(55)Someone We Know by Shari Lapena

Thursday, August 1, 2019



A quiet neighborhood in the suburbs of upstate New York is not so quiet when the wife of a neighbor goes missing.  It is all the community can talk about. Until a few of them receive anonymous letters that somebody had broken into their homes and went through their computers.  That level of violation has never been experienced in their community before and fear is starting to mount.  What secrets has this hacker discovered while breaking into homes? However, it doesn't take long for a body to be discovered at the bottom of a nearby lake. The police have several suspects as the victim, Amanda, had a bit of "reputation". Was it her husband who was finally fed up with her infidelity?  Was it one of her extramarital relationships? Or did Amanda's death have something to do with the anonymous letters that have been received all over the neighborhood?

Someone We Know is a novel about an idyllic neighborhood that turns the American dream into the American nightmare.  The cast of characters in Someone We Know is pretty extensive.  The main characters are the couple whose son is the neighborhood hacker, their best friends, the husband whose wife goes missing, and a few others in the area. Two detectives investigating the death of Amanda Pierce round out the cast of characters.   The author leads you down several erroneous paths on the way to the truth.  As the reader, you are guessing and then second-guessing yourself.  I didn't have it figured out until close to the end of the book, but after there is a bombshell reveal.  - CLICK HERE FOR SPOILERS -  One thing that made me feel icky about this book was the way the author depicted Amanda, the victim.  First of all, she was a VICTIM, but it really came across as if "she deserved it" because of her extramarital affairs.   Kind of a misogynistic view.  Nobody mourned her loss because all of the women were relieved that she was gone and their husbands no longer were going to stray. Never mind that it was their husbands that couldn't keep it in their pants. Having said that, the "ick-factor" was not enough to keep me from reading to the end. 



Bottom  Line - I love a good, fast mystery, and Someone We Know lives up to that standard.  While I was extremely disappointed with the way the victim was portrayed, it didn't stop me from finishing the book.

Details: 
  • Someone We Know by Shari Lapena
  • On Facebook 
  • Pages: 304
  • Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
  • Publication Date: 7/30/19
  • Buy it Here! 
  • Thank you to NetGalley for the book in exchange for an honest review. 

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