The New Neighbor screams forward with a manic anxiety-inducing pace that ratchets up the intensity until the sweet release of the explosive, revealing ending. Karen Cleveland once again leverages her insider knowledge of the intelligence community to craft a spy vs. spy counterintelligence gem of a thriller that will grab ahold of you early and play with your emotions throughout.
From the outside looking in, Beth Bradford seemingly has everything going her way. She lives in a wonderful suburban cul-de-sac with her family, has great relationships with her neighbors and has an important job at Langley. However, things unravel quickly when her youngest son leaves for college, quickly followed by her husband leaving her and the CIA putting her out to pasture with an assignment to teach new analysis rather than chase an Iranian asset hellbent on hacking into the CIA network to access invaluable intelligence. But Beth isn’t going to give up chasing this spy after pouring her heart and soul into this case for the past couple of years. And as she progresses on her unauthorized investigation, she starts uncovering secrets that have her seeing her neighbors in a different light. Is she finally onto something that will crack the case? Or is she manifesting things that aren’t real as a result of all the major life changes she’s experiencing? Ignoring the increasingly dangerous threats, as well as enduring former colleagues looking at her with pity, Beth has no choice but to take this investigation all the way in an attempt to save the CIA from a catastrophic and unrecoverable network breach. She just hopes it’s not too late.
A quick and entertaining read, The New Neighbor does a wonderful job of hooking readers early through Beth’s emotional trifecta of becoming an empty nester, moving out of the home she raised her children in, and watching her husband of 20+ years walk away from their marriage. It then pulls you in deeper by casting suspicion on nearly everyone Beth knows and watching in frustration as she tries in vain to get others to believe what she’s uncovered, only to be stonewalled at every turn by people who should trust her and have her back. So, while parts of the plot are slightly unbelievable and it might be relatively easy to guess ahead of time who’s compromised and how the story is going to end, this book still packs an enjoyable punch through sheer intensity and wanting to see Beth proven correct so she can tell all the haters to suck it!
Fans of espionage and counterintelligence thrillers should get their hands on The New Neighbor and buckle up for the ride. Because it’s a fun read that you can knock out in a weekend. And given the way this book ended, it’s set up to become a trilogy or series if Karen Cleveland so desires. And I hope she does because I would love to see what happens next.
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