Review: Just Between Us by Rebecca Drake

Title: Just Between Us

Author: Rebecca Drake

Published: January 2018, St. Martin’s Griffin

Format: Paperback, 384 pages

Source: Publisher

Summary: 

Four suburban mothers and
friends conspire to cover up a deadly crime in this heart-stopping
novel of suspense in the tradition of Lisa Scottoline and Lisa Unger.

Alison,
Julie, Sarah, Heather. Four friends living the suburban ideal. Their
jobs are steady, their kids are healthy. They’re as beautiful as their
houses. But each of them has a dirty little secret, and hidden behind
the veneer of their perfect lives is a crime and a mystery that will
consume them all.

Everything starts to unravel when Alison spots
a nasty bruise on Heather’s wrist. She shares her suspicions with Julie
and Sarah, compelling all three to investigate what looks like an
increasingly violent marriage. As mysterious injuries and erratic
behavior mount, Heather can no longer deny the abuse, but she refuses to
leave her husband. Desperate to save her, Alison and the others dread
the phone call telling them that she’s been killed. But when that call
finally comes, it’s not Heather who’s dead. In a moment they’ll come to
regret, the women must decide what lengths they’ll go to in order to
help a friend.

Just Between Us is a thrilling glimpse into the
underbelly of suburbia, where not all neighbors can be trusted, and even
the closest friends keep dangerous secrets. You never really know what
goes on in another person’s mind, or in their marriage.

My thoughts: This is the first book I’ve read by Rebecca Drake and it definitely won’t be the last. This twisty domestic thriller kept me on my toes the entire time…it was engaging and once I started it, I had a hard time putting it down.

This is a tale about four women who have become friends because of their children. It is told from the perspectives of each of the women – and while this is a little confusing at the beginning, trying to keep each of them separate, it eventually becomes clear who is doing the narrating at different points. What I did find intriguing, though, is that as we are getting to know each of the women, it that there are hints at an underlying darkness in each of the women’s past…this is what kept me reading long after my bedtime! I needed to know what it was they were hiding.

Two questions kept circling my mind as I read this – Just how far would you go for your friends? and How well do you really know your friends? As the story progresses and we start to uncover those secrets, I became more and more addicted to the story. I loved that along the way, there were these little “bombs” dropped – just little pieces of the puzzle that were revealed when you least expected them to be. This kept me guessing as to what was really going on – my brain was going into overdrive each time something new popped up.

The suspense builds slowly and the pace moves along at a good clip. The twists and turns really keep everything on edge – though I will say I did figure out one part before it was revealed. But this in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the book…I think it only heightened my thinking while I was reading. And I think the best part of this book is that it definitely didn’t go where I thought it would. I thought I had it all figured out, but between the twists and turns and the secrets – it really keeps you guessing.