an OMG opening The Good Neighbour is sure to have you hooked from the start, it did me when Leah Talbot crashes her car and goes to a nearby house for help. Martin is happy to help her. When she goes round the next day to thank him she is greeted by the police. There is no sign of Martin and brutal murder. What unfolds is a gripping, addictive story that will keep you guessing until the end.

This story has plenty of OMG moments and twists and turns. The narrator has done an awesome job of bringing the characters to life. This audio is only only 7 hours 4 minutes. I listened to it in no time at all. In fact It took me only a few days, once I started it, I found myself listening to it any moment I could.

It is a face paced, creepy listen. I feel that the author is going back to his darker twisty side that I love. The Good Neighbour is a highly entertaining audio/story that I highly recommend.

I would like to thank One More Chapter for giving me the chance to listen to an early copy of this via Netgalley. All thoughts are my own and not biased in any way.

Narrator was so good and really brought the characters to life, this book had be hooked from first chapter. Starts off with a car accident on valentines night, an intense story unfolds and ends after five murders. Flowed well and kept up suspense to end. Thank you #Netgalley for the audiobook.

The narration really brought this book to life. It was fantastic listen - I really got ingrossed in the story and wanted to know more.

Yes you do have to suspend belief in some instances but it was all part of the storyline. It made sense.

At the start I got really confused about where this story was going but then all the ties come together and made real sense.

I was provided by a free advance copy by the publisher and netgalley but the review is all my own.