A fast-paced story about the net of secrets and lies that enmesh three separate households. There is an urgency in the telling in the race to find a missing teenager with it sometimes seeming like no-one looks innocent. This is maintained right to the end with some unexpected reveals.

The Downstairs Neighbor was my final read in January and wow!! Books like this are why I read! Tension, suspense, interesting characters -- all the good stuff is in here! Helen Cooper is a published short story author, but this is her first foray into novel writing. With this story, she has set the bar so high, I hope there is more to come, but so far this is my favorite read of 2021!

The Downstairs Neighbor follows the stories of 3 families living in a townhouse in London, almost completely oblivious to each other's lives until 17 year old Freya goes missing. What would you do if you were hiding a secret and the police came knocking on your door? Would you confess or would you pursue justice on your own?

As expected, Freya had ties to each of the families and there is another narrator who tells a story from 25 years ago when something bad happened. But guess what? Each of the characters is keeping a secret about "something bad". And each feels the guilt of their secrets. The dialogue is realistic and the author captures the nuances of teenage angst. Cooper does an amazing job of developing each of the characters and separating the narratives in a way that doesn't confuse the reader, but takes you along on a journey that speeds towards an ending that is at once cohesive and satisfying.

I am so thrilled to have been selected for an advanced reader's copy from NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton and honored to submit this review.

Three families live in a converted Georgian townhouse: Paul, Steph and their teenage daughter Freya on the top floor, Emma on the middle floor, and driving instructor Chris on the basement floor. When Freya goes missing, Emma, who likes to listen to her neighbours, gets involved, and then Chris is questioned as he is Freya's driving instructor. Where is Freya? Could any of the neighbours be involved?

A thrilling story that keeps you guessing until the end. I liked getting to know the different characters and seeing how all their secrets came out, and how this leads to the shocking conclusion. Recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of the book in return for my honest feedback.

Fantastic! Fast paced, lots of twists, and I loved the characters. Definitely recommend if you like a book that keeps you guessing. Thank you to the author and Netgalley for the advance copy

“…the stories he’d told himself about his life…couldn’t be relied on. They weren’t rigid, but fluid, different perspectives flowing alongside one another” thinks Paul Harlow, husband to Stephanie and father to the missing Freya. He’s right and he could be describing any one of the characters in The Downstairs Neighbor, a dark, twisted thriller.

The Harlows live on the top two floors of a converted Georgian style house. The ground floor apartment is rented by Emma, an insecure, artistic young woman who relies on a hamster for company. Chris and Vicky Watson live in the basement apartment. Vicky is a nurse and Chris is a driving instructor. When Freya doesn’t return home from school, the police are called and suddenly, all of them are suspects. The secrets here are very deeply buried but… they will be found.

The narrative moves between Stephanie, Paul, Emma, Chris and Kate. Kate’s story is twenty five years old and the reader is unsure how it connects to Freya’s disappearance. The characters work almost as hard keeping their secrets from being revealed as they do finding Freya. Helen Cooper skillfully develops connections between these characters and moves the story to an exciting and totally surprising conclusion . 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Hodder & Stoughton and Hellen Cooper for this ARC.

This book is a fast paced thriller that had me hooked from the start! A loving couple goes through a horribly scary situation when their teenage daughter, Freya, vanishes, and they don't know what to do. The Downstairs Neighbor is told in two different timelines: one of Paul and his wife Steph in our current time in England, where their daughter is taken and the residents of their building all become mixed together as potential suspects of her disappearance. The second timeline is of another family 25 years before these occurrences, exposing dark secrets of Kate and her mom.

I knew that these two stories were intertwined somehow, and was anxious to see how everything would link! The author has really written a very elaborate and action-packed read that had my eyes glued to the pages! The mystery between these two different families years apart was thrilling and had me rooting for a happy end for both once their destiny meets.

Thank you to Hodder Books for providing me a copy for review!

