The Bad Neighbour by Jennie Ensor will be published on 23 May 2023 with Hobeck Books (paperback and e-book) and is described as ‘a dark and deliciously entertaining psychological thriller with a striking twist.’ The Bad Neighbour ebook is currently on sale with AmazonUK for pre-order at 99p and will continue to be so for a short time after publication (instead of the usual price of £2.99).
“The novel, set in an English village during the pandemic, explores what happens when the threads that bind neighbours and members of the community start to unravel. It was inspired by my own and friends’ experiences of living through the first lockdown of 2020.” – Jennie Ensor
Jennie has very kindly shared an extract with us for today so I do hope you enjoy but first here are further details about the book.
[ About The Bad Neighbour]
In March 2020, the Covid pandemic hits the sleepy English village of Brampton. At the start of lockdown, social climber and local busybody Tara Sanderson sets up a community group to help vulnerable residents through the crisis. Elderly Elspeth Chambers, her longstanding neighbour and friend, accepts Tara’s offer to buy food and collect medicine for her.
But it isn’t long before neighbourliness and community spirit turn sour. Tensions arise when Tara becomes jealous of Elspeth’s emerging friendship with Ashley Kahn, a recent arrival in Wilton Close. Suspecting there is more to Tara’s hostility toward them than meets the eye, Ashley and Elspeth start to uncover their neighbour’s long-buried secrets…
[ Extract from The Bad Neighbour ]
Chapter 4 Tara 23 March
On the TV Boris Johnson was announcing important news, his voice deadly serious. From midnight, people would have to stay at home except for ‘shopping for basic necessities, exercise, medical need and key workers travelling to and from work’.
With a groan, Tara turned Boris off. All this sounded draconian, to say the least. How could this tiny ‘coronavirus’ wreak such havoc? Where would the country end up – and, more importantly, where would she? She poured herself a glass of red wine and popped the last gyoza into her mouth.
She was going to do her bit, as the Prime Minister had requested. She would help the vulnerable in the community in their hour of need. The residents of Brampton would appreciate her more as a result. This fledgling group could be the perfect way to make herself known further afield… As possibilities flowered, a tingle of excitement grew. What else might it lead to?
First though, she’d have to deal with Elspeth. Tara sighed, reached for her notebook and began to write.
This morning I spent half an hour queueing outside Linda’s Pharmacy while one person at a time was let in, then another half an hour on Elspeth’s doorstep (she stayed in the hall with the door ajar) trying to sort out what she should and shouldn’t have received from her five prescriptions. I got extremely irritated when she informed me that the large paper bag I’d collected was missing the Omeprazole for her digestion, which she had specifically requested. Yet another visit to the pharmacy is needed.
She’s managed (with my help shouting instructions over the phone) to get food deliveries set up from Ocado, though she’s still dubious about the concept of ordering online. To give her credit, she’s texted to say how grateful she is for my help. I’m a wonderful friend and neighbour and she’s sorry she was short with me.
Feeling calmer, she put down her pen. Starting a journal had been one of the few helpful suggestions the therapist had made during the years she had consulted him. Noting down troublesome feelings did indeed help to diffuse them – and was considerably cheaper than a therapist.
She finished her wine. Maybe she would venture outside for a stroll, while one could still do such things.
As she passed Ashley’s gate, Zac bounded out. She managed to step aside just in time.
‘Sorry, Tara! Didn’t see you there.’
‘Zac.’ She took in his trainers, T-shirt and thigh-hugging leggings. ‘Did you see the announcement on TV?’
Zac nodded. ‘Looks like we’re all in for a rough ride.’ He sounded distracted. Ahead, Bulldog Man crossed the road onto the green, led by his eager dog.
‘Have you stopped going into the office?’
‘Yeah, it’ll be Teams meetings from now on and no more sessions at the gym.’ Zac pressed a button on the electronic device on his wrist. The man was in good shape for his age, she couldn’t help noticing. He always wore designer suits, too – the hedge fund he managed must be doing well.
