Good Neighbors - Chad Zunker - ★★★.¾

AUTHOR: Chad Zunker

SERIES: Alibis Collection, #5

GENRE: Short Story

PUBLICATION DATE: June 2, 2025

RATING: 3.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: The fifth story in the Alibis collection. Finally a proper pacy thriller in this collection, even though it isn't the most original of plots.

Plot Preview:

In her new neighbourhood, Kara has just one friend: Mindy. So when Mindy confides to Kara her suspicion that Mindy’s husband might be having an affair, Kara, who stays just across, promises to keep an eye. One night, Kara sees someone sneaking into Mindy’s house, and she does what a good neighbour would: she goes to take a closer look even though her husband Jackson warns her not to meddle. She certainly doesn’t expect to find what she did, and worse, she doesn’t expect to be running for her life.

The story comes to us in the alternating third-person perspectives of Kara and Jackson.

This is the fifth standalone story in the 'Alibis’ series, described on Amazon as “stories about lies, truth, and deception. It’s just a matter of what you can get away with.”

I don’t want to get too much in to the plot and characters as this story has many elements similar to modern-day domestic thrillers and is fairly straightforward. But it does exactly what is promised, and that’s what matters most.

Woohoos:

🥳 The alternating POVs of Kara and Jackson provide an interesting dual view of the unfurling events. Both their personalities come out well.

🥳 Pacing – outstanding. Not once does the plot lose its momentum. I read this 45-page story in fifteen minutes flat.

🥳 Quite a few twists and turns in the plot.

🥳 Quite a lot of action as well, and well-written without feeling shoved in. It’s tougher to make action feel necessary and convincing in a short story.

🥳 No clutter in the writing. We know exactly as much is needed and no extraneous info.

🥳 A good lesson: don’t poke your nose where it doesn’t belong! 😆

IDKs:

😐 Despite all the twists and surprises, most of the reveals didn’t catch me off guard. Then again, all domestic thrillers are fairly formulaic these days, so I guess this cannot be held much against the story.

😐 The ending is a bit too cheesy. I am not used to seeing such finales in domestic thrillers. Not bad, but not expected as well.

All in all, I did have fun while this lasted, even though it was somewhat predictable. It works nicely as a quick and thrilling palate cleanser.

Of the five stories I have read so far in this six-story series, this is the only one where I didn’t pause even once in between the read. I am never on an active lookout for thriller author recs, but I wouldn’t mind reading more by this author when I am looking for a popcorn entertainer.

Recommended to fans of domestic thrillers.

This standalone story is a part of the ‘Alibis’ collection, and is currently available free to Amazon Prime subscribers.