#TheDownstairsNeighbours #NetGalley
A good read.
The large flat that takes up the top two floors is home to the Harlow family: happily married Paul and Steph, and their bubbly teenage daughter Freya. The smaller first floor flat is rented by Emma, who spends most of her time alone, listening to people coming in and out of the building. And the basement flat belongs to Chris, a local driving instructor, who prefers to keep his personal life private from the neighbours.But their lives are all upended when Freya vanishes.
Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder Straighten for giving me an advanced copy of this book.

In a converted Georgian townhouse in South West London, three families live under one roof. The large flat that takes up the top two floors id home to the Harlow family: Paul, Steph and their teenage daughter Freya. The first floor flat is rented by Emma, she spends most of her time alone. The basement flat belongs to Chris, a local driving instructor, and his partner Vicky.Their lives are all upended when Freya vanishes.

Paul and Steph own the townhouse and rent out the basement and first floor flats. Their seenteen year old daughter Freya goes missinng. This story is told from multiple points if view and told across two timelines: the present day and twenty five years ago.The neighbours all have their own secrets. The plotline is complex wih a fast pace. This is an intriguing Thriller whicch kept my attention throughout. It's hard to believe that this is a debut novel. I'm looking forward to reading more from the author in future.

I would like to thank #etGalley, #HodderStoughton and the author #HelenCooper for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was as twisty a book as you are ever likely to find. Even the twists had twists ! I loved it, I thought it was very well written the characters were believable, and it had me completely flummoxed .I did start putting the pieces together eventually but didn't figure everything out, and I really enjoyed reading it. Cracking book..

2.5 - This is by no means a bad book but there was just way too much going on for my liking. The story is told from various points of view and there is also an additional storyline from 25 years ago woven throughout the book. I also felt like the pacing was a little off, it wasn’t till about half way through before things really got going and it got my attention.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for providing an ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Downstairs Neighbour is a well written thriller centring around three sets of occupants of a Georgian house. The story begins when Freya, the teenage daughter of the top floor inhabitants goes missing. This book has a great plot and well drawn characters. The story is told from different points of view and over the course of the novel we see how their lives interconnect and so become connected in some way to the missing Freya. i really enjoyed reading this well written debut; it was pacy and had plenty of twists and turns to keep my attention. I look forward to reading more books from this author,

The Downstairs Neighbour is an intriguing and addictive debut novel where everyone seems to have a secret. Following the disappearance of a young girl, the lives of three families in the same house all be one interconnected. We have secrets, lies and murder and travel between twenty five years earlier and present day.

I enjoyed the complexity of this book, felt the plot moved at a good pace and the characters kept me enthralled. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley, Hodder and Stoughton and the author for the chance to review.

The novel is based around a Georgian House in London that has been converted into three flats, and the teenage daughter, Freya, of one of the flats, fails to return home from school. All of the different flat owners seem to have their own secrets that may or may not relate to Freya’s disappearance. This is Helen Cooper’s debut novel.

The book delves into the mysteries of each of the flat owners quite quickly, there is then a slower section for character development. Once you hit the mid-way point and the secrets start to unfold you race towards the end of the novel.

There is one back story that didn’t feel fully complete to me, as you were left wanting to know more about why one police officer was so convinced that another character was guilty of a serious crime. Though this is just a little point, and with so many back stories it may have been harder to develop it further without taking away from the main driver of the novel. I ended up feeling very sorry for one character who seems to get unfairly treated throughout the novel and I’d have felt more satisfied if that had been resolved. It’s a good sign, that I felt that engaged enough with the characters to care about how they were treated.

This is a novel for pure entertainment, and an enjoyable and easy read.

Thank you to the publisher for gifting me an advanced ebook copy.

I read this book in two days! I was hooked right from the beginning and as a parent of a teen girl I found the early chapters as Steph realises that her daughter is missing made my heart race at the thought of such a thing happening.

The plot of fairly detailed and intricate and you do have to concentrate to keep track of the different threads but it is totally worth it because in the end they all come together to paint a picture of how people keep secrets and how they can come back to haunt you years and year later.

Really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend to others.

