Having just moved to a new house backed up to a shared garden square in a neighborhood of London that seems to be all about family and community, newly single(?) mom Claire is hoping for a new start. She's estranged from her husband, doesn't know any of the neighbors, and is stressed about how to make ends meet when the insurance money runs out--but at least her daughters have new friends nearby, and the garden into which their back gate opens seems like an oasis for kids and adults alike.

But when preteen Pip finds her older sister Grace unconscious and bloodied in the corner of the shared rose garden one midsummer night's evening, forcing Claire to reckon with how safe her girls really are and how well she actually knows the people around her.

Now, to start with, this is definitely not the most tightly-written mystery novel I've ever read. It was enjoyable, don't get me wrong--but there's a little too much action that happens off-page, and in my opinion a number of the "red herring" type characters were written a little too obviously for me to believe that they really did it. However, it was a quick read and to Lisa Jewell's credit, it wasn't immediately obvious who did do it, so I powered through and was surprised by how much this book made me think, for reasons I'll get to below under the spoiler tag.

All in all, I think that if you like a bit of a whodunit but don't have super high expectations for a tightly-woven narrative fabric, you'll probably enjoy this book.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ - I enjoyed the read and would recommend it to people who enjoy this genre and subject, but at this time I feel I'm not likely to re-read.

Now, to the spoilery parts...

Let me tell ya, I did not expect a random mystery/crime novel I picked from my TBR to be the 2025 jump-start to killing the cop inside me!

I found myself challenged by the end of this book, and it took me some time after reading to figure out how I felt about it. At first I found myself disappointed, almost irritated, by an ending that I perceived as "unsatisfying." However, as soon as I started to articulate why the ending seemed unsatisfying (nobody gets "got" for the crime--Tyler gets away with it and gets welcomed into the Howes' family, and Grace never gives her up even though she almost certainly remembers what happened), I had an immediate epiphany: I was hoping for carceral justice against a thirteen-year-old. And a thirteen-year-old who clearly comes from a bad home life, at that.

Tyler was raised by a mother who clearly does not have a healthy understanding of boundaries or how to handle jealousy. It's implied (although not outright stated) that her mother might have killed her own sister for dating the boy she liked as a teenager. Cece allows Tyler to believe that Leo is her real father, even knowing otherwise, because she too wishes that she had managed to catch Leo's attention all those years ago. She also encourages Tyler to "make [Grace] pay" for "stealing" Dylan away from Tyler, which is how Tyler comes up with the idea to hurt Grace in the end. Tyler is neglected, discarded, has been betrayed by the one adult in her life that should always be there for her... is it any wonder she turned out a little fucked up in the head?

So in a way, the outcome that we got--where Tyler, rather than vanishing into the criminal justice system, gets a chance at redemption and rehabilitation with a family who might not be perfect, but is at least stable and respectful and loving, and where Grace's family respects her wishes not to be re-victimized by a continued investigation--is actually probably the best possible outcome for both parties, and my knee-jerk response of annoyance about an "unsatisfying" ending may actually mean I need to stop consuming so much copaganda.

Anyway, as I said--three stars!