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When no one is watching : a thriller
2020
Where is it?
Fiction/Biography Profile
Characters
Sydney Green (Female), Born and raised in Brooklyn; neighbors she has known all her life are disappear; starts a walking tour
Theo (Male), Assistant, Sydney's neighbor; a new arrival on the block; wants to help with walking tours
Genre
Fiction
Mystery
Psychological
Thriller
Topics
Community life
Gentrification
Neighbors
Mysterious disappearances
Search for truth
Setting
Brooklyn, New York - Mid-Atlantic States (U.S.)
Large Cover Image
Trade Reviews
Publishers Weekly Review
At the start of this outstanding thriller from Cole (A Prince on Paper), Sydney Green decides, as a distraction from her elderly mother's illness and other personal woes, to take a walking tour of Gifford Place, her historically Black Brooklyn neighborhood, which is becoming increasingly gentrified and considered as the home for a pharmaceutical firm's massive new headquarters. Angered by the white tour guide's detailing "the lives of the rich white people who'd lived there a hundred years ago," but saying nothing about the area's current African American residents, Sydney plans to set up her own neighborhood tour. As Sydney researches Gifford Place's complicated history and racial background, she notices that longtime neighbors and friends are starting to disappear. Theo, a new white neighbor she met on the tour, lends some unwanted assistance in trying to figure out what's going on. Sydney's paranoia and fear, coupled with her guilt at placing her mother in a nursing home, fuel the tense plot, which builds to a credible finale. This stellar and unflinching look at racism and greed will have readers hooked til the end. Agent: Lucienne Diver, Knight Agency. (Sept.)
Booklist Review
Cole's (A Prince on Paper, 2019) latest is a searing indictment of the inseparable evils of racism and gentrification wrapped in an anxiety-inducing thriller with elements of romance and horror. Sydney Green returns home to a changed Gifford Place, where longtime Black residents having been replaced by white families who snatch up the historic brownstones. Theo bought one with his now ex-girlfriend Kim, and she exiles him to the attic, from which he can watch the street and see into Sydney's living room. Sydney reluctantly accepts Theo's help with research for a community tour, and as they visit with residents, both note that strangeness in the neighborhood is intensifying. Sydney is getting creepy phone calls and hearing noises in the walls, and because Theo believes her, she begins to trust him as they get drawn further into a fight with mysterious forces vying for control of Gifford Place. Sydney is a troubled narrator, and Theo's perspective does not immediately make his intentions clear. Cole expertly layers plot twists, raising the stakes until the dramatic finale, and readers will cheer when the real heroes are revealed. Cole is a sure-bet suggestion for romance readers, and When No One Is Watching will expand her already enthusiastic audience.
Summary


An instant NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY BESTSELLER!

"I was knocked over by the momentum of an intense psychological thriller that doesn't let go until the final page. This is a terrific read." - Alafair Burke, New York Times bestselling author

*A Marie Claire Book Club Pick*

Rear Window meets Get Out in this gripping thriller from a critically acclaimed and New York Times Notable author, in which the gentrification of a Brooklyn neighborhood takes on a sinister new meaning...

Sydney Green is Brooklyn born and raised, but her beloved neighborhood seems to change every time she blinks. Condos are sprouting like weeds, FOR SALE signs are popping up overnight, and the neighbors she's known all her life are disappearing. To hold onto her community's past and present, Sydney channels her frustration into a walking tour and finds an unlikely and unwanted assistant in one of the new arrivals to the block--her neighbor Theo.

But Sydney and Theo's deep dive into history quickly becomes a dizzying descent into paranoia and fear. Their neighbors may not have moved to the suburbs after all, and the push to revitalize the community may be more deadly than advertised.

When does coincidence become conspiracy Where do people go when gentrification pushes them out Can Sydney and Theo trust each other--or themselves--long enough to find out before they too disappear

Featured in Parade, Essence, Bustle, Popsugar, Elle, Shondaland, Marie Claire, Buzzfeed, Entertainment Weekly, Good Housekeeping, Brit + Co, Real Simple, Lit Hub, Crime Reads, Blavity, Ms. Magazine, Hello Giggles, The New York Times, Town & Country, Newsweek, New York Post, Refinery29, Woman's World, Washington Post, the Skimm, Book Riot, Bookish, Huffington Post, and more!

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