The New Neighbor by Leah Stewart

Ninety-year old Margaret Riley is a cantankerous old lady living alone with her memories. Her one pleasure is the weekly trip to the library where she always checks out five mysteries, tolerating the gossipy librarian, Sue. When she sits down outside with her library book, she notices the empty house on the other side of the pond has a new tenant, a blonde woman, also sitting outside. Margaret is very curious about her new neighbor but, instead of bringing banana bread or a friendly welcome, she stops at the woman’s mailbox to snoop at her mail and learn her name, which is Jennifer Young.

Jennifer and her four-year-old son, Milo, are on the run, and chose an isolated neighborhood near Sewanee, Tennessee as a place where no one can find them. Needing money, she puts up flyers for home massages (which seems like a dangerous profession) at the library, and helpful Sue points them out to Margaret, who makes an appointment for a massage so she can learn more about Jennifer, who is quickly becoming her new obsession. Jennifer reminds Margaret of her best friend, Kay, who nursed with her overseas during WWII.

From the beginning, their relationship is strange, perhaps because both have secrets. The difference is that Margaret wants to unburden herself and Jennifer needs to protect herself and her child from Margaret’s curiosity. At first, Margaret hires Jennifer to help her write a memoir, focusing on her nursing experiences, but she is frustrated by Jennifer’s unwillingness to share anything about her background. Jennifer becomes more and more uneasy by Margaret’s mood swings and inquisitiveness, and gradually withdraws from the massages and the memoir assistance, which infuriates Margaret.

The mystery across the pond becomes more intriguing to Margaret than her library books:

I was waiting but pretending to myself that I wasn’t, sitting in my armchair beside the table that holds the phone, it and my detective novels and my old Rolodex and a notepad and a jar of pens and lamp. I had a book but the book wasn’t holding my attention – I could guess who the killer was, and my ability to guess filled me with a disproportionate despair. Even at this late date I still want to be surprised.

Margaret’s obsession is moving towards a dangerous conclusion that will hurt someone whose friendship she yearns for. Can Jennifer secure her new life now that she and Milo have both made friends? This was a weirdly compelling story as the reader slowly learns both women’s secrets but there are more layers of secrets yet to be revealed. I started with the audiobook, which had been discarded by the library but, about halfway through, I just wanted to get to the conclusion and get back to Race of Scorpions by Dorothy Dunnett, so I got the hardcover from the library (there is a nor'easter passing through this weekend so I knew I would not be driving enough to finish the audiobook). The thing about psychological suspense I dislike is how many times I just want to tell the characters, “No, don’t do that!” They never listen!

I’ve been intrigued by The University of the South, known as Sewanee – pronounced “Swannee,” a liberal arts college in Tennessee, since a classmate at Duke told me he transferred there from Dartmouth. Seniors whose GPA qualifies them to join the Order of the Gown are then allowed/encouraged to wear black academic gowns like the faculty as a sign of academic achievement. See The Sewanee Purple:

Title: The New Neighbor
Author: Leah Stewart
Narrator: Dianna Dorman
Publication: Dreamscape Media, Audiobook, 2015; Simon & Schuster, hardcover
Genre: Psychological Suspense
Source: Library Discard

Reading The New Neighbor contributed to this challenge:

• Cloak and Dagger 2026