The Neighbors We Want: A Novel

by Tim Lane

Overview

This psychological page-turner, perfect for fans of Paula Hawkins and Gillian Flynn, explores how far couples will go to keep their marriage intact—unless their secrets tear it apart first.

Adam is having a hard time adjusting to the stay-at-home-dad life. The sleepless nights and the constant diaper changing are not what he expected after he was abruptly fired from his job. Then again, Adam wasn’t prepared for his relationship with his wife Sarah to slowly come apart at the seams either. One thing, however, keeps him going—his growing obsession with his neighbor, Ali.

But one night, something changes. While staying up with his baby, instead of seeing Ali in the window across the way, he sees her ex-boyfriend, Crispin, lurking around her house before disappearing within. When Adam hears that Ali doesn’t show up for work the next day, and she doesn’t seem to be home, he fears the worst—that she’s been abducted, or possibly killed. His search for the truth will lead Adam on a path filled with deceit and lies.

Adam knows the answers are lurking somewhere in the shadows of his small suburban town—the trouble is, the truth is hard to find when everyone has something to hide.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781639104734
Publisher:	CROOKED LANE BOOKS
Publication date:	09/05/2023
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Tim Lane is the author of Rules for Becoming a Legend and his stories have appeared in The Los Angeles Review, Emerald City, X-R-A-Y, and Monkey Bicycle, among others. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and two wild, wonderful boys. The Neighbors We Want is his second novel.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for The Neighbors We Want:
“[About the] monsters lurking beneath the suburban surface. Not even Mister Rogers would want these neighbors.” 
—Kirkus Reviews

“[A] wicked, twisty tale . . . Fans of soapy, neighborhood novels will enjoy this one.”
—Red Carpet Crash

“A knotty, deceptive mystery, told in sparkling prose. This compelling tale of parenthood and family is a visceral exploration of the cumulative indignities we face in adulthood, laced with deft social commentary. You won't want to miss it!”  
—E.G. Scott, international bestselling author of The Rule of Three

“Intricately constructed and brimming with twists, The Neighbors We Want is a page-turner with which Lane makes a name for himself in the canon of domestic thrillers. This is a story of what tears us apart and the dark lengths one couple will go to in order to find their way back to each other.”
—Madeline Stevens, author of Devotion

“Lane pens an intriguing take on the domestic thriller with his new novel The Neighbors We Want. Told in alternating, distinct voices, the mystery is propelled forward with perfect pacing, compelling characters and witty, smart dialogue. I loved the addition of the stay-at-home dad, and the marital and postpartum issues were done with care and authenticity. I was fully immersed in this story and found it hard to put it down.”
—Amber Garza, author of In a Quiet Town

“How did Tim Lane somehow manage to make a dark, delicious, twisty thriller out of strands as disparate as postpartum misery, early parenthood, marital tension, neighbor drama, and performative Portland politics?  The Neighbors We Want is both a tense, compelling mystery and an astute, unflinching, realistic look at the dark side of domestic bliss—a true pageturner unlike any other I can remember.”
—Lydia Kiesling, author of The Golden State and Mobility

“Rear Window with the social insights of Tom Perrotta, The Neighbors We Want is the kind of novel you’ll read twice: once for thrills and again for all the details you missed because you were turning pages so fast. Tim Lane is one of our most skillful storytellers.” 
—James Tate Hill, author of Blind Man’s Bluff

From the Publisher

2023-06-08
Humdrum domestic stresses hatch a flock of wildly florid complications.

Portland ad writer Adam Cooper, fired from his job at Lostine Windows for watching explicit videos at his workplace, is serving as a stay-at-home dad for his 7-month-old daughter, Maddie, while his wife, Sarah, struggles to pump milk each day during her downtime at César Chávez Elementary. Sarah’s unsought role as the family breadwinner is complicated by the unwelcome attention she gets from wealthy, entitled Chávez principal Evie Kemp, whose son, software engineer Crispin Kemp, has just been dumped by the Coopers’ neighbor Ali Washington, a receptionist and aspiring graphic designer who’s started to feel creepy about Crispin’s attentions. Ali’s shivers are the first sign that this apparently quotidian Oregon soap opera is being driven by some seriously dark energy. Ali has taken to posing in her bedroom window late at night to give Adam a private striptease. Crispin, who’s waiting to become a billionaire when Amazon acquires Logicstyx, the company he’s helped steer into the stratosphere, is disturbed in ways his mother can face only to the extent of thinking, “Crispin had gotten carried away again.” Sarah’s hiding secrets just as explosive as those of her husband and her next-door neighbor and the neighbor’s ex-lover. Ultimately, Adam’s ill-judged attempts to protect the wife who’s turned away from him ignite a full-blown blaze. Lane’s fragmentary narrative is constantly jumpy—not just when he’s shifting from one character’s point of view to the next, but even within single sentences like “Marriage is a scoreboard.”

A fever dream of the monsters lurking beneath the suburban surface. Not even Mister Rogers would want these neighbors.

Kirkus Reviews