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The Magpies by Mark Edwards
4★'s
From the Book:
When Jamie and Kirsty move into their first home together, they are full of optimism. The future, in which they plan to get married and start a family, is bright. The other residents of their building seem friendly too, including the Newtons, a married couple who welcome them to the building with open arms. But then strange things start to happen. Dead rats are left on their doorstep. They hear disturbing noises, and much worse, in the night. After Jamie's best friend is injured in a horrific accident, Jamie and Kirsty find themselves targeted by a campaign of terror. As they are driven to the edge of despair, Jamie vows to fight back—but he has no idea what he is really up against .
My Thoughts:
A quote from the book cover pretty much says it all. "[The Magpies] is a gripping psychological thriller in which the monsters are not vampires or demons, but the people who live next door. It is a nightmare that could happen to anyone."
It seems from the authors note in the back of the book that that is exactly what happened to him. When he was in his late 20's...the same age as the main characters in the story... Jamie and Kristy. He ad his then girlfriend had rented a ground floor apartment and soon were besieged with hoaxes, and complainants that were not so the average. They even complained that they were being too noisy when cleaning the toilet bowl. When coming up with ideas for a new book he thought of that and build on the idea of "what if". What if these acts were carried to the extreme and what if the good guys decided to try to fight back? What if??? It isn't a supernatural story but in some ways so much more scary than ghost or monsters. It's human nature on steroids at it's very worse. You find yourself feeling all kinds of emotions for Jamie and Kristy.
The author says that while it's not a series he intends to build on one of the "bad guys" in his next book. I'll be waiting.
