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marilynw 's review for:
Those People
by Louise Candlish
Those People is the first book I've read by Louise Candlish and I plan to read more of her books, especially Our House. This book starts out in beautiful, peaceful, well organized Lowland Way, where there are Sunday car-free play times in the street, the houses are gorgeous and well cared for, the community communicates and works together and it's as if this street is insulated from the dirt, noise, and commotion of "lesser" communities. Then Darren moves into the corner house he inherited from his aunt and all hell breaks loose. Darren is slovenly in dress and he soon turns his property into an under "destruction" junk heap of construction equipment, a huge scaffold, loud machinery running at all hours of the night and day and dust a churning, as he destroys walls and an almost historic tree. Not only that, Darren moves his used car business onto his lot and into the street, taking up six or more already scarce parking spaces in front of other homes while he has about twelve cars under repair, with all the noise of a revving engines and clanging steel. Darren plays extremely loud hard rock at all hours of the day and night, ruining any peace in this neighborhood. For some reason there is nothing that authorities can do to alleviate any of these transgressions, which seemed a little hard for me to believe since Darren was so extreme in his destruction of anything good in his area.
Ralph, Naomi, and a few others on the street make token efforts to befriend Darren but he can see through their snobbish, condescending ways. We get to read chapters from the many points of view of specific neighbors and there were very few of them that I liked, once I knew their inner holier than thou thoughts, not only towards Darren but towards each other. I did like Sissy, a sixty year old woman whose husband left her for someone younger, who found a way to support herself by turning her home into a successful bed and breakfast. Sadly Darren's junk yard of a property destroys Sissy's business and ruins her life. I also liked Ant, married to harpy Em, whose home is connected to Darren's house. Ant, Em, and their baby are bombarded with sound torture as Darren ruins any hope of a normal home life with his noise and intrusion of a scaffold into their living space. Ant is extremely henpecked and his wife probably doesn't care for him because he is such a pushover and nice. He also has a crush on Naomi, Ralph's wife, so will side with that couple at the drop of a hat but he still feels compelled to impress his wife, an impossible task.
Secret plans abound, to get rid of Darren, with one or more of the neighbors involved in each plot and one plot often taking place at the same time as another plot. This neighborhood disruption causes lots of rumors and suspicion of other neighbors as property values plummet and tempers flair. Finally, there is a death and everyone is under suspicion, wondering which neighbor is a murderer. I enjoyed getting to read the thoughts of each neighbor, knowing how they thought of themselves and their neighbors and then finding out what the others thought of that person. The downside to knowing each person's hypocrisies, prejudges, and high mindedness was that it was hard to care about most of the neighbors even though I felt great sympathy for what they were experiencing.
The murderer was a big mystery for me and I enjoyed the slow reveal of the murderer. Then there is another death and that's another mess to ponder as every neighbor seems to be involved in schemes and secrets. By the end of the book, we do get to learn who was responsible for what but at the very end we are left hanging concerning my favorite character, Sissy, and I do wish it was made clear what a minor character may or may not have revealed about Sissy. Since I liked her so much, I wanted to have closure to her story and I didn't get that with her.
Thank you to Berkley/Penguin Publishing Group and Edelweiss for this ARC.
Ralph, Naomi, and a few others on the street make token efforts to befriend Darren but he can see through their snobbish, condescending ways. We get to read chapters from the many points of view of specific neighbors and there were very few of them that I liked, once I knew their inner holier than thou thoughts, not only towards Darren but towards each other. I did like Sissy, a sixty year old woman whose husband left her for someone younger, who found a way to support herself by turning her home into a successful bed and breakfast. Sadly Darren's junk yard of a property destroys Sissy's business and ruins her life. I also liked Ant, married to harpy Em, whose home is connected to Darren's house. Ant, Em, and their baby are bombarded with sound torture as Darren ruins any hope of a normal home life with his noise and intrusion of a scaffold into their living space. Ant is extremely henpecked and his wife probably doesn't care for him because he is such a pushover and nice. He also has a crush on Naomi, Ralph's wife, so will side with that couple at the drop of a hat but he still feels compelled to impress his wife, an impossible task.
Secret plans abound, to get rid of Darren, with one or more of the neighbors involved in each plot and one plot often taking place at the same time as another plot. This neighborhood disruption causes lots of rumors and suspicion of other neighbors as property values plummet and tempers flair. Finally, there is a death and everyone is under suspicion, wondering which neighbor is a murderer. I enjoyed getting to read the thoughts of each neighbor, knowing how they thought of themselves and their neighbors and then finding out what the others thought of that person. The downside to knowing each person's hypocrisies, prejudges, and high mindedness was that it was hard to care about most of the neighbors even though I felt great sympathy for what they were experiencing.
The murderer was a big mystery for me and I enjoyed the slow reveal of the murderer. Then there is another death and that's another mess to ponder as every neighbor seems to be involved in schemes and secrets. By the end of the book, we do get to learn who was responsible for what but at the very end we are left hanging concerning my favorite character, Sissy, and I do wish it was made clear what a minor character may or may not have revealed about Sissy. Since I liked her so much, I wanted to have closure to her story and I didn't get that with her.
Thank you to Berkley/Penguin Publishing Group and Edelweiss for this ARC.