There’s something particularly unsettling about a thriller that unfolds in your own neighborhood—on tree-lined streets, in tidy living rooms, behind polite smiles. That’s the magic of Shari Lapena’s books. She doesn’t take us to far-off places or into the minds of serial killers; she brings the danger home. Her thrillers unfold in everyday places—with everyday people—until secrets boil over, and the ordinary becomes unrecognizable.
From literary fiction to locked-room mysteries to domestic thrillers that shake your trust in everyone around you, the books by Shari Lapena are a masterclass in suspense, deception, and the dark undercurrent of human nature. In this article, we explore every one of her novels, from her early fiction to her most recent heart-pounders. Each summary dives deep into the themes, characters, and chilling twists that define Shari Lapena books—and why readers can’t put them down.
Let’s step behind the front doors… where no one is ever as innocent as they seem.
Things Go Flying (2008)
Genre: Literary Fiction, Magical Realism
Before becoming synonymous with domestic suspense, Shari Lapena introduced herself to readers with this emotionally rich, genre-blending novel. Things Go Flying tells the story of Harold Walker, a 40-something government employee navigating midlife malaise. He’s skeptical of all things spiritual—until he begins hearing the voice of his deceased mother. Suddenly, life becomes a blur of confusion, supernatural visitations, and re-examined regrets.
Harold’s wife Audrey, a practical woman trying to hold the household together, isn’t amused. Nor is his best friend, a flamboyant theater actor who finds Harold’s existential turn both alarming and inspiring. What follows is an exploration of family, identity, masculinity, and the unseen forces that bind us together—even after death.
This novel reveals Lapena’s early talent for layered character development and emotional nuance. Though different from the twist-laden Shari Lapena books she’d later become famous for, Things Go Flying is a warm, funny, and moving portrayal of midlife reinvention. It asks: what happens when the life you’re living no longer makes sense—and the people you miss won’t let you forget them?
Happiness Economics (2011)
Genre: Satirical Fiction, Domestic Drama
In this darkly comic second novel, Lapena takes on the absurdities of modern marriage and ambition with razor-sharp wit. Will Thorne, once a promising poet, now finds himself a frustrated academic with a new obsession: proving that happiness should be considered a national economic indicator. He’s convinced his groundbreaking theory could earn him a Nobel Prize. His wife, Judy, a successful lawyer and the family’s breadwinner, is less convinced—and more concerned about their mounting debt and marital drift.
As Will spirals deeper into his delusions of grandeur, the novel explores the tensions between creative pursuit and financial responsibility, between individual passion and partnership. Judy, juggling work, motherhood, and a husband who refuses to grow up, begins to question everything about her life and marriage.
Though not part of the Shari Lapena books known for domestic crime, Happiness Economics shares thematic DNA with her thrillers: crumbling relationships, unspoken resentments, and the delicate masks people wear to survive. It’s funny, poignant, and painfully honest—a story about the price of chasing dreams, and what happens when the people closest to you stop believing.
The Couple Next Door (2016)
Genre: Domestic Thriller, Psychological Suspense
It starts with a simple dinner party. Anne and Marco Conti, new parents to a six-month-old baby, are invited next door. Their babysitter cancels last minute, but they go anyway, taking the baby monitor and checking on their daughter every half hour. When they return, the front door is ajar—and the crib is empty.
As the investigation unfolds, secrets begin to unravel. Anne is struggling with postpartum depression. Marco is under crushing financial stress. Both have made choices they now regret—and neither is telling the full truth. The neighbors aren’t innocent either, and the couple’s seemingly perfect suburban world begins to collapse under scrutiny.
This debut thriller catapulted Lapena into international fame, and it’s easy to see why. The Couple Next Door is a nerve-shredding examination of trust, betrayal, and the terrible split-second decisions that can change a life. Among the most iconic Shari Lapena books, it’s a blueprint for how she takes domestic life and twists it into something chillingly suspenseful.
A Stranger in the House (2017)
Genre: Psychological Thriller, Crime Mystery
Karen Krupp has it all: a loving husband, a beautiful home, and no memory of the accident she caused late one night in a sketchy part of town. When she wakes up in the hospital, she can’t explain why she was speeding through a neighborhood she’s never visited. Her husband Tom is baffled—and the police are suspicious.
Things get stranger when a man is found murdered near the crash site. Karen doesn’t know him, or so she claims. As detectives dig deeper, cracks form in her carefully maintained life. Meanwhile, across the street, their neighbor Brigid is watching everything—and she has secrets of her own.
A Stranger in the House escalates with every chapter, layering doubt on top of fear. Lapena explores memory as both a shield and a weapon, playing with unreliable narration and building an atmosphere of paranoia. One of the most tense Shari Lapena books, it asks: when you can’t remember what you’ve done, how do you prove you didn’t do it?
An Unwanted Guest (2018)
Genre: Classic Whodunit, Locked-Room Mystery
A snowstorm traps ten guests at the remote Mitchell’s Inn in the Catskills. With no Wi-Fi, no phone signal, and dwindling electricity, they huddle in the cozy but increasingly eerie lodge. But when a guest is found dead at the bottom of the stairs, what felt like a retreat becomes a nightmare. Then another guest dies. The storm isn’t the only thing to fear.
Lapena takes the classic locked-room murder mystery and breathes new life into it. Each character—be it the engaged couple, the war journalist with PTSD, the corporate lawyer, or the innkeeper—is drawn with sharp detail and a shadowy past. Mistrust grows. Panic sets in. And the line between victim and killer begins to blur.
As far as Shari Lapena books go, An Unwanted Guest is a masterstroke in atmosphere. It trades the suburban streets for a snow-choked inn, but the tension is pure Lapena: suffocating, character-driven, and delivered in chilling doses.
Someone We Know (2019)
Genre: Domestic Thriller, Suburban Mystery
In a peaceful neighborhood in upstate New York, the facade of civility cracks when it’s discovered that a teenager has been sneaking into houses—not to steal, but to dig through people’s personal files. The parents are mortified. The neighbors are on edge. And then a woman is found murdered.
The novel unfolds from multiple points of view—mothers hiding secrets, fathers lying to protect their families, teenagers toeing the line between mischief and malice. As the investigation escalates, no one is safe from suspicion, and every alibi begins to fray.
What makes this one of the most gripping Shari Lapena books is its seamless blend of domestic drama and murder mystery. The suspense doesn’t just come from the crime, but from the slow erosion of trust between friends, spouses, and neighbors. Everyone has something to hide—and in the end, it’s not just about who killed whom, but why.
The End of Her (2020)
Genre: Domestic Thriller, Psychological Suspense
Stephanie and Patrick are exhausted new parents, running on little sleep and holding their lives together by threads. Then comes Erica—a woman from Patrick’s past—who drops a bombshell: she claims Patrick killed his first wife. Patrick insists it was an accident. Stephanie wants to believe him. But the seed of doubt is planted.
Erica, meanwhile, is manipulative, cunning, and dangerously persistent. As she forces herself into their lives, old traumas resurface, new lies are told, and Stephanie begins to wonder if the man she married is hiding something monstrous.
This is Lapena at her most psychologically twisted. The End of Her dives deep into gaslighting, buried secrets, and the fragility of trust. Of all Shari Lapena books, this one lingers longest in the mind, posing one terrifying question: if the truth destroys your family, would you rather live with the lie?
Not a Happy Family (2021)
Genre: Domestic Thriller, Family Drama
The Mertons are a wealthy, dysfunctional family barely tolerating each other. On Easter Sunday, after a particularly tense dinner, the family disperses. By morning, the patriarch and matriarch—Fred and Sheila—are dead, brutally murdered in their lavish home. Their three adult children—Catherine, Dan, and Jenna—are stunned. Or are they?
As detectives investigate, motives multiply. Fred was controlling and cold, Sheila was withdrawn and bitter, and the inheritance is vast. The siblings begin to turn on each other, their long-simmering resentments bubbling to the surface. Lapena expertly peels away the veneer of family loyalty, revealing ambition, jealousy, and betrayal underneath.
This is one of the most addictive Shari Lapena books—a fast-paced, dialogue-driven whodunit that doubles as a sharp commentary on entitlement and blood ties. Everyone has something to gain. Everyone has something to hide. And in the Merton family, being “not a happy family” might be the most dangerous thing of all.
Everyone Here Is Lying (2023)
Genre: Domestic Suspense, Psychological Thriller
When nine-year-old Avery Wooler disappears from her quiet suburban neighborhood, shock waves ripple through the community. Her father, William, was the last to see her—just after he lashed out at her during a heated moment. But he’s not the only one lying. Her mother. Her classmates. The neighbors. Everyone here is hiding something.
What unfolds is a layered narrative where no one is quite what they seem. Avery, though young, was no angel. The other children in the neighborhood are complicit in their own ways, and the adults? They’re tangled in affairs, lies, and buried guilt.
Everyone Here Is Lying is a triumph of misdirection. As far as Shari Lapena books go, it’s one of the most psychologically complex. It doesn’t just ask who took Avery—it asks who knew and said nothing. The scariest part isn’t what happened to the child. It’s the adults who let it happen.
What Have You Done? (2024)
Genre: Crime Thriller, Domestic Suspense
The question arrives in the form of an anonymous note: What have you done? For the Harper family, it’s a spark that ignites a firestorm of buried secrets and unraveling lives. At first, they believe it’s a prank. But soon, it’s clear someone knows what happened that night—years ago, a secret they’ve tried hard to forget.
As fear sets in, the family begins to crumble. Relationships fracture. Paranoia soars. And the past becomes a ticking time bomb threatening to explode in the present. Lapena moves the narrative between timelines, creating a haunting duality between who they were and who they’ve become.
Among the Shari Lapena books, What Have You Done? stands out for its slow-burn dread and exploration of guilt. It reminds us that the past doesn’t stay buried—it waits, patiently, for the right moment to rise again. And when it does, it asks only one question: what did you do?
She Didn’t See It Coming (2025)
Genre: Domestic Thriller, Missing Person Mystery
Bryden and Sam have the perfect life: a modern condo, successful careers, and a beautiful daughter. But one day, Sam gets a call—Bryden never picked up their daughter from daycare. Panicked, he races home to find Bryden’s car in the garage. Her phone, laptop, and keys are all inside. But she’s gone. No sign of a struggle. No note. And no goodbye.
As the investigation unfolds, the sleek, polished facade of their marriage and social circle begins to crack. Friends know more than they admit. Bryden’s colleagues have secrets of their own. And Sam himself becomes the focus of suspicion.
Lapena’s upcoming thriller promises her trademark blend of domestic tension and psychological suspense. She Didn’t See It Coming is poised to join the best of Shari Lapena books, adding another chilling tale of how everything can fall apart in an instant—and how the people we love the most can become the biggest mysteries of all.
Final Thoughts on Shari Lapena Books
From literary beginnings to genre-defining thrillers, Shari Lapena has carved her name into the psyche of readers who crave suspense rooted in the ordinary. The brilliance of the books by Shari Lapena lies not just in the twists and turns—but in how eerily familiar her worlds feel. It’s the neighbor you wave to, the spouse you trust, the child you think you understand—until everything falls apart.
Whether she’s locking guests in a snowed-in inn or peeling apart a seemingly happy family, Lapena never fails to ask the question: what would you do if your world turned upside down? And more importantly—what are you capable of when no one’s watching?
If you’re looking to binge on gripping, fast-paced, emotionally layered mysteries, the Shari Lapena books offer the perfect gateway to suspense that lingers long after the last page.
