Watching You by Lisa Jewell: paranoia in Brizzle

Watching You by Lis Jewell suspense, ending, review



The elevator pitch: 


Bristol is the new Monterey: a British paranoid Big Little Lies.


What I liked about it: 


I haven't read a real traditional thriller in a while. And I miss it. If you have a recommendation for me, let me know. But as far as 'thrillers light' that is how I call this new genre of suspense thrillers* is concerned Watching you is a gratifying page-turner. The characters that are well drawn, so flawed and confused that you would like to offer them lots of tea and cut the crust from their sandwiches. And tell them: 'Oh sweetie, are you sure?'
Almost every crime novel I read lately uses multiple POV's—not an easy thing to do. It's annoying when you get pulled out of your favorite character's world, but in Watching You, each storyline is intriguing and almost too real.  
I did figure out what was going on, halfway through; it wasn't that well hidden; the 'whodunnit' aspect is a vehicle to show us what is going on behind every door. Lisa Jewell flings open the doors of this wealthy neighborhood and probes all the stupid dreams dying behind them; the longing, the fear, the kinks in the minds of fraught people, and she does it lovingly. That is the real investigation going on.


What it's about: 


Somebody has been murdered in an affluent neighborhood in Bristol. Joy Mullen is not like the rest of the inhabitants; she moved there to live with her brother and work a shitty job. She is newly married but almost as a distraction develops an obsession for the new guy on the block. Tom Fitzwilliam, a hotshot headmaster (only in Engeland), with a checkered past. Apart from her stalking Tom (the infatuation gets a little too intense); there's seem to be a lot of spying and paranoia going around. Tom's son is 'observing' the girls in the neighborhood. One of them Jenna lives with an unstable mother. Who is also obsessed with Tom, and claims to be privy of his sins.  Anyway, read it and see how you will get on after with your nosy neighbors.

*P.S. I like this distinction given on Quora between Thrillers and Suspense:I think that a "suspense novel or film" keeps you "on the edge of your seat", whereas a "thriller" makes you "jump off your seat".

So looking for jumping out of my seat recs.