If you don’t want to get to know your neighbors—don’t move into Connelly Court. Unfortunately, Michael and Amelia Ross were not forewarned when they found and moved into their dream home in that very neighborhood. “You guys are swingers, right?” someone asks deep into Crowe’s dishy suburban nightmare, a story of a cul-de-sac social circle powered by Pimm’s teas, lavish parties, and pillars of the community up for experimental entanglements. Nobody likes a nosy neighbor, and the Rosses soon learn that the Murphys, the last family to live in the couple’s current dream home, found their lives ruined by their participation in Connelly Court’s, uh, neighborly activities. As the residents, led by queen bee Janice Cooper and her plastic surgeon husband, Allen, observe the newcomers and then attempt to indoctrinate them into their party scene, the story pulses with hidden agendas, fake friendships, steamy relationships, and—inevitably—lies and betrayals that will shake the community. Crowe has written a host of romance novels, and here she deftly incorporates page-turning suspense, social satire, and a sense of lives spinning out of control and towards tragedy. Sharp characterization and slicing dialogue grip from the start, as does Crowe’s keen eye for jealousies and deliciously mixed feelings. Of a recent orgy, one muses “It had been shocking. And amazing. And horrifying. And perfect.” Allen, meanwhile, thinks this of Janice: “She was a full-frontal alpha female. His alpha female.”
The couples take “enjoying the finer things” to the next level. As jealousies and scandals heat up, Crowe never loses sight of the cast’s humanity, with a story that touches on infertility, autism, addiction, and more with some sensitivity. Still, the fun comes when lines get crossed and new friends turn to frenemies. The tension, stoked by a round-robin of perspectives and prose that bites, will keep readers on their toes—and begging Michael and Amelia to leave Connelly Court.
Takeaway: Tense, delicious novel of suburban swingers spinning out of control.
Comparable Titles: Sarah Dunn’s The Arrangement, Abbi Waxman’s Other People’s Houses.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
