She Treads Softly: The People Next Door

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

The People Next Door

The People Next Door by Carla Kovach
6/2/26; 350 pages
Bookouture

The People Next Door by Carla Kovach is a highly recommended domestic suspense/popcorn thriller.

Gemma has inherited her Aunt Dorette's house on Clover Lane, a place she never thought she'd return to after her friend went missing during the last disastrous summer she was there. However, when her husband makes some business mistakes the family finds themselves forced to move into part of the crumbling house while they work on fixing it up to sell. Their 14-year-old daughter Morgan isn't happy to leave her friends, but quickly meets Harry, a neighbor her age. What also happens right after the family moves in is all the neighbors receive disturbing letters which they all assume Morgan wrote. From this point on the rumors and vitriol fly fast and furious and Gemma doesn't feel she or her family are safe on Clover Lane.

Always keeping in mind that you have to set disbelief aside, jump into this popcorn thriller. While it starts rather even-paced the plot will get better with each new disclosure and the tension and suspicion will also increase. The plot really doesn't pick up the pace and get better until later in the novel when more starts happening and the threats move beyond the nasty notes, rumors, and paranoia flying around the neighborhood. While some developments are predictable, once the twists start coming the novel does become more entertaining

The narrative is mainly told through Gemma's point-of-view, with additional chapters from Morgan's point-of-view. While characters are lightly developed, the real focus is on events in the toxic neighborhood. Morgan and Harry are using the notes as clues to figure out who is writing them. None of the characters/neighbors are trustworthy and the tie to Gemma's past in the area may be the clue needed to discovering who is writing the notes. 3.5 rounded up.

The People Next Door is a good choice for anyone who enjoys popcorn thrillers and stories with potentially toxic neighbors. 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.