Today we have an excerpt from Those People Next Door by Kia Abdullah. A “gripping thriller about nightmare neighbours”, the novel has been selected as Waterstones Thriller of the Month. Out now, published by HQ in the UK, here’s the synopsis:

You can choose your house. Not your neighbours.

WELCOME TO YOUR DREAM HOME…
Salma Khatun is extremely hopeful about Blenheim, the safe suburban development to which she, her husband and their son have just moved. Their family is in desperate need of a fresh start, and Blenheim feels like the place to make that happen.

MEET YOUR NEW NEIGHBOURS…
Not long after they move in, Salma spots her neighbour, Tom Hutton, ripping out the anti-racist banner her son put in their front garden. She chooses not to confront Tom because she wants to fit in. It’s a small thing, really. No need to make a fuss. So Salma takes the banner inside and puts it in her window instead. But the next morning she wakes up to find her window smeared with paint.

AND PREPARE FOR THE NIGHTMARE TO BEGIN…
This time she does confront Tom, and the battle lines between the two families are drawn. As things begin to escalate and the stakes become higher, it’s clear that a reckoning is coming… And someone is going to get hurt.

A gripping thriller about nightmare neighbours, Those People Next Door explores the loss of innocence and how far we’re prepared to go to defend ourselves and the people we love.

Read on for this short excerpt, taken from Chapter 1, in which Salma meets her new neighbour for the first time…

*

Tom greeted them warmly. He was in his mid-forties, muscular beneath a navy polo shirt, and with thick dark hair splayed beneath an orange cap. As he spoke, a young bull terrier bounded up to him. ‘Her name is Lola,’ he said, bending down to pet her. He looked up at Salma. ‘She was a showgirl,’ he deadpanned.

Salma broke into laughter. Tom nodded in approval as if she had passed a test. Lola snuffed at Salma’s feet.

‘You don’t mind, do you?’ said Tom.

‘No, not at all. We have a dog too, a lab called Molly.’

‘Oh, that’s great. This is such a dog-friendly neighbourhood. You’re going to love it.’

Linda cut in to hand out drinks. Bil volunteered to help with the barbecue and she happily whisked him away. Zain took his drink to a corner of the garden and busied himself on his phone.

‘So what do you do?’ asked Tom.

‘I’m a teacher,’ said Salma. ‘Geography at a secondary school,’ she added, pre-empting his follow-up question. ‘What about you?’

‘I work in advertising. At Sartre & Sartre.’

‘Oh wow. That must be glamorous.’

‘It can be,’ he said with a grin, enjoying the compliment. ‘And what about Bil?’

Salma felt herself tense. ‘He’s a restaurateur,’ she said, despite the fact that his restaurant, Jakoni’s, had shut down earlier that year.

‘Restaurateur?’ Tom puckered his lips in a show of approval. ‘You must be doing all right then, no?’

Salma looked bemused. ‘I mean, we’re doing okay.’

‘Sorry if that’s rude. I was just wondering how come you got this place then?’ He nodded in the direction of their house.

Salma relaxed, relieved to find that he too was sceptical of Blenheim. She smiled playfully. ‘It’s not so bad, is it? Where else would I find such a pristine collection of lawns?’

Tom frowned. ‘It’s just that I would’ve thought you were above the threshold.’

‘Threshold?’ Salma was confused.

‘For social housing,’ he said.

It dawned on Salma what Tom had really meant: not you’re wealthy so why would you choose to live here but you’re wealthy so why did you get social housing? She shifted awkwardly. ‘We actually bought it privately.’

‘Oh!’ Tom looked mortified. ‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to assume. In fact, I wasn’t assuming. I was certain that the house next to us was part of the social housing.’ He cringed visibly. ‘I must have been mistaken.’

Salma waved in a show of nonchalance. ‘Ah, if only! It might have saved us a pretty penny.’ Her voice laboured with the effort to put him at ease. She groped for another topic.

‘So what school do you teach at?’ asked Tom.

‘Ilford Academy in Seven Kings.’

‘I see. Do you enjoy it?’

Salma could feel the conversation slipping away, but was keen to keep the momentum going. If they parted now, it would surely make things more awkward the next time they met. ‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘It’s especially nice in August.’ She laughed at her joke but it came out forced and hollow.

*

Kia Abdullah’s Those People Next Door is out now, published by HQ in the UK. The novel is due to be published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons in North America, as Perfectly Nice Neighbors, on September 12th.

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