I’m a huge fan of Tony Parsons Max Wolfe series so didn’t know what to expect with this book but I’m glad to say I wasn’t disappointed. This is a story of betrayal and the far reaching effects it has. A story also of a father’s unconditional love for his child and the lengths he will go to to protect that child.
Tara and Christian have the perfect marriage, lovely home, beautiful son Marlon and a family dog Buddy to complete a happy family life. Tara has her own company, an online dating site. Christian is a stay at home dad. Everything is perfect until Tara goes to Japan to a business conference where she meets a married man,, James, who seems charming. The inevitable happens and she has a one night fling with him. Feeling guilty Tara just wants to get back home and forget it ever happened but James is toxic, he has other ideas. So begins a campaign by James of texting, stalking and doing his utmost to try and keep Tara in his life. Tara takes her best friend Ginger into her confidence when things with James begin to get ugly and frightening. Tara must do all she can try stop Christian finding out about her one night stand, she wants James to leave her alone and stop harassing her and she must take whatever steps she deems fit. A clever well written psychological story of betrayal and of the rippling effects it has on family and friends that one act of unfaithfulness can have. A gripping and pacy story my thanks to Random house, Cornerstone UK, Tony Parsons and NetGalley for this ARC in return for my honest review

Easily consumed with a great storyline; constant back and forth between character perspective works to keep pace moving. Lots of red herrings and clues to follow. The perfect book to cosy up with and escape into a world of other people's problems.

I’ve read Tony Parsons work previously and thought I knew the style but wow, this is a surprise! What a page-turner with twists along the way. It reflects on life, how one decision can change it, full of emotion and suspense, and keeps you guessing to the conclusion. I loved it and couldn’t stop turning the pages .. but didn’t want it to end either! Thanks Cornerstone for the ARC

Firstly thank you Net Galley for granting this book. It is the first book I have read by this author so I didn’t really know what to expect, having read the synopsis I started it with great anticipation. The story follows Tara , who has perfect home, family but decides to have a one night stand which ends up with her date harassing her and unfortunate circumstances.

it was a comfortable read but a bit slow in places.

This is a well written story with a great plot that gets you hooked from the very beginning. With plenty of detail but nothing that feels like fluff to slow it down, it’s a great read. From the start you are never really sure where the story will go and who is actually the culprit. I liked all the characters, (except for James of course), they were all fully formed and believable. I recommend this book, thank you #netgalley

Really enjoyed this Tony Parsons thriller. Kept me on the edge of my seat trying guessing who the killer was. Read the book in two sittings, so gripped by the love story between Christian and Tara and between a father and their child... unconditional love and loyalty. I loved how different strands of the story were picked up and gathered together at the end. Heartbreaking moments shopping for pain and when pain comes to you unbidden. Broken relationships between husbands and wife’s, between friends are scattered throughout. The symmetry between the beginning and the end was satisfying.

Oh my goodness what a great, thrilling book. I’ve read Tony Parson’s books before and devoured them in a day this one although completely different from his usual D C Wolf series was just as good if not better. It had twists and turns and at times was creepy. This would make a great film. At times I got exasperated with Tara as she was so lame and a little spoilt but, on the whole the book just gave me everything in a thriller.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

I'd read articles by Tony Parsons before but none of his books so had no idea what to expect from this but if you can imagine Us by David Nicholls meets Fatal Attraction, you'll have some idea of the plot, ie it’s part love story, part psychological thriller. It feels raw, digs deep and has plenty of twists, making it one of my top reads of 2020. All I could be sure of was that it wasn’t five-year-old Marlon, Buddy the dog or Maple the pony whodunnit but at the end it definitely felt like the right person did the deed. If you’re looking for an entertaining psychological suspense that tugs on the heartstrings in places and makes you cover your eyes in others, this is the one!

A well written and paced novel with some interesting characters. However, in the end I felt it was a fairly standard domestic thriller following the fallout from a one night stand with no unexpected twists or insights.
Thank you to netgalley and random house for an advance copy of this book

After reading the blurb for this book I thought I knew what to expect, I was so wrong it was even better. A fast paced psychological thriller that I just had to keep on reading, hence I turned the last page at 2.30am. A real page turner, full of twists and turns that I never saw coming. A psychological thriller par excellence and a definite MUST READ.
Thanks to Random House UK and Netgalley for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.

I absolutely loved this book. From the very beginning it draws you into the seemingly idyllic life of Tara and Christian. It's a bit different and not what you would expect to happen after a chance meeting and drunken night out. It turns out differently and you then get hooked into a tense, scary story that could so easily happen. Excellent writing from Tony Parsons - haven't read one of his books for a long time. Thoroughly enjoyed this and couldn't put it down. Thank you to Netgalley for giving me a copy to review such a good book.

