Plano Reads: Watching You

Read our review of Watching You by Lisa Jewell, a Mystery Book Club pick for May.

You can join us to virtually discuss Watching You on May 20 at 7 p.m. using Zoom! Register online here.

Watching You by Lisa Jewell

Currently available through the PPL Catalog as well as OverDrive and the Libby app.

Description from Overdrive:

Melville Heights is one of the nicest neighborhoods in Bristol, England; home to doctors and lawyers and old-money academics. It’s not the sort of place where people are brutally murdered in their own kitchens. But it is the sort of place where everyone has a secret. And everyone is watching you.

As the headmaster credited with turning around the local school, Tom Fitzwilliam is beloved by one and all—including Joey Mullen, his new neighbor, who quickly develops an intense infatuation with this thoroughly charming yet unavailable man. Joey thinks her crush is a secret, but Tom’s teenaged son Freddie—a prodigy with aspirations of becoming a spy for MI5—excels in observing people and has witnessed Joey behaving strangely around his father.

One of Tom’s students, Jenna Tripp, also lives on the same street, and she’s not convinced her teacher is as squeaky clean as he seems. For one thing, he has taken a particular liking to her best friend and fellow classmate, and Jenna’s mother—whose mental health has admittedly been deteriorating in recent years—is convinced that Mr. Fitzwilliam is stalking her.

Meanwhile, twenty years earlier, a schoolgirl writes in her diary, charting her doomed obsession with a handsome young English teacher named Mr. Fitzwilliam…

In Lisa Jewell’s latest brilliant “bone-chilling suspense” (People) no one is who they seem—and everyone is hiding something. Who has been murdered—and who would have wanted one of their neighbors dead? As “Jewell teases out her twisty plot at just the right pace” (Booklist, starred review), you will be kept guessing until the startling revelation on the very last page.

Lisa Jewell’s 2018 psychological thriller unfolds from the perspectives of three drastically different characters. A diary entry from 20 years earlier as well as recorded police interviews in the investigation of a horrendous murder that took place in Melville Heights are also scattered throughout the story. This combination of elements adds to the suspense as we dive into a seemingly perfect neighborhood in Bristol. However, nothing is ever as perfect as it seems.

Jewell takes a plausible story and turns it up several notches to create a multi-layered nightmare scenario. With one final (and completely unexpected) twist, Jewell alters everything. Yet, where Jewell shines brightest is her character development amidst the shocking twists and turns. Fans of Sophie Hannah and Darcey Bell must experience Jewell’s Watching You immediately.
Emery, Librarian

Lisa Jewell is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of nineteen novels, including The Family Upstairs and Then She Was Gone, as well as Invisible Girl and Watching You. Her novels have sold over 5 million copies internationally, and her work has also been translated into twenty-eight languages.

–From the author’s website