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Book Summary and Reviews of Neighborhood Watch by Cammie McGovern

Neighborhood Watch by Cammie McGovern

Neighborhood Watch

A Novel

by Cammie McGovern

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Published:
  • Jun 2010, 288 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Twelve years ago librarian Betsy Treading was convicted of murdering her neighbor, the bohemian loner Linda Sue. After DNA testing finally exonerates Betsy, she returns to her suburban community determined to salvage her life and find the true killer. As she begins to pick apart the web of secrets, lies, and love affairs uncovered in the wake of her trial, Betsy suspects that her tight-lipped neighbors may know something that she has denied even to herself.

In Neighborhood Watch, Cammie McGovern captures the nail-biting electricity of the best literary thrillers and zeros in on the subterranean tension abuzz in a town whose dark secrets threaten to obliterate the glossy façade of a perfect life. It is also the story of a woman coming into her own, finding her strength, and taking control of her life. It asks readers, what sort of price would you pay for the sake of your reputation? Intricately woven, psychologically astute, and filled with complex and surprising characters, Neighborhood Watch marks a significant step in the career of this talented author.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. McGovern ... seductively unreels Betsy's pursuit of the truth one shocking spool at a time. Fans of literary suspense fiction will be well rewarded." - Publishers Weekly

"It's hard to say who's more manipulative, the narrator or her creator, but TV's Desperate Housewives would feel right at home on creepy Juniper Lane." - Kirkus Reviews

"This succeeds neither as a suspense novel nor as compelling psychological fiction. Purchase only where the author's previous books have been popular." - Library Journal

This information about Neighborhood Watch was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Cammie McGovern Author Biography

© Ellen Augarten

Cammie McGovern was awarded a creative writing fellowship at Stanford University, and has received numerous prizes for her short fiction. Her stories have appeared in many magazines including Glamour, Ladies Home Journal, Redbook and Seventeen, and she is the author of the much-acclaimed YA novel Say What You Will, published in 2014. A Step Toward Falling (2015), another YA novel featuring characters with disabilities. Just My Luck, for middle-grade readers (February, 2016). 

She has also written three adult novels, The Art of SeeingEye Contact, and Neighborhood

She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts with her husband and three children, the eldest of whom is autistic. She is one of the founders of Whole Children, a resource center...

... Full Biography
Author Interview
Link to Cammie McGovern's Website

Other books by Cammie McGovern at BookBrowse
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  • A Step Toward Falling jacket
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