Another successful novel from Lisa Jewell. Full of suspense and turns you won’t be able to predict. As always, I fully recommend this novel

Joey returns from Ibiza with her new husband and has to stay with her brother and here she meets Tom the charismatic headteacher who lives next door, she is instantly drawn to him and can't help watching him..... but she is not the only one! The whole book is about people watching each other and is a bit creepy.... especially when the police get involved!

A great page turner, I love this author's books, and I loved the way you were kept guessing all the way through about the police case, definitely recommended

A near perfect crime thriller, I was hooked from the start. The book explores family relationships, obsession, revenge, and the secrets we hide from one another.

Very good book. Did not expect it to be so descriptive and interesting, I would gladly recommend the book to others, please read.

This is a creepy story of a community who are more interwoven than they realise. There is quite a cast of characters, which took a little time to get to know properly and to keep track of but once I was there, it didn't stop my enjoyment. The characters themselves are all both normal and different with sides of them that they would perhaps like to stay hidden - just like in real life. The book dips into different issues such as grooming, mental health and bullying and is interspersed with police interviews which kept me wanting to read more to find out what happened at the end.

Another jewel of a book by Lisa Jewell. I literally couldn’t put it down and the end blew me away. Can’t wait for her next one!

After having read Lisa Jewell's debut novel, "Then She Was Gone' - I was highly anticipating her newest release, which wasn't disappointing in the slightest. I found the beginning chapters had a slower pace than I was expecting from the previous work of the author, but this picked up towards the climax and end of the book. Overall, the characters were well developed, and the plot was interesting, keeping me on the edge of my seat, although the conclusion was slightly predictable. I would recommend Lisa Jewell to those newer to the thriller genre, and urge you to give 'Watching You' a go.

I read the reviews about Watching You but didn’t find the book that gripping as some had reported. It did however have a certain attraction and a cleverly crafted story. The charismatic head teacher Tom Fitzwilliam, famed for transforming failing schools, seems to be a magnet for any female with a roving eye. He does however have a past, which the story slowly reveals but more importantly he has a dead wife and no idea who killed her. So, we have a slowly unfurling story, which reaches back in to Tom’s past to bring light to the murder investigation. For once, the police investigation isn’t a closed book and they keep their options and lines of inquiry open. The part of the book I liked the best was the ending. Not because I’d had enough of it but because of a very chilling discovery.

Oh, how much do I love a Lisa Jewell novel? Lots and lots is the answer. She's never let me down, right from the days of Ralph's Party. Her direction has changed a little with her last few books (she's gone over to the dark side!) but what hasn't changed is her fantastic writing and her ability to craft a brilliant tale.

Watching You is about just that, people watching people. It's set in a relatively small community and the geography is such that residents can quite easily be spied on or observed. Melville Heights is elevated and allows the opportunity to look down on Lower Melville and see all the goings on. This is quite clever too as the residents of Melville Heights are quite well off, the houses are big and attractive, whereas those in Lower Melville are smaller, more average. There are opportunities for hidden surveillance. Jewell sets the scene so well and easily plants the idea of being watched in the head of the reader.

A lot of the story revolves around Tom Fitzwilliam, a charismatic and attractive head teacher. He's one of those men who just seems to bewitch those around him, usually women. He's certainly had an effect on Joey Mullen, who has just returned from Ibiza and is crashing at her brother's house. She becomes quite obsessed by Tom. But Jenna Tripp's mum is also obsessed with him and the idea of gang stalking, and Jenna's best friend, Bess, goes into a swoon every time Tom so much as looks at her. Tom's own teenage son keeps pictures of residents that he takes from his bedroom window. The whole story revolves around being watched.

We know straightaway that something has happened to get the police involved - a body has been found. Who it is and what exactly has happened is kept from us right until the end of the book, although I did have more than an inkling of what had gone on. But I enjoyed every bit of the waiting to find out whether I was right or not.

The characterisations are the biggest strength of Watching You, I think. There are quite a lot of characters to keep track of but all are so well drawn that each had their very individual identity and so it made it very easy to keep up.

And then there's the deft plotting, the way that Jewell brings together this intense and gripping story, pulling all the individual strands together to make an absolutely fascinating whole.

This is one seriously good book. I loved the stories of all the characters, reading about their lives, their problems, their issues. It's a perfectly constructed story of deceit, obsession, voyeurism. I thought it was fabulous.

I tore through this book! What a page-turner. Who's watching who and who is watching them? Yep, there is more than one person with stalker-tendencies in this book and which gives it that edge-of-your-seat feeling as we lead up to a murder that could have been committed by several culprits. 

A thrilling and gripping tale of obsession, secrets and lies with great, and flawed, characters. Highly recommended!

Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book provided excellent tension and the scene setting was good, I had vivid images of the famous colored houses in Bristol in my mind while reading. However, I did find the plot hard to follow, particularly at the start as there was a lot of characters to keep up with. The main characters in particular Tom and Joey were very unlikeable I couldn't understand the obsession. This obsession was very immature more like a YA fiction. The name "watching you" does suggest a certain creepiness which it had in abundance! To start I didn't like any of the characters but as the novel progressed I started to like Frances and Jenna. I did feel this would be better pitched as a YA novel it was lacking something for me personally so its only a 3 star.

