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A fast read with a twisty plot, focusing on a neighborhood populated by a collection of accessible characters, each of them hiding secrets and living a life very different from which it appears.

Lena Clarke, a 32 year old business owner, recently betrayed by her partner of eleven years through his illicit affair with a teenager, has also now found herself homeless. As Lena settles into her rental carriage home in the new and seemingly sedate neighborhood of Mandalay Close, she has no idea at all in terms of what will soon be in store for her.

Beginning with Jolyon, an eight year old boy (with a strange name) who lives next door with his parents, Oliver and Rachel Anderson. Jolyon has his own story to tell, and a well-crafted voice with which he will tell it, – a voice that is both childishly authentic and heartbreakingly mature.

Lena’s new community also in less Prue, Lena’s sixtyish neighbor on the other side, who is a caretaker for her own senile mother, and is secretly battling her own form of what must be seen as mental illness.

I enjoyed this book, – a good read that moves at a clip and will keep a reader guessing and engaged, right up to its satisfying, and not quite predictable, devious ending.

A great big thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.