Watching You by Lisa Jewell, a book review

This is my third Lisa Jewell book that I’ve read and I caught Watching You as a freebie on my kindle, so I nabbed it. I read it quickly and you can read my review below, but first a few details about the book.

Watching You by Lisa Jewell

You’re back home after four years working abroad, new husband in tow.

You’re keen to find a place of your own. But for now you’re crashing in your big brother’s spare room.

That’s when you meet the man next door.

He’s the head teacher at the local school. Twice your age. Extraordinarily attractive. You find yourself watching him.

All the time.

But you never dreamed that your innocent crush might become a deadly obsession.

Or that someone is watching you.

My Review of Watching You

The book starts with a murder but you don’t know who is dead. We know were the murder took place but there are very few clues.

Then we meet Joey and her husband Alfie, just back from the Balearics and living with her brother and his wife. Joey seems ok, if a little bit ditsy, but she has come back for her mum who has recently died when the story begins.

Joey develops a crush on a neighbour, the head of the local school, but he’s also married and has a son.

The son is a little weird, he takes photos of everyone from his bedroom window and gives the impression of being a young pervert.

The school headteacher, Tom Fitzwilliam is charming and seems to have the ladies falling at his feet. His wife Nicola is quiet and seems to have no friends. She goes running every day. The son, Freddie, hears his parents arguing at night sometimes and thinks his dad is hurting his mum.

Joey’s brother, Jack seems really nice. He is doing well in life and Joey feels as though she is in his shadow, but you can see that he cares for his sister. His wife Rebecca is quiet and works from home in her own little office. She is also pregnant with their first baby.

In the village we have Jenna Tripp, a young girl that Freddie spies on sometimes. She lives with her mum, Frances, who seems to have a mental condition. She is paranoid that someone is watching her, but she seems to be the one watching everyone. She knows that Freddie Fitzwilliam spies on people, she’s caught him.

Then we have Jenna’s friend Bess Ridley, who has a crush on Tom Fitzwilliam the head of her school. Jenna thinks that he is a little creepy though.

As you can see there are a lot of characters to get your head around in this story, which is probably why I couldn’t work out who actually committed the murder. It seems like they are all getting on with their lives with minor issues coming out that could possibly provide a motive for murder.

A lot of the original thoughts about the characters are completely turned on their head. Just like in real life you are led into making assumptions about character without knowing all the facts.

I wasn’t sure I was enjoying the book, especially early on with the character confusion and not actually liking any of the characters. (Apart from Joey’s brother, Jack.) But it does turn out to be a really satisfying read. There are a lot of twists, but most of them are just truly understanding the characters and why they act the way they do. I even started to like some of them towards the end.

I can’t give away the ending without spoilers but the clues are hidden there within the story, you just have to be a good detective to put them together. But it does get explained at the end, just in case you miss it. (Like I did.)

Overall, it was an enjoyable read despite the confusing number of characters to deal with.