You're back home after four years working abroad, with a new husband, you’re keen to find a place of your own. But for now, you're staying in your big brother's spare room. That's when you meet the man next door. He's the head teacher at the local school. Twice your age, extraordinarily attractive. You find yourself watching him. All the time. But you never dreamed that your innocent crush might become a deadly obsession.

Melville Heights is one of the nicest neighbourhoods in Bristol, it’s not the sort of place where people are brutally murdered in their own kitchens. But it is the sort of place where everyone has a secret. And everyone is watching you.

As the headmaster credited with turning around the local school, Tom Fitzwilliam is loved by everyone, including Josephine Mullen (Joey) his new neighbour, who quickly develops an intense infatuation with this thoroughly charming yet unavailable man. Joey thinks her crush is a secret, but Tom’s teenage son Freddie has aspirations of becoming a spy for MI5, excels in observing people and has witnessed Joey behaving strangely around his father.

One of Tom’s students, Jenna Tripp, also lives on the same street, and she’s not convinced her teacher is as squeaky clean as he seems. For one thing, he has taken a liking to her best friend and fellow classmate. Jenna’s mother, whose mental health has admittedly been deteriorating in recent years is convinced that Mr. Fitzwilliam is stalking her.

Meanwhile, twenty years earlier, a schoolgirl writes in her diary, charting her doomed obsession with a handsome young English teacher named Mr. Fitzwilliam…

In Lisa Jewell’s latest brilliant bone-chilling suspense no one is who they seem, and everyone is hiding something. Who has been murdered and who would have wanted one of their neighbour’s dead.

You will be kept guessing until the startling revelation on the very last page.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for an advance copy in return for a fair and honest review.

I love Lisa Jewell and was delighted to be approved to read this .. and it didn’t fail to keep me engrossed and guessing all the way . A darker read than some of her others this story centres around a headteacher , his family and the 27 year old who has moved in across the street and is infatuated with him , watching him comctantly .. but there is someone else watching her and everyone else on the street . Great book which will keep you gripped .. 4.5 stars

If there were 10 stars...or more....this book is worth them. I adore Lisa Jewell's books, they pull you in and hold you to the very end. This is a brilliant story about a street of coloured house near Bristol. The action revolves around a variety of characters, all of which you recognise and relate to. A handsome successful man moves to the area but there is still an air of something not quite right around him. The story twists to see how people can see more and less of a situation by perhaps overthinking things.
I was hooked from the first chapter and really didn't want it to end but equally, I wanted so badly, to find out what really happens.
I would very very highly recommend this book. A fabulous holiday read, or for the sofa/the bus/tube...in fact anywhere. Just read it. It's compelling, enthralling and simply terrific.

This story focuses around this small neighbourhood with lots of strong characters, each with their own storyline to deal with. It feels like a lot, but once I had got my head round them all, this book drew me right in and I was hooked.

It starts off with a body in a kitchen, then goes back and does a brilliant job of revealing the story, very slowly, by going back to the beginning of the timeline and working back through. The intermittent police reports from the day after the murder is an excellent addition, as it adds to the slow reveal as you start to realise who the body isn’t!

It was a bit of a slow start, but once it got going the suspense, intrigue and twists are coming thick and fast right up until the very last page!

Lots of characters with their own stories and sub plots we have all been intrigued by others at some point but this is a whole new level, l did not know “who dunnit” until it all unravelled how a case of bullying at school changed lives forever - and the final discovery was chilling

Watching You is a fantastic thriller that I devoured in less than a day. I knew from the start this was going to be right up my street. This is the first book I’ve read by Lisa Jewell and it didn’t disappoint, not one tiny bit.
In this thriller there are quite a few main characters and everything is so well described you feel you know them and where they are. There was no page fillers as I like to call them where the author unnecessarily puts in a lot of phrases that you could leave out and make the book so much better, it was all described well and you were drip fed information well. There was no slow part to this book which I really enjoyed and felt the pace kept the same all the way through. I enjoyed in between chapters, but not every chapter, the interviews the police were holding as this gave a different insight to the thriller.
The ending made my brain spring into action and leave me with a what!! OMG, and that’s how I like a book to end 😂😂
I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone, Century for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

It took me a while to get into this book as I could not see how all of the characters related to each other. About halfway though I became hooked. Ordinary people leading ordinary lives. The 'Watching You' title is very apt as so many people are watching. An enjoyable read although I guessed the 'who dunnit' quite early on.

I've read a few Lisa Jewell's books and didn't love them, to be honest. However, I enjoyed Watching You more than the others. Intriguing story lines, realistic characters and enough secrets and mysteries to hold my interest right to the end. I'll definitely read more from Lisa Jewell in the future.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

Like many Lisa Jewell fans, I loved her first 11 or so books which had relationships, families and the ups and downs of life at their heart - with a bit of darkness but more emotional than anything involving dead bodies (well, apart from One Hit Wonder, maybe!). But looking back, you can see from probably The Third Wife onwards (maybe even Before I Met You), that the stories were slowly getting darker and darker so it does seem quite natural that her last few books have been thrillers. And Watching You is a well-crafted one, a deftly-weaved tale which draws you in, with characters that are intriguing, and Jewell creates a masterful creepy atmosphere as the story of infatuation, murder and obsession slowly unfolds. I enjoyed the vignettes with the police interviews, which set the scene well and left you guessing. I feel Watching You was a good balance between the kind of story Lisa Jewell had made her own - complicated family/love relationships - and the mystery/thriller that she's now embraced. If you're a fan of her previous work, you'll enjoy this one. With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.