The Couple Next Door

The novel begins with an intense physical description that establishes the present-tense narration: “Anne can feel the acid churning in her stomach and creeping up her throat” (1). If the sentence were written in the past tense, the reader would be introduced to Anne after she has recovered from the indigestion, and the novel would looks back from the relative safety of a point in the story’s future. Lapena’s deliberate use of the present tense throughout the novel creates an unnerving narrative experience. The verb tense symbolizes the narrative strategy to make the experience of the missing baby emotionally resonant.

There is perhaps no greater fear for parents nor any victim more helpless than a six-month baby that goes missing. Once Detective Rasbach begins to ferret out secrets in the families and as one by one members of Cora’s own family emerge as likely suspects in the crime, the use of present tense gives these revelations immediacy. If the novel had been related in past tense, the atmosphere would be considerably less charged, less animated by that sense, typical within the dark psychology of a kidnapping, of increasing confusion, uncertainty, and fear.