THE NEIGHBOR is a subtle powder keg packed into the pages of a domestic thriller. Author Joseph Souza, who has been critically acclaimed for his essays as well as his fiction in the mystery, horror and science fiction genres, takes the unreliable narrator concept to places it has never been before. You’re familiar with that girl on a train? In the world of THE NEIGHBOR, she would seem positively rational. And sober.

The novel features the dueling narratives of Leah and Clay, most of which occur over the course of a stormy and revealing two weeks in the second half of October. Former residents of Seattle, Washington, Leah and Clay moved themselves and their twin boy and girl to Dearborn, Maine, a small college town near Portland. Clay was the prime motivator behind the move, following his dream of developing and opening a craft brewery. We learn this gradually through the separate dialogues of the couple, both of whom are very unhappy for entirely separate reasons.

"THE NEIGHBOR has so many wonderful twists and turns that perhaps it should come packaged in a corkscrew rather than in bookbinding."

Leah finds herself unfulfilled, wistfully recalling their life in Seattle where she was able to connect with other mothers who felt and thought exactly as she did, providing her with the philosophical echo chamber she so desperately needed. Now, she sits in her kitchen in a house in the middle of an all-but-deserted subdivision, drinking the day away while bemoaning the imagined impositions on her time.

She also wonders about Clarissa and Russell Gaines, her next-door neighbors and the only other residents of the neighborhood from hell. Leah has been unable to connect with Clarissa, but envies her and Russell from afar for their high-paying jobs at a local university. On a whim one day, Leah enters their home through an unlocked door and thereafter starts making daily visits, becoming bolder as she begins reading Clarissa’s diary. The contents are shocking and, among other things, indicate that the couple may have a connection to a university student who has gone missing and is thought to have been murdered.

Meanwhile, Clay is developing his microbrewery, which is quickly becoming a popular spot. He is also using his status as a brewmeister to sample just a bit too much of his product, robbing himself in the process. Worse, there is a connection between Clay and the missing student that he most certainly does not want Leah or anyone else to know about. Something has to give.

Alcohol seems to be the driving factor and major element behind every act and decision Leah and Clay make, to the extent that it’s not only affecting their marriage but also destroying it. Their problems are impacting their children as well. Then there are, of course, the Gaines. Something is going on in their house, and Leah, who can’t resolve her own problems, interjects herself into the other family’s. This can’t end well. And it doesn’t.

THE NEIGHBOR has so many wonderful twists and turns that perhaps it should come packaged in a corkscrew rather than in bookbinding. A fine and spellbinding storyteller, Souza is also a masterful satirist, lampooning and skewering everything from racial politics and political incorrectness to university snowflakes and the thought police. The subtle symmetry between the beginning and end of the story makes it worth reading all the way through. However, it is the critical examination of current cultural and social mores that makes THE NEIGHBOR required and necessary reading.