The Family Across the Street

 

The Family Across the Street by Nicole Trope is a psychological thriller that is quite the page turner. This is the story about Katherine and John West and their their nearly 6-year old twins on Hogarth Street. Hogarth Street is usually a quiet street. The neighbors keep mostly to themselves. All except for Gladys who is the older, busybody neighbor who keeps her eye on everyone's comings and goings.

Told from four different points-of-view, most told in third person, the novel starts with the neighbors hearing a gun being shot inside the West house. Then it looks back to how that day has unfolded from the four different points-of-view. The book starts with longer chapters and then transitions to very short chapters, making it impossible to put down. The reader just wants to figure everything out. What exactly going on? And why?

The characters were all very authentic and their stories were absorbing. This is not my usual genre but it was an easy book to read and a nice change of pace for me. I'm pretty sure the book discussion about this book will be about whether we suspected how the story would end. (I had a strong feeling about two thirds of the way into the book but my prediction was not exactly how the story worked out.)