‘I’m already working from home,’ she said, picturing with a twinge of regret the spacious office off the High Street where once she had met her clients. ‘And now I’m in charge of our local Covid support group, I have a lot to keep me busy.’ She gave him a friendly smile with a smidgeon of flirtation. Plenty of women would enjoy spending time with Mr Khan – not just talking, either. Ashley was lucky to have him.
A young man stepped out of number 32’s front door to drop a pizza box into the recycling bin – the Khan son. He had obviously stopped shaving, though one could hardly call that mass of facial hair a beard.
‘Dinner in half an hour!’ Ashley yelled from the hall. Zac shuffled from one foot to the other and pressed his electronic device again.
‘I must get on,’ he said, stepping away from her.
‘Nice to chat with you, Zac.’ Tara smiled again. She was about to say something else but her neighbour had sped off with a curt nod. Deflated, she imagined him tripping on a paving stone. How rude!
She shouldn’t be bothering with Zac, she knew. Of course he was unavailable, thanks to that non-entity of a wife. Ashley scuttled around the village like a dormouse, too scared to open her mouth.
Tara went back inside and lay on the sofa, ruminating. She didn’t feel like going for a walk any more. What did Zac see in Ashley? And why was a woman like that surrounded by family, when Tara had no-one? The other day, while dropping a load into the recycling bin, she’d caught a glimpse of the pair hugging in their living room. The curtains had been wide open and the lights on, so of course people were going to see in… Clearly, Ashley wasn’t averse to taunting her less fortunate neighbours.
She let her eyes close, imagining Ashley preparing a meal in the kitchen this very moment, eagerly chopping onions for one of those spice-fests of which the Asian family were so fond – a little too impatiently, given her culinary competence and the sharpness of the knife in her hand. An accident was waiting to happen, surely. She couldn’t help smiling as Ashley, with a scream and a gush of blood, brought the knife down hard onto her finger and sliced it cleanly in half.
Alas, it was only make-believe.
The therapist would have had something to say about this, no doubt. You need to come back and work with me to defuse your violent impulses, or some such thing.
The memory came swiftly. She felt it tugging, forcing itself on her, and the usual dry mouth and sensation of swaying, being about to fall.
She’s standing on a rocky outcrop high up a cliff, peering at the strip of indigo blue sea below. Wind froths the waves, blows her hair across her eyes. The sun is warm on her arms and legs. Noisy birds soar beside the cliffs. A sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. Something bad has happened…
Then she’s running uphill, as fast as she can. But her legs are heavy, she can’t get enough breath. It’s too late. In her ears, a shrill sound, a clamour of wind and shrieks of gulls.
Purchase Link ~ Amazon UK
[ Bio ]
A Londoner with Irish heritage, Jennie Ensor writes daring, emotionally-charged psychological suspense and crime fiction, sometimes with a thread of dark humour. She lives with her husband and an Airedale terrier in London and the French Pyrenees; her other loves are reading, singing, sky watching, wild swimming, mountain cycling and hiking.
Jennie began her writing career as a freelance investigative journalist, often writing about people doing bad things. This theme has continued in her novels: Russian gangsters, terrorism and war crimes in her debut Blind Side; sexual exploitation in The Girl in His Eyes; and criminal gangs and police corruption in her psychological crime thriller Silenced, which appeared in seven ‘best books of 2021’ lists and was a semi-finalist in the 2022 Book Bloggers Novel of the Year competition. Her latest novel The Bad Neighbour is a psychological thriller set in an English village. Lockdown, 2020: Two women suspect their mutual neighbour Tara is hiding a horrific secret… and they may be in grave danger.
As well as novels, Jennie writes short stories and poetry. Her prose poem Lost Connection placed second in the 2020 Fish Lockdown Prize.
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I love the sound of the book and the book cover is great, it makes me feel hungry!
It’s very eye-catching Rosie!