Very dark and twisty, packed with secrets and a very unreliable narrator what is not to love. Another great read from Sharon Bolton with some clever twists.

The author did a good job creating an unreliable narrator with the first-person storyteller. I liked the alternating chapters between the present day and April/May the previous year. In the present-day chapters, I didn't like the Ingathering event. It felt like a cult. I didn't like the character Jago in the previous year's chapters. Jago gave me a feeling of unease and unpleasantness.

Sharon Bolton is fast becoming one of my favourite authors. The Neighbour's Secret is a fantastic, twisty read that i couldn't put down. 5 Stars.

This isn't Sharon at her best. The characters are rather bland and not rememberable and it is a tad far fetched in places. I thought the ending seemed rushed too.

While the unnamed narrator has been in hospital for an unspecified operation, a new neighbour has moved into the bakery next door in this Lake District village. Our narrator is a strange person and seems to be sly and a bit manipulative, and to enjoy the power that knowing other people’s secrets gives. The narrator quickly suspects that the new neighbour, Anna Brown, isn’t being completely honest about herself. At first, then, the narrator’s attempts to befriend Anna are simply as a means to pry into her life, but soon they form a kind of tentative friendship. Meantime, a young girl, Constance, has taken to hanging round Anna. Constance is in the village to attend the In-Gathering, a large and rather secretive annual gathering of what appears to be some kind of religion or cult. There are even rumours that each year a young girl dies during the gathering, but the police seem unconcerned. The second strand of the book takes place a year or so earlier, concerning a young boy, Jago Moore, who ran amok one day at school and stabbed his teacher. A psychiatrist, also initially unnamed but female, is carrying out an assessment of his mental state for the court, and she’s becoming somewhat frightened of him, not without reason. Jago is good-looking, strong, creepy, manipulative and possibly psycopathic.

At the point where we’ve learned all this I had no idea what was going on, but didn’t care because it’s such an enjoyable read. The narrator is not only unnamed for most of the book, but ungendered, hence my clumsy attempt not to use pronouns for her/him/them. I’m going to go with they/them so as not to spoil the mystery, though my soul revolts at the grammatical horror of that. They are quite clearly an unreliable narrator, openly willing to mislead the reader and equally open about the fact that they are not a very nice person. But they are highly amusing, in a wicked kind of way. It’s also fairly obvious that the two storylines are connected in some way, but how? It’s easy to make guesses – both the author and our unreliable narrator are thrusting whole shoals of red herrings at us, and leading us up one garden path after another. But unless I’m particularly naive and gullible (which is quite possible), I’m willing to bet that every reader will fail to spot those twists that spring up to trip us just when we think we’re getting somewhere!

The church/cult gathering is nicely creepy, and we see how the village, who make quite a lot of money out of the large numbers who come to attend it, choose to look the other way and not question what might be going on up at Gathering Hall where it all happens. Even creepier is Jago, whose persecution of his psychiatrist is wonderfully done for maximum shiveriness. But our narrator is the creepiest of them all, and revels in making us realise it. The underlying story is dark, but the humour keeps the overall tone light and entertaining.

You need to suspend your disbelief a lot for this one, but it’s worth it. It’s a tour de force of the “OMG! I did not see that coming!” type of novel, which usually drives me up the wall. But in Bolton’s talented and irreverent hands it becomes like a clever trick played on the reader rather than something to be taken too seriously. It becomes clear pretty quickly that absolutely no one is quite what they seem, and that there are oodles of secrets to be revealed. And each new reveal made me gasp and laugh – what could be more fun than that! I’m not going to reveal any more about the plot, because the surprises are what make it so enjoyable. Hugely entertaining, totally page-turning and highly recommended!

Another one of Sharon Bolton’s that I have enjoyed. It kept me hooked and kept me guessing, it was a little far fetched which is why I haven’t rated it quite as highly as others, it was probably a 3.5 rather than a 3 star read as I would still recommend it as it was fun and intriguing just not quite as good as her others as she has such a high standard of thriller writing.
It does give chaos with all the secrets and lies but nonetheless I enjoyed and would recommend!

Bolton does a fantastic job of building tension from the very first page, keeping you on the edge of your seat with a plot full of secrets, lies, and unexpected turns. The story is cleverly layered, and I loved how Bolton wove together the lives of the characters, revealing just enough to keep you hooked but never quite giving away too much.

The characters are complex and intriguing, and as the mystery unfolds, it becomes clear that no one is quite who they seem. While the pacing slows down in a couple of spots, the thrilling conclusion more than makes up for it. If you love a dark, twist-filled psychological thriller with plenty of suspense and shocking revelations, The Neighbour’s Secret is definitely one to pick up!