You have a great life, a successful business, a happy marriage and a great son; then you make one mistake which threatens to shatter everything. Are you really going to let this happen? This is the dilemma faced by Tara Carver. While on a business trip to Japan she sleeps with a stranger who is then determined to become much more than that. Tara has made a fatal error in her choice of man, he is a manipulative and controlling stalker who believes he can have everything he wants. When her stalker is found dead everyone close to Tara becomes a suspect.

This is a fast paced psychological thriller with believable and flawed characters. The narrative flows well and the book develops into a real page turner. The twists and turns are deftly done and the action is intense. This novel will appeal to anyone who enjoys a gold thriller with choices and consequences.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Yes, this is written by the same Tony Parsons who brought us the most enjoyable Max Wolfe crime series. But I had to check because this book is so very different! This book is about life, love, loss, infidelity and, yes, murder. Oh, and the benefits of not ignoring your friends.

Tara is happily married to Christian. They have a 5 year old son, Marlon, and Christian is a stay at home dad. Tara started and now manages an online dating agency called Angel Eyes. She goes to a conference in a Tokyo and, it’s the oldest cliché in the book, she meets and sleeps with one of the other attendees - James Caine, an investment banker. By the time Tara leaves his room in the morning she realises she’s made a mistake but thinks if she can avoid him for the remainder of the conference all will be well and they will never have to see each other again - right? Wrong!

James is not given the flick so easily. In fact he aggressively pursues Tara and she becomes quite frightened for herself, her family and her business. She goes as far as to ask her friend Ginger if her husband, Spike, could help - like he helped deter Omar from stalking Ginger. No, forget it it’s too much. Ginger and Tara end up deciding to go together to the hotel where James stays in London to give him an ultimatum. But when they arrive they find him dead on the floor, his skull bashed in. And now everyone is a suspect.

I really quite enjoyed this story. It flowed really well and, although not strictly speaking a thriller, it was certainly a page turner. James was horrible, no question, but by the end of the book I thought none of the characters were blameless. I suppose that’s life, we’ve all done some things were not proud of. But I will leave you with this one thought - if you are going to cheat on your partner, it pays to do your homework first! This book will appeal to those who enjoy psychological thrillers and domestic noir. My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and Tony Parsons for proving a copy for me to review. My opinions are my own. 3.5 stars rounded up.

This book is brilliant and it gripped me from the first page. The characters are so vivid, not your everyday folk necessarily but Tara has established her dating agency and her home husband is happy caring for the it son Marlon. One night is all it took for everything to change . This is a 10/10 read.

This book definitely gets you thinking. I think there was only one character that I didn’t suspect and that’s because he was a 5 year old boy!

I enjoyed the premise of this book but I felt that there were too many holes and opportunities to explore subjects further were missed.

This is my first Tony Parsons novel and although it isn’t in the running for my favourite book of the year, it hasn’t put me off trying another of his novels.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Tara seems to have it all; a perfect husband, a son, a dog and her own company. But one day, during a business trip, she engages in a one-night stand. Little does she know that for James Caine this wasn't a
one-off.
As he starts harassing her, demanding that they continue their relationship, Tara's perfect life turns into misery.
What will she do to claim it back?

It was my first thriller by Tony Parsons ( I love his non-thriller books ), and I enjoyed it.
The story started off promising and had me really intrigued. However,
after some time it slowed down only to pick up later on, and I found that this became a pattern; the story went up and down which wasn't entirely to my liking.
Overall, it was a pretty enjoyable read with a good twist, although I found the ending dissatisfying.
On a side note, the title bears no relevance to the story.

Tara Carver seems to have it all - a successful start-up, loving husband Christian, beautiful son Marlon and a Labrador called Buddy. Then she goes to a conference in Tokyo and one spur of the moment decision changes her life for ever. James Caine sat next to her at the conference and when they bump into each other later that day they end up spending the night together. When she returns to the UK Tara is sure that it was a one night stand and that Christian will never know but James has other ideas. When James is found dead in a hotel room Tara and Christian’s lives are torn apart.

A gripping and emotional read. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thanks to Netgalley, Random House UK Cornerstone and Tony Parsons for the ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

Tara Carver is a successful business woman with a loving husband and young son. Tara apparently has everything until a moment of madness on a business trip threatens to blow her whole life apart.
Returning home after the trip Tara tries to put her mistake behind her, but the man she spent the night with won’t be put off. He begins to make Tara's life a misery threatening everything she holds dear.
Will she be able to convince him to leave her alone or will drastic action be needed.
I love the Max Wolfe books and wasn’t sure how this would match up but it was brilliant. Tony Parsons is a brilliant writer and brings characters and situations to life.

