She Treads Softly: The Secret at Number 7

Friday, September 12, 2025

The Secret at Number 7

The Secret at Number 7 by Becca Day
9/18/25; 304 pages
Bookouture

The Secret at Number 7 by Becca Day is a highly recommended domestic suspense novel that twists into a psychological thriller.

Miranda, Lee, and their young son live at the end of a cul-de-sac. Miranda watches the neighborhood action through their doorbell camera. After experiencing trauma and the resulting anxiety from a break-in before they moved to the quiet neighborhood, Miranda may be a snoopy neighbor, but it is comforting for her to know what is going on outside their door. When she firsts sees Anna and her husband Fraser moving into number 7, Miranda is immediately drawn to Anna. She gets a gift basket together with some other neighbors and they deliver it.

Anna is very gracious and invites them over to dinner the next night, but Fraser looks angry and disgusted at her. Anna sees an altercation between the two through her doorbell camera and later sees bruises on Anna's arms. At the dinner Fraser and Lee get along very well, but Miranda is barely acknowledged. Then, the doorbell camera shows movement at 3 am and Miranda watches Fraser carrying a heavy bag into his car, drive off, and return 15 minutes later. After that Anna is gone and Miranda is sure Fraser murdered her.

At first it seems Miranda is a delusional prying neighbor and she appears to be an unreliable narrator, but there are little clues that she may be on the something. You won't know who to trust and will be surprised more than once by this fact. The characters are all well-developed and portrayed as realistic individuals with flaws.

The novel later switches to Anna's point-of-view and the whole novel flips into something completely different, darker, and even more dangerous. Now, you do have to set a major dose of disbelief aside, but the short chapters move quickly and the tension and suspense rise throughout the novel. The major flip in the story was unsettling and off-putting, but it also increased the tension ten-fold.

The Secret at Number 7 is a good choice for those who enjoy twisty, fast-paced thrillers. Thanks to Bookouture for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.