Sharon Bolton never disappoints. This book had me hooked from the start. I highly recommend this book to my fellow thriller lovers. The pages are simply unputdownable.

I absolutely LOVE Sharon Bolton's books and was really excited to get a copy of The Neighbour's Secret from Netgalley.

Anna has just moved to St Alban's Chapel, a relatively quiet and remote village in the Lake District to open up a bakery and escape her past.
However, it soon becomes apparent that not all is what it seems, when strange things start happening during the annual festival run by church. Known as The Gathering, families from all over the UK, descend on this little village for a strange and extremely secretive ceremony which centres around the teenager churchgoers.

When a young girl and her mother visit Anna's bakery it becomes clear the girl is in distress and potentially danger too and Anna starts to look into The Gathering in more detail and becomes alarmed to learn that 3 girls have gone missing over the last 3 years during the ceremonies

The story is mainly narrated by Anna's neighbour who lives in the middle of the 3 terraced house and has an indepth knowledge of the villagers and their strange traditions. Throughout the book, it's obvious the main narrator doesn't like Anna very much but quickly finds themselves getting involved in the investigation and trying to help the young girl,

There is also a dual time frame story featuring a rather disturbed young man who is undergoing therapy having had a violent and frenzied attack on a school teacher.

Slowly and cleverly the two stories begin to merge together and the reader is led on a twisty and twisted tale of secrets, murder and obsession.

I absolutely loved this book. There is one particular OMG twist which I absolutely did not see coming and turned the entire story on it's head for me personally.

Sharon Bolton is an expert at stand-alone thrillers that will leave you second- guessing yourself. The Neighbour's Secret is a dual plot thriller, firstly focussing on the sinister goings on of a closed off church group at their annual Ungathering Festival; and secondly following teenager Jago Moore as he goes through therapy sessions following a series of violent incidents at school and home.

Both plot-lines are brilliantly developed and I quickly became invested in what was going on, desperate to find out how the stories were going to be resolved. There are some great characters and devious plots that twist and turn in ways I was not anticipating.

The narrator of Sharon Bolton’s new novel is the very definition of a nosy neighbour. Living in the middle of three adjoining cottages with very thin walls makes it easy to hear the people on either side: the narrator knows what music they listen to and what they watch on television, who they speak to on the telephone and what time they get out of bed in the morning. In the evening, as it gets dark and people turn on their lights, it’s time to take a walk through the streets of the small Cumbrian village specifically to pry through illuminated windows to see the residents going about their daily lives. This is why the narrator becomes frustrated when Anna Brown moves in next door and stubbornly remains a woman of mystery, giving away very few clues to her past.

Yet the narrator is also a mystery, reluctant to share personal information with either the reader or the other characters. For a long time we don’t even know their name, which is why I’m being equally secretive in this review! Let’s focus on the plot instead. There are two separate storylines that alternate throughout the book, starting to come together towards the end. In the first, the narrator and Anna, who have formed a tense friendship, investigate the disappearances of several teenage girls at the InGathering, a yearly event held by the local church. The details of this event are – like everything else in this book – shrouded in mystery, but the church seems to resemble a cult with rituals and traditions that they prefer to keep hidden.

The other narrative is set a year earlier and describes the meetings between a psychiatrist and her patient, seventeen-year-old Jago Moore. Jago stabbed one of his teachers at school and the authorities want an assessment of his medical condition before deciding what action to take. This storyline seems quite unrelated to the other, until we start to suspect who the psychiatrist is. Again, though, not everything is as it seems and there are multiple twists and turns as we head towards the conclusion of the book!

I was able to guess some of the plot twists before they happened, but not all of them and not always very far in advance. It’s easy to make certain assumptions about some of the characters and situations in the book, but these assumptions aren’t necessarily correct and Bolton very cleverly creates confusion and misdirection from beginning to end.

The central mystery surrounding the disappearing girls at the InGathering was actually the part of the novel that interested me the least and I found the revelations about what was really going on at the church quite far-fetched. The Jago Moore sections, however, were chilling – Jago is clever and manipulative and I found his behaviour terrifyingly believable. The whole book has a dark, creepy atmosphere; the village of St Abel’s Chapel in the Lake District should have been an idyllic setting, but with so much secrecy and with most of the action taking place in the middle of the night, it feels like a sinister place rather than a picturesque one.

Although this isn’t one of my absolute favourite books by Sharon Bolton, I did enjoy it and liked it better than last year’s The Fake Wife. It seems that her next book, coming in 2025, will be another standalone; I’m looking forward to it but would also like a return to the Lacey Flint series, which I love!

Thank you to Netgalley and Orion for my ARC copy!

The neighbours secrets by Sharon Bolton is an absolute belter of a book and i LOVED it.