“And so we wear down love, I thought, and so we chip away at it, and so we reduce something precious, something priceless, to nothing much at all.” This quote from Your Neighbours Wife, the latest psychological thriller from Tony Parsons is an astute observation of our failing as human beings (some of us anyway!) to sustain meaningful long term relationships without ruining the sanctity of that love. These words represent everything that happens in the story of Tara and Christian Carver’s marriage following an indiscretion, consequences of which gather momentum, snowballing out of control, ultimately ending in one person dead and numerous lives in tatters.

To all intents and purposes Tara Carver has it all. An adoring,handsome husband Christian, who’s a stay at home dad to son Marlon, a successful business with dating app Angel Eyes and money in the bank. Except you quickly realise this loving family unit of three is all a facade and Tara herself is the biggest cliche going when she succumbs to temptation whilst on a short business trip to Tokyo, having a one night stand with stranger James Caine. Although guilt at her infidelity immediately surfaces, this thriller centres around what happens when the man responsible for Tara’s fall from grace doesn’t want to leave their dalliance in the past. Instead he endeavours to insinuate himself into every aspect of her life until Tara fears for her family, her marriage, her business and her sanity. There’s only one way to stop this madness but who will be found guilty of eliminating his presence in their lives once and for all?????

This is a storyline about choices and consequences, something we teach our kids from a very early age. Adults have a habit of disregarding these important life lessons and all the while I was reading this I could hear Tara’s father Leo reminding her of this fact. “You bought the ticket Tara!” reverberates throughout your brain as well as the novel, knowing it’s falling on deaf ears but revelling in the fact that without these characters indiscretions and their lack of moral compass this wouldn’t be the gripping read it is. It’s about individuals like Tara who possess a self destructive streak, an inherent weakness that is coupled with greediness so that they spoil and ruin all that is good leaving themselves with nothing but regret.

All the relationships in this thriller are built on lies, highly toxic in one way or another so that the whole cast of characters apart from Marlon and Buddy the Labrador are unlikeable. Best friend Ginger and her husband Spike have secrets within their marriage as do Tara’s parents so Christian and Tara are in good company! Even the relationship between Tara and her business co founder Mary, the brains behind the dating app isn’t all that it at first seems. Every one of these characters display traits that showcase the very worst of human nature. I couldn’t help feeling their lives are constructed upon sand which is rapidly shifting, leaving them all sinking.

Selfish, spoilt and a daddy’s girl, Tara takes her life for granted believing she will always be loved. She’s the kind of woman who doesn’t have to try to win the affection of those around her and in this case she spots an opportunity to satisfy her own desires that unfortunately jeopardises the life she’s carefully constructed. I guess if you play with fire you have to expect to get burned! Tara epitomises all those who think they are the exception to the rule. However this is the kind of storyline that provokes the reader into self righteous indignation, keen to cast moral judgment on these characters behaviours. I loved acting as judge and jury!

How have I not followed this author’s career given that I enjoyed some of his earlier books which fell into a different genre but still focused on the nitty gritty of human life, love and relationships? That’s the question I kept asking myself as I turned the pages, any initial sympathy I may have felt for Tara or anyone else for that matter quickly dissolving. Easy to follow and told from two points of view, that of Christian and Tara, this psychological thriller is a cracker of a read, with twists that I didn’t anticipate, yet absolutely relished. Sometimes creating an entire cast of unlikeable characters can be a gamble but on this occasion I think it’s crucial to the premise of the thriller. I didn’t care for any of them but was still desperate for answers! Almost everyone has a motive for murder with the spotlight transferring from one potential guilty party to the next and I loved that it literally could have been any one of these individuals responsible for the crime. I felt like I’d fallen into the abyss in terms of trying to guess the culprit, never once thinking that the author makes the game too easy. Plus just when I thought he’d used up all his bag of tricks he produces a final metaphorical twist of the knife to bring this whole sorry mess to an end. My only real criticism is that the storyline is maybe dragged out a little too long and in this instance I’d have preferred more ambiguity as to the future of those left standing. Overall, I loved this thriller and highly recommend. My thanks as always to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read in exchange for an honest review.

Tony Parsons’ books are always a good read and this one is no exception. Story draws you in and is filled with lots of twists and turns along the way - did not want it to end, would definitely recommend!