Those People Next Door
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3.9 • 15 Ratings
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- £3.49
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- £3.49
Publisher Description
‘Terrific and hugely thought-provoking’ Ian Rankin
‘One of my ten best reads of the year. Easy five stars’ Lisa Jewell
* Waterstones Thriller of the Month – August 2023 *
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You can choose your house. Not your neighbours.
WELCOME TO YOUR DREAM HOME . . .
Salma Khatun is extremely hopeful about Blenheim, the safe suburban development to which she, her husband and their son have just moved. Their family needs a fresh start, and Blenheim feels like the right place.
MEET YOUR NEW NEIGHBOURS . . .
Shortly after they move in, Salma spots her neighbour, Tom Hutton, ripping out the anti-racist banner in their front garden. Choosing not to confront Tom, Salma takes the banner inside and puts it in her window. But the next morning she wakes up to find her window smeared with paint.
AND PREPARE FOR THE NIGHTMARE TO BEGIN . . .
This time she does confront Tom, and the battle lines between the two families are drawn. As things begin to escalate and the stakes become higher, it's clear that a reckoning is coming… And someone is going to get hurt.
A gripping thriller about nightmare neighbours, Those People Next Door explores the loss of innocence and how far we’d go to defend ourselves and the people we love.
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Readers are GRIPPED by Those People Next Door
‘Impossible to put down’ Reader review, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘An incredibility evocative, intense, and impactful book’ Reader review, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘A powerfully impactful and thought-provoking thriller’ Reader review, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘Kia Abdullah smashed all my expectations with this relentlessly gripping thriller that held me in its thrall from first page to last’ Reader review, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
About the author
Kia Abdullah is a bestselling author and travel writer. Her novels include Take It Back, a Guardian and Telegraph thriller of the year; Truth Be Told, which was shortlisted for the Diverse Book Awards; and Next of Kin, which was longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award. Kia has also been selected for The Times Crime Club.
Kia has written for The New York Times, the Guardian, the Financial Times, The Times and the BBC, and is the founder of Asian Booklist, a non-profit that advocates for diversity in publishing and helps readers discover new books by British Asian authors.
For more information about Kia and her writing, visit her website at kiaabdullah.com, or follow her at @KiaAbdullah on Instagram and Twitter.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A feud between neighbours spirals out of control in this tumultuous and timely domestic thriller. Schoolteacher Salma Khatun never expected to live in a suburban neighbourhood with cookie-cutter homes and perfect lawns. But after a scary incident involving her son, Salma reluctantly chooses the safety of the burbs over the excitement and community of the city. When a video of a heated altercation with her new neighbour over a Black Lives Matters banner goes viral, Salma’s carefully constructed world begins to crumble around her. Author Kia Abdullah delivers a unique cat-and-mouse story for the social media age. As the neighbourly tensions grow, each incident—whether a deliberate act of sabotage or an innocent misunderstanding—takes on a life of its own. Bitingly funny and very tense, Those People Next Door is a thoughtful, satirical thriller that hits close to home.
Customer Reviews
Gripping with a fantastic twist!
I listened to this as an audiobook and thoroughly enjoyed it! It takes a decent narrator and a gripping storyline to hold my attention as I can be very easily distracted and don’t get on with all audiobooks. This one had both and I found myself wanting to listen to it at any given opportunity!
Salma and her family have moved house, hoping to leave their troubles behind them and looking for a fresh start. The area seems nice and when they’re invited to a neighbourhood barbecue they feel certain they’ll be happy here.
Unfortunately, not all the neighbours are that welcoming and when Tom from next door starts to moan about where Salma has parked her car and pulls down her Black Lives Matter banner from her garden; she quickly realises this might not be the fresh start they were hoping for!
Things continue to go from bad to worse with the nightmare neighbours next door! Are they really responsible for everything that happens? What will Salma and her family do? Read or listen to this fab book to find out!
This story is extremely well written, with a fantastic, unexpected ending. I liked Salma and felt sorry for her having to deal with her nightmare neighbours, there were times when I felt she shouldn’t have reacted the way she did, but she was just trying to stand up for herself and her family. A book like this highlights how you can stop thinking rationally when you are feeling threatened.
Racism is a hard topic to cover in a book. The author has done a fantastic job of making this an incredibly thought-provoking story!
I love how this book is part suspenseful thriller and part courtroom drama, it really works. I found myself completely immersed in the story each time I listened, feeling like I was right there in the courtroom!
So many twists
This was thrilling & keeps you guessing all the way through, with so many plot twists.
A truly disturbing tale of how neighbours’ relationships can break down. Written in the first person, from multiple perspectives, it’s amazing how my loyalties swerved from Salma to Tom & back again, all within a few wonderfully scripted pages. A really clever, thoughtful book.