I honestly didn't have a clue where the story was going to take me at all. I didn't know where all the characters were going to fit in and It kept me guessing and trying to figure the book out the whole way through.

The twists and turns in this book were AMAZING.

One of the best books I've read this year

I really enjoyed the fast paced storyline and the dual timeline, I did struggle with the switch between 1st and 3rd person and at times got confused, but overall this was a good book and the twists throughout kept me on my toes!

I love Sharon Bolton’s books and this was no exception.
A creepy tale revolving around a psychiatrist and her young patient and its violent outcome.
The action moves between this situation and the present day in a rural village and the strange goings on at the annual church meet.
I won’t say more as there are some beautiful twists and misdirections that need to stay unseen. Great book.

The Neighbours Secret is a book that had no idea where it was going to take me!
Anna has just moved into the village, St Alban's Chapel a remote village in the Lake District, she is having a new start and is the villages new baker. Every year the church have a huge week long festival type event that the locals are not allowed near called “ the gathering”. In the ,ast four years three sixteen year old girls have lost their lives. Anna gets close to one of the girls there and tries to help her but who does she trust and is her last going to catch up with her?
This was a really good storyline that didn’t end anywhere near what I thought it would do. The characters are all very different and I didn’t get confused. The two main characters were different which made it interesting to read. A thriller I enjoyed.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

This is a great thriller that will certainly keep you on your toes.
Anna moves to a new place and sets up her own bakery. Her neighbour takes a keen interest in her and at first I thought he didn’t like her.
But as I soon found out, there’s so many layers to each character, that none of them are quite what they seem.
Anna is keen to find out why lots of people flock to this village once a year and is shocked to find out that teenage girls have gone missing in the past.
A girl asks Anna for help and her and her neighbour try to do what they can for her.
There’s some great twists in this book and as I’ve mentioned, not everything is quite what it seems.
Thanks to Orion Publishing Group for the opportunity to read this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for this eCopy to review

The Neighbour’s Secret is full of secrets, lies, and red herrings. From the very first page, I was drawn into Anna’s world as she navigates her new life in a seemingly idyllic rural community in Cumbria. The atmosphere Bolton creates is both eerie and captivating, making it impossible to put the book down.

Anna’s determination to uncover the truth behind the mysterious disappearances of teenage girls at the annual Gathering was both inspiring and nerve-wracking. I felt her fear and frustration as she realized that the community’s secrets ran deeper than she could have ever imagined. The tension built up masterfully, with each twist and turn keeping me on the edge of my seat.

The characters were richly developed, and I found myself deeply invested in their fates. The way Bolton weaves together the various threads of the story, leading to a shocking and satisfying conclusion, was nothing short of brilliant. The final twist left me reeling, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it long after I had finished the book.

Overall, The Neighbour’s Secret is a gripping, atmospheric thriller that I would highly recommend to anyone who loves a good mystery with plenty of surprises

Anna moves to a new village for a fresh start. Only once there does she learn about the disappearance of multiple teenage girls and the strange local traditions. Another girl begs Anna to help her, fearing she will be next. Anna knows she needs to step in and work out what is happening, however does she have her own secrets?

This was an entertaining thriller with lots of different threads that come together by the end, offering a clever, complex read. I enjoyed the short, snappy chapters, although the story did start slow and it wasn’t until the half way mark that I became more invested in the story. I had in my head early on what I believed certain truths to be and I was surprised to find out that I had been correct. There were a few other interesting twists though that I did not expect.

The characters were written well and I enjoyed some of their inner thoughts. There were parts that I also found amusing. This was a good, well constructed thriller overall, which has you questioning yourself and is perfect for those looking for a dark, twisty read. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this copy in return for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orion publishers for an Advanced Readers Copy of this book in exchange for a free and honest review.

This was my first Sharon Bolton book and it won't be my last. I really enjoyed her writing style and the placement of twists were perfect. I definitely didn't know exactly where everything was going to go.

My only slight complaint was that I was invested in one of the dual timelines much more than the other. I think im finding though that is due to a trope that I don't particularly like but is very popular in the thriller world. So I wouldnt dissuade anyone from reading this book - I thought it was very well done. 3.5 🌟

‘The Neighbour’s Secret’ by Sharon Bolton is a layered, engrossing and unpredictable thriller set in a small village. It’s hard to describe the story too much without spoilers, as each time the reader gets a grasp on the tale, another rug is pulled out from underneath them due to an unexpected revelation.

Exploring themes of religion, psychiatry, morality and sin, the novel is told across dual timelines to build up the suspense.
There were a few twists in the story that really shocked me, but as I reflected on them, I realised the author had skilfully planted the seeds.

This gets four stars from me, and I raced through it eagerly to the satisfying and revealing conclusion!

I received an advance Digital Review Copy of this book from the publisher Orion Publishing via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.