“The Good Neighbor” by A. J. Banner – The Fires of Betrayal

Small, peaceful and loving communities are about as disarming an environment as one could hope to find; after all, how could anyone have trouble in paradise?

Well, as it turns out, in the world of literature paradise is the perfect place for things to go sour, and that's precisely what happens in A. J. Banner's first novel, The Good Neighbor.

The story is that of a young couple, Sarah and Johnny McDonald, who move into the kind and quiet town of Shadow Cove in Washington. Barely having the time to settle into their lives, the couple sees a tragedy befall on them as two neighbours are killed in a house fire.

Needless to say, it's relatively quickly determined to be a double homicide, and Sarah finds herself in the middle of this investigation, at the same time learning a whole lot about the town, its people, and her husband. As more and more dirt keeps finding its way to the surface, Sarah's doubts grow about who she can trust, if anyone at all.

To begin with, let's talk about what this debut novel accomplishes successfully. The main mystery is rather well-paced and leaves a nice trail to follow for the reader, though I have to say that some of you more experienced murder mystery readers will likely be able to find the culprit(s) well before the big reveal.

There are enough twists and turns thrown about to keep you on your toes and the quick development of elements that are essential to the story doesn't leave all that much time for idle thinking. In other words, this book delivers a good chase and catch as a murder mystery.

Moving onwards from that, the novel does have some weak points. For starters, there are numerous instances that feel like wastes of time, adding nothing to the main story nor serving to develop any characters or even build some kind of atmosphere.

We become privy to some of the bland and banal details of the main character's life, something we could do well without. There are times when it feels like the whole thing is turning into a clumsy harlequin romance, accompanied by cheesy dialogue that will make you cringe.

In addition, there is a real lack of believability in certain cases, with the first one being that the Fire Marshall is in charge of the double homicide... something the police ought to be dealing with. The main character dives into self-pity a bit too often and blames herself for not being a superwoman capable of everything.

Virtually every single woman apart from the protagonist is young, air-headed, beautiful, wearing something revealing, and of course a threat to the McDonald's marriage. Basically, most of the characters feel shallow, underdeveloped, one-dimensional and just not very relatable.

All in all, for a first novel The Good Neighbor ends up being a good effort, delivering a solid and exciting mystery, unfortunately dragged down by a lack of experience and know-how in many other areas.

Nevertheless, if you can overlook those flaws and focus your attention on the meat of the course, then you may very well end up enjoying yourself, especially if enjoy murder mysteries.

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A. J. Banner Personal site A. J. Banner is an Indian-born North American writer who grew up surrounded by mystery novels, which eventually gave her the push she needed to write her first novel, The Good Neighbor , which was rather well-received.