If you like psychological fiction and don’t care whether a novel has huge action dumps, this one is for you. Megan Miranda just keeps getting better!

Such a Quiet Place

Megan Miranda

July 13, 2021

Simon & Schuster

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Blurb: Welcome to Hollow’s Edge, where you can find secrets, scandal, and a suspected killer—all on one street.

Hollow’s Edge used to be a quiet place. A private and idyllic neighborhood where neighbors dropped in on neighbors, celebrated graduation and holiday parties together, and looked out for one another. But then came the murder of Brandon and Fiona Truett. A year and a half later, Hollow’s Edge is simmering. The residents are trapped, unable to sell their homes, confronted daily by the empty Truett house, and suffocated by their trial testimonies that implicated one of their own. Ruby Fletcher. And now, Ruby’s back.

With her conviction overturned, Ruby waltzes right back to Hollow’s Edge, and into the home she once shared with Harper Nash. Harper, five years older, has always treated Ruby like a wayward younger sister. But now she’s terrified. What possible good could come of Ruby returning to the scene of the crime? And how can she possibly turn her away, when she knows Ruby has nowhere to go?

Within days, suspicion spreads like a virus across Hollow’s Edge. It’s increasingly clear that not everyone told the truth about the night of the Truetts’ murders. And when Harper begins receiving threatening notes, she realizes she has to uncover the truth before someone else becomes the killer’s next victim.

Pulsating with suspense and with the shocking twists that are Megan Miranda’s trademark, Such a Quiet Place is Megan Miranda’s best novel yet—a twisty locked-box thriller that will keep you turning pages late into the night.

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Harper Nash is cutting up watermelon in her kitchen when she hears something, realizes that someone has entered her house, “surprise”, the knife falls out of her hand, and lay between her and Ruby Fletcher, a convicted murderer who has just been released on a technicality. Filled with quiet tension this scene embodies Such a Quiet Place, Megan Miranda’s latest novel.

In Such a Quiet Place Miranda takes one suburban street and its inhabitants and shows the reader the magnitude of lies and subterfuge that can exist in an area that each thinks they know well. Secrets abound. Judgments pigeon-hole. And, no one speaks plainly of what is on their minds or what they think.

Ruby is an outlier in this community. She behaves differently, does what she wants, and creates chaos merely by existing. And, she frequently says what she thinks or what others are thinking. All of this makes her an easy target, but how much truth is behind the accusations against her, ones that Harper had always believed to be mere gossip? Harper is caught in the middle. Tension thrives when Ruby is around and Harper becomes aware that Ruby’s actions are not those of someone who has nothing to hide. Quickly Harper realizes that it’s up to her to delve beneath the surface and begin uncovering truths.

Characterization, plot, writing, Such a Quiet Place has it all. First off, Miranda’s writing is always good, but it keeps getting better. The rhythm here draws the reader in, compels one to keep reading, flicking those pages. Never once did I leave that rhythm-induced dream so engaging was the writing.

Miranda is also becoming a master of the psychological aspects of characterization and intricate plotting. Hints and innuendoes lead us to suspect everyone of duplicity, even Harper, the narrator.

Perhaps not a lot happens in this novel as far as action, but by creating a tension laden setting and characters who are not always what they seem, a lot does happen on the mental plane. To keep that tension going and keep your reader involved shows a lot more skill than to have a novel inundated with constant action. Twists and revelations prod the reader, leading to unexpected revelations.

Such a Quiet Place is definitely a book I couldn’t put down and didn’t want to put down and so I finished it in one afternoon/evening. This is definitely a novel for fans of psychological mysteries.

Now I’ll go finish the gardening I didn’t get done yesterday.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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rating: 

5 out of 5 butterflies

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