Anne has experienced postpartum depression and is exhausted from breast-feeding. What's that, you said? Parents who love their little girls wouldn't leave her alone in the house while they spend time swilling wine with 'the couple next door'? It may not be front-page news, but LaPena does make you understand exactly how and why parents might make that decision: They want to relax and feel like grown-ups again. No matter what secrets they have from the police, their family and friends, and even each other, it's clear that Anne and Marco both love their little girl. When Rasbach recedes, one of the book's strengths comes to the fore, which is the exquisitely torturous tension the Contis feel as they wait for news of Cora. If it were a deliberate choice to keep Rasbach opaque, it would have been more effective to have him less visible, too. Aside from an occasional reference to his 'summerweight suit' and steps that are hurried or slow, we learn almost nothing about the detective. However, each step in Rasbach's investigation is transparent, and worse: Dull.

'The Couple Next Door' could have been a look at postpartum depression and how it breaks a marriage instead, it attempts to be a procedural. When Anne and Marco return home and find their door ajar, it's Marco's 'Maybe you forgot you've had a lot to drink' that particularly rankles.

The author excels at re-creating the words and thoughts of a helicopter mom whose spouse and friends seem hellbent on keeping her from following her own better instincts. She imagines all their jaws dropping in shock, the uncomfortable silence.' We left our six-month-old baby home alone and went to a party next door. 'She wonders what the other mothers in her moms' group would think if she ever told them. Anne clutches a baby monitor as if it's a lifeline.

LaPena sets the scene and gets the action quickly: Anne and Marco Conti have accepted an invitation from their neighbors Cynthia and Graham, leaving their 6-month-old, Cora, asleep. Shari Lapena's The Couple Next Door examines the blind fear a couple in upstate New York experience when they return from a dinner party (yes, next door) and discover their beloved daughter is no longer in her crib. Novels about missing children aren't, well, novel - but there's a special terror for anyone who has loved a baby when the missing child is an infant, unable to walk or climb or otherwise toddle into danger. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Couple Next Door Author Shari Lapena

Book review the couple next door