What a fantastic debut novel!! I started reading this late in the evening and it went on late into the night and yet I could not put it down! Steph, Paul, and Freya live in an apartment, and below their floor are Emma with her hamster and below them is driving instructor Chris and his wife Vicky.
Steph, Paul, and Freya look like the perfect happy family. Freya disappears and that’s when the past seemed to be linked to the present. Kate comes in the flashback and so do some secrets.
The story is told in two times lines and in the perspectives of Emma, Chris, Steph, and Paul in the present-day timeline. As I read on, I found that everyone had secrets and each time I tried to guess, there was a twist. The present and the past from 25 years ago intertwine at the end and gave it a brilliant ending.
I found the writing a little slow in the beginning and then I was pulled into the story. I enjoyed the plot twists and kept turning the pages to find out more. The characters are true-to-life and the situations credible in almost all places. The loose ends are tied in the end and it gave a completely unpredicted finale!
Overall, a really good book that I will happily give 4 stars and recommend to readers who love thrillers.

What a read!! I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to others who like thriller books. Freya disappears and leaves a trail of people behind who all have secrets they’ve been hiding. All centred around a house with 3 neighbours this story really hammers home that you don’t know what happens behind closed doors. Alongside this is a narrative from a character 25 years previously. I enjoyed all the twist and turns of this book and thought that it was very well written. I suspected everyone in the story and as per usual guessed completely wrong!
A huge thank you to The author, NetGalley and also Love Book Tours for the chance to read this.

This was an enjoyable read. There were a lot of characters, changes to points of views and different timelines so it meant paying quite a bit of attention. Sometimes I had to stop reading and think a bit too much about who someone was but I still enjoyed it. All the characters had their own things going on and I liked reading how those impacted current events and family dynamics. I mean, am I unusual to not have secrets like these lot or was it just coincidence that they all moved under one roof? I enjoyed Emma’s story but I don’t want to say too much without giving things away! Also the story from the flash backs was really interesting.

There were some twists and turns in this one. How the characters fit in to each other’s lives was one of them. I managed to figure out some of it but I did not figure out how it all came together in the end which was good.

If you like a domestic thriller then I would suggest giving this one a go!

READ MY REVIEW

Cover: Yay for the tiny building, nay for the orange background.

The Downstairs Neighbours is a thriller I picked almost as an afterthought. I had no expectations going in and I ended up being surprised—in a good way! Cooper’s debut is a captivating read, featuring mystery and secrets in equal measure.

The focus is on Steph and Peter, Freya’s parents, but other chapters feature different POVs, too. I quite like the red herrings Cooper peppers her novel with, but the first POV/third POV switch is still a no. I mean, I supposed it could make sense given the double timeline, but it’s a trend that needs to be salted and burned. On principle.

I saw other people complaining about the apparent slowness of the book, something I don’t really agree with. The Downstairs Neighbours has good pacing overall, neither too slow nor too fast—maybe it’s not that genre-fitting, yes, but it still makes for an enjoyable read.

Grammar-wise, The Downstairs Neighbour is nicely written. Good syntax and a solid structure complete the package, so let me high-five the editors who worked on this book. 😀

The subplot that reads weaker is Emma’s. While I realize that not everyone in the building can have a life-changing secret—having three families hiding something big is too much of a stretch—she comes off as a well-meaning, nosey woman. Her characterization doesn’t help either: vintage plus colored hair plus teen pregnancy? She would have benefited from less stereotyping and a little more depth.

Maybe the naivety of some characters—Emma, Freya, Kate, Chris—is the only real flaw of this story.

4 stars on GR.

A fantastic crime thriller! I really enjoyed this one, I enjoyed the way it was written and the narration of the storyline.

When a teenage girl goes missing, the question remains - how well do you really know your neighbours? The events that unfold cause huge ripples and questions about family, neighbours and friends.

A really enjoyable read, cleverly written . Told from different characters POV with their stories interlinked to come together at the end . Highly recommended

A fast paced thriller with lots of twists and turns and will keep you guessing until the end.

I enjoyed the duo perspectives in this book and the writing style was brilliant. Shall keep my eyes open for more from this author in the future

This was a good thriller that kept me engaged, helped by the differing points of view- a device which I love in a thriller!
I was interested to see where the story would take me, once it had settled in. It took me a while to get into, and I tend to not rate a book highly if this happens. I love a book to grip me from the outset.
The ending was okay, but didn't wow me, and I have to say this book wasn't all too memorable.
I'm starting to wonder if my standards for thrillers are too high these days!

3 neighbour's
A missing Daughter
A driving instructor
A Mother Daughter and Cousin
And the consequences of their actions
Set 25 years ago and present day
Read this book very quickly
Couldn't put it down
Switched off and ignored everyone until I'd finished
Fabulous debut

Thank you netgalley, Helen Cooper and Hodder & Stoughton

This was one I read in hospital and I was finished with it in two days - I didn't want to put it down! Great plot, great characters and lots of fab twists and turns.

There were so many plot turns that I didn't see coming but were cleverly written and the story was fantastic. Highly recommend!

This book flipped between two timelines, current day when teenager Freya has gone missing, and 25 years ago when Kate is having to cope with problems in her home.
I liked the overlapping storylines and it kept me guessing to almost the end about what was going on and who was involved. the main problem for me, apart from this book being really long for a thriller was that I didn't feel sad that Freya was gone. I didn't feel the emotion of the child being lost from either parent, instead they both were intent on keeping secrets from each other and ensuring that it would take even longer for their lost daughter to be found.

It was intriguing and I enjoyed the idea of the families and main characters all being in a building together but barely knowing anything about each other. It just dragged at times for me.

Great book full of twists and turns. I never lost interest in the plot. It kept me reading till the very end of the book.

Helen Cooper's début novel is teeming with secrets and concealments. The story centres around a big Georgian house in Kingston-upon-Thames, south-west London that has been divided into three apartments. Chris, a driving instructor and Vicky, a nurse are living in the bottom flat. The flat above them is home to Emma and her noisy hamster as Zeb has moved out. Freya, Paul, and Steph are on the top floor. Paul has a well paid but boring job, Steph is in customer services working at Heathrow and Freya is their seventeen-year-old daughter. When Freya vanishes, the mystery begins however, her disappearance is only a small part of this clever tale...

The Downstairs Neighbour is a remarkable début from Helen Cooper! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time reading this novel with the tension, and the many changes of direction. Trying to figure everything out was like attempting a complicated jigsaw puzzle with a few of the pieces missing, so I gave up and enjoyed the flow of the story instead. The unsuspected twists and turns were spectacular and the great plot highlighted the concept that appearances can often be deceiving especially when all of the players are hiding things. Told from multiple viewpoints and differing timescales the author showed admirable writing ability, and the characters' emotions were very well depicted. An ingenious and impressive début, all told.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel from Hodder & Stoughton via NetGalley at my request, and this review is my own unbiased opinion.

A tale of suburban intrigue: dark and haunting secrets conspire to confuse the reader. What has happened to Freya, where is she, who is involved in her disappearance?

When Freya disappears several members of the same building (living in separate flats all seem to have a dark secret, and all seem to believe that her disappearance is related to another tenant, or perhaps related to their own past actions. There are many layers to the characters backstories and the author keeps the reader guessing until almost the end.

I read this book in two days, allowing for having to go to work! A brilliant read.

Thanks to #NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ahead of publication in exchange for an honest review

I flew through this book, it was twisty and had plenty of plot turns. It was well written and I wanted to know more so found myself reading faster.

A psychological thriller, a missing daughter, a neighbour you don’t know the truth about, and a whole host of unreliability, this is a fantastic read that kept me hooked throughout.

This is a fantastic, gripping read, and I was amazed to find that it’s a debut novel. I’ll definitely be reading more books by this author.

The story is based around the occupants of a West London townhouse, with Paul, Steph, and Freya Harlow living on the top two floors, Emma Brighton on the ground floor, and Chris and Vicky Watson in the basement flat. They don’t have anything much to do with each other, other than polite greetings when passing in the communal hall or on the steps, etc.

Then Freya goes missing and we discover that each resident has a secret, and they’ve all been inextricably linked.

Some chapters go back to a period twenty-five years ago, and I don’t usually enjoy going back and forth, but it was easy to follow. I lost count of the number of times that I thought, “Wow, I wasn’t expecting that!” I really couldn’t put the book down and, even though I was desperate to find out all the secrets, I was disappointed to reach the last page.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advance reader copy in return for an honest review.

Three families living in one converted townhouse. Paul, Steph and their teenage daughter Freya rent the top 2 floors. Emma has the ground floor. Chris and Vicky live in the basement. None of them are aware of how much their lives are intertwined until Freya disappears and we find out that all of them are living in a web of lies.

The book is narrated alternately by Paul, Steph, Chris, Emma and another character Katie, in an alternate timeframe, 25 years ago. I was 3/4 of the way through the book before I realised what Katie's story had to do with the stories in the present time. The pace of the novel is set from the start, Freya's disappearance happens in chapter 1, there is no easing into this book and getting to know characters. Every chapter ends on a cliffhanger. Helen Cooper doesn't believe in letting the reader take a break throughout the novel with clues, lies are reveals happening in pretty much every chapter.

Although well written and cleverly done, the amount of lies told by all of the characters stops you from ever really liking any of them. It means there's a huge amount of twists and turns throughout but no characters you would actually want within your circle of friends. You also don't have any chance to get to know Freya before she disappears, all that you learn about her is through the other characters, and they don't really make you like her either. So I felt that I wasn't caring enough about her. A teenage girl disappears I should be invested in getting her back but I couldn't really have cared less about her. I didn't have the relationship built.

On the whole this was an enjoyable book, you have absolutely no clue who is responsible for the disappearance or why.

What a great debut novel! I really enjoyed The Downstairs Neighbour and found it easy to emphasize with the characters. The book had lots of twists and turns that I didn't see coming, and I had a hard time putting it down because I couldn't wait to find out what happened to Freya. Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced copy of The Downstairs Neighbour and discover a great new author...I'm looking forward to reading more of Helen Cooper's work in the future. : )

Wow what a book!
I absolutely loved The Downstairs Neighbour.
It tells the story of 3 families who live in a converted Georgian townhouse and whose lives are all intertwined by secrets and lies.
It was a fast paced, thrilling roller coaster of a story with so many twists and turns I could not put it down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for my ARC.