This book started off well for me but then I began to lose interest and it all went downhill for the rest of the read.

Sorry but this book wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I loved it!
There we are, short review, that's all you need to know , right?
It's twisty like a hairpin road, it's thrilling like a rollercoaster ride and satsifyingly concluded in all the best ways. Who, even , is the downstairs neighbour?
And can we take a moment to applaud the awesome cover design which is retro and also deeply chilling?
As Helen moves her characters around her chessboard of a novel, point after point is scored against the reader who desperately scrambles to keep up with a complicated plot.
The neighbours who live upstairs, are Steph, Paul and teen daughter Freya, downstairs lives Emma and in the basement are Vicky and Chris.
All happily going about their business , awkwardly smiling in the hall as they pick up post, pass each other on the stairs and so on.
Until Freya goes missing and some rather ugly secrets are brought to light by the ensuing search.
Someone in that house is not what they seem, someone knows more than what they are saying and someone is about to pay the price for another's mistake.
As the police search turns from a missing girl to the hunt for a body, a ghost raises its head and tells the story of a catastrohic mistake. Alternating between now and then, the multiple narrators give the book a feeling of urgency that drives the reader on past a sensible hour and into the early part of the morning. But hey! No regrets!

I’d like to thank Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for my e ARC.

Summary:

The story opens in a converted Georgian Townhouse in an affluent London suburb as we are introduced to Steph and Paul and their bubbly daughter Freya who occupy the top two floors, reclusive Emma who is their downstairs neighbour and Chris and Vicky who occupy the ground floor. It all seems to be going well until Freya, one day, does not return home from school and goes missing.

This event is the unravelling of the carefully constructed lives of her parents as well as her neighbours and thereby begins Helen Cooper’s mystery / thriller.

My Thoughts:

As a first time writer, Helen shows a lot of promise in the way the plot has been constructed, moving between narrations from the POV of all the main characters i.e. Paul, Steph, Emma, Chris and Kate whose story is taking place 25 years earlier.

While this form of storytelling has been (very successfully) adapted by a number of authors – George RR Martin comes to mind mainly – it is not an easy narration style, moreso for the reader as the author has to ensure that they don’t muddle up the plot lines and start delving too much into each individual narrators past, to the point where the focus starts moving away from the main story.

Unfortunately in this case, it tethers on the edge of losing control of the plot : 5 key characters telling a story from their POV and all of them ALSO having an individual backstory.

Final Words:

I eventually had to DNF this book at 52%, as the narratives from each persons’ POV started branching out the from the main plot far too much for my liking.

I liked the premise of The Downstairs Neighbour, but found it sadly lacking in tension. It is set in a converted house in London where the lives of the residents of the three flats become intertwined following the disappearance of the top floor residents daughter Freya. It is a well written thriller but I felt it lacked pace and originality and I was not gripped by it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC.

I’d like to thank Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Downstairs Neighbour’ by Helen Cooper in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Paul and Steph live in part of a smart townhouse in South West London and it isn’t until their teenage daughter Freya disappears that long-hidden secrets start to emerge. Their neighbour Emma and her son Zeb are keeping secrets as are driving instructor Chris and his wife Vicky who live in the basement, but do any of them know what’s happened to Freya?

‘The Downstairs Neighbour’ is a cleverly-written and complex thriller which has more than its fair share of drama, suspense, tension and twists and turns. The timescale moves from the present time to what happened twenty-five years ago involving Kate and her cousin Becca, and it isn’t until I’m nearing the end that all the loose ends tie up and the story takes on a whole new meaning. I like the author’s style of writing which is easy to read and kept me involved in what had happened to the characters in the past. This is an enjoyable novel that I can recommend.

Teenager Freya is missing! What follows is a fast paced, well written debut novel that kept me reading well into the night.
One house. Three sets of neighbours all with their own secrets. What, or who, joins the dots? What happened 25 years ago?
The drama and the tension keep on right up to the end. A great read that I will be happy to recommend.
Thank you to Netgalley, the publishers and the author for an arc of this e-book.