Abel, Barbara: After the End

In this riveting domestic thriller, a standalone sequel to Mothers’ Instinct , a recent divorcée and her two children befriend their new neighbors, only to realize there‘s something dangerously unsettling about the couple next door. After separating from her work-obsessed husband, Nora Depardieu is ready for a fresh start. With her vivacious teenage daughter and eight-year-old son in tow, she moves into half of a cozy two-family house in a tranquil suburb and goes to work as a teacher’s aide. Being a working single mother is a challenge, and Nora is grateful when her new next-door neighbor, Tiphaine Geniot, offers to watch the kids. The arrangement thrills Nora’s daughter, who has begun a mutual flirtation with Tiphaine’s fifteen-year-old son, Milo. But Nora doesn’t know that the Geniots are a disturbed couple whose lives were destroyed by a devastating loss. She also doesn’t know a tragic secret about Milo that is also connected to her new house. As the truth of the past come to light, what Nora doesn’t know could kill her. . . . Translated from the French by Natasha Lehrer