The Couple Next Door

The Couple Next Door, Shari Lapena’s 2016 international best-seller, begins as a classic detective story. As the mystery deepens, the novel turns into a tense psychological study of a dysfunctional family, the calculating logic of emotional manipulation, the spiral of post-partum depression, and the corrupting power of greed. Paramount Television optioned the novel for a TV series adaptation in 2018. Shari Lapena is the author of eight novels for adults, including The Couple Next Door, Everyone Here Is Lying, Someone We Know, and Not a Happy Family. Lapena worked as a lawyer and English teacher before publishing her debut novel, Things Go Flying, in 2008. Her novels have been shortlisted for the Sunburst Awards for speculative fiction and the Stephen Leacock Award for humor writing.

This study guide references the Penguin 2016 paperback edition of the novel.

Plot Summary

Anne and Marco Conti raise their six-month-old daughter, Cora, in their swanky upstate New York home. Anne struggles with postpartum depression and Marco’s software development company appears destined for bankruptcy. Needing a reprieve, Anne and Marco agree to help the couple next door, Cynthia and Graham Stillwell, celebrate Graham’s 40th birthday.