"A Neighbour's Guide to Murder" by Louise Candlish

A audio book

Prologue - London. Gwen (OAP) phones the police to say that her apartment neighbour has killed his tenant.

It's Gwen's first-person PoV (with asides). Her daughter Mia has suggested she write it as therapy. She's been divorced for 15 years from Brian, who embezzled from the charity they worked for. Her 36 y.o. son Daniel lives with her now that he's separated from his wife, unemployed and depressed. Pixie moves into her neighbour Alex's spare room. He's about 50, a composer. There seems to be an arrangement that she pay the rent by sleeping with Alec. Gwen thinks that she's curious about Pixie not because she's a replacement for too-often absent Mia, but because of Cindy, a vulnerable girl who started working with her and was propositioned by Brian. She confronts Alec, saying she's tell the committee about his deal with Pixie. He replies that he'll tell them about the embezzlement (she was cleared, and it was years ago, but it won't help her hopes of election). They find a spy camera in the shower of her en-suite. Alec seems unperturbed. Gwen calls the police. Pixie moves in with Gwen and Daniel. Gwen lends her money. She goes on holiday with Daniel. Gwen tells the press about Alec. He tells the police and presses for damages. Gwen realises that Pixie sleeps around and takes money. She accepts a caution from the police and pays damages to Alec. She has to sell the flat. Alec offers to drop damages and charges if she sells to him. She becomes his tenant.

After a chat with disappointed Pixie (who's marrying Daniel) she wonders if Pixie was telling the truth after all. She checks the circumstantial evidence. She reveals that she and Alec spent a drunken night in bed together. She suffocates Alec in his sleep, confessing to neighbour Dee but to nobody else. 6 months later Gwen is finishing her write-up and kills herself. She didn't mean to leave the write-up behind. Dee saved and edited it. 2 years later, Pixie stars in a film called "A Neighbour's Guide to Murder" about the events.

I kept wanting to read on. The plot is tidy. The characters don't match the plot too well though (Alec's murder is too much of a surprise; Gwen and Pixie's sudden friendship) and too often Gwen isn't told about things (Daniel and Pixie) or doesn't react as one might expect (when Pixie spends her borrowed money).

Other reviews

• lotuswritingtherapy
• mostlymurder (Don't be fooled by the veneer of cosy crime - this is much more complex and twisted than retirement noir.)