Battle of the Books 1: Watching You by Lisa Jewell and Such a Quiet Place by Megan Miranda

 Battle of the Books is a new series on Simply Angela where I read two books that feature similar plot devices and see which one I think is the stronger book. I’m hoping that this will be a fun way to tackle my TBR pile mountain, which is getting out of control. This will be a new monthly feature.

For the first Battle of the Books, the featured books are Watching You by Lisa Jewell and Such a Quiet Place by Megan Miranda. 

Themes featured in both books

Ø Murder

Ø Idyllic neighborhoods

Ø People watching/being watched

Ø Multiple points of view

 

 

Melville Heights is one of the nicest neighbourhoods 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…

 Publisher: Atria | Genre: Suspense | Source: Publisher | Rating: 4 

How can you get away with murder when the entire neighborhood is watching? 

When someone is murdered in their kitchen, the neighborhood of Melville Heights is in shock that something this heinous could happen in the idyllic community but it soon becomes known that everyone there is hiding something and someone has been watching.  As the lead up to the murder is looked back on, it soon becomes apparent everyone has something to hide and everyone is a suspect.

I’m normally not a fan of Lisa Jewell’s writing but I found myself fully immersed in this book. Was it the best? No. Was I shocked when the murderer and the motive was revealed? Not really. Yet I did enjoy this one.

There a lot of characters in this one and they all revolved around the new headmaster, Tom Fitzwilliam. There’s rumors swirling about the reason he left his last position and one of his new neighbors seems to recall Tom from her past and, while her recollections are written off as her mental illness, she’s certain there’s something shady going on and she’s doing her best to keep her daughter, Jenna, away. There’s also Joey, his next door neighbor, and there’s no denying she’s more than attracted to the new headmaster. She’s just returned home from working abroad and she’s not exactly happy with her new marriage. As people come and go, Freddie, Tom’s son, sees and records it all.

I found the majority of the characters to be likable but I questioned their actions. They all had their own issues and most of them were self-destructive. There’s a lot of false leads in this one, a lot of wrong impressions. I had to dig around to find the truth buried underneath each story as each perspective offered something new.

While the murder occurs at the start of the book, the victim’s identity isn’t revealed until much later, so not only was I trying to piece together events I was also trying to figure out the victim’s identity. I did have an idea of what was going on from early on in the book and had a feeling how this would end, which ended up being right.

There is a bit of repetition in this one as the characters are recounting events that happened before the murder but I didn’t mind it in this one as each account offers something new. It also has a slight mixed media feel as there were snippets of police interviews throughout the book.

Overall, this was an interesting book told through multiple points of view. I do recommend this if you’re a fan of suspenseful mysteries that had a slight police procedural feel.  

Welcome to Hollow’s Edge, where you can find secrets, scandal, and a suspected killer—all on one street.

 

Hollow’s Edge use to be a quiet place. A private and idyllic neighborhood where neighbors dropped in on neighbors, celebrated graduation and holiday parties together, and looked out for one another. But then came the murder of Brandon and Fiona Truett. A year and a half later, Hollow’s Edge is simmering. The residents are trapped, unable to sell their homes, confronted daily by the empty Truett house, and suffocated by their trial testimonies that implicated one of their own. Ruby Fletcher. And now, Ruby’s back.

 

With her conviction overturned, Ruby waltzes right back to Hollow’s Edge, and into the home she shared with Harper Nash. Harper, five years older, has always treated Ruby like a wayward younger sister. But now she’s terrified. What possible good could come of Ruby returning to the scene of the crime? And how can she possibly turn her away, when she knows Ruby has nowhere to go?

 

Within days, suspicion spreads like a virus across Hollow’s Edge. It’s increasingly clear that not everyone told the truth about the night of the Truetts’ murders. And when Harper begins receiving threatening notes, she realizes she has to uncover the truth before someone else becomes the killer’s next victim.

 

 Publisher: Simon and Schuster |  Genre: Suspense  | Source:  Publisher | Rating: 2.5 

What happens when the neighborhood watch has it wrong?

When a family is murdered in this idyllic neighborhood, the residents are quick to post security camera footage on their community message board convicting one of their own. Although when Ruby is released after just 14 months instead of 20 years due to the conviction being overturned and shows back up in Hollow’s Edge, the close group of friends starts to realize one of them is lying.

This was way too long and repetitive, especially when it was filled with unlikable characters. It could have easily been turned into a novella without losing any of the important content, which would have been more enjoyable.

While this one was easy to read, it was very slow to start and didn’t really pick up until the last bit of the book. I have a feeling if I would have put this one down, I wouldn’t have picked it back up because it’s not the most memorable of books. I can’t even remember any of the characters other than Ruby and Harper.

What I do remember is the questionable actions of the characters. Harper was constantly hiding evidence. Why was a cop allowed to question Ruby when he lived in the neighborhood and had a relationship with Ruby? Why/how was Ruby even charged for this crime when there wasn’t even circumstantial evidence. I had a lot of questions that wasn’t answered.

The only bit of action in this book was the bit towards the end and the reveal, which ended up being a massive letdown. I’m not a fan of major reveals being something that could have been resolved with a simple question and, sadly, that’s what this ended up being.

Overall, this one missed the mark for me. It was the first Megan Miranda book that I’ve manage to finish but I just don’t think she’s an author for me. 

When I picked these books for the first Battle of the Books, I knew from their descriptions that they were going to be similar. I didn’t realize just how similar. Plot-wise they’re the same: a murder in a picturesque community, close-knit neighbors, large cast of characters, and people watching/being watched.  There’s also a lot of repetitiveness.

 

The difference comes down to the likability of the characters and the delivery. The repetitiveness in Such a Quiet Place felt more like filler whereas the repetitiveness in Watching You added information and filled in the blanks. The motive in Such a Quiet Place was lacking where the motive in Watching You was believable.

 

While I’m normally not a fan of either author, I’ve dnf’d the majority of the books I’ve started by both authors, I think that Lisa Jewell delivered a more believable, readable, and enjoyable novel.