Hollow's Edge used to be the kind of quiet, idyllic neighborhood that everyone wants to live in.  Kids ran in and out of each other's houses, friends chatted amiably on the streets, and neighbors gathered around the community pool for summer cookouts.  Then, Brandon and Fiona Truett were killed in their home and a fellow Hollow's Edge resident was convicted of the crime.  Now, the neighborhood is a tainted place, a haunted subdivision where suspicion, paranoia, and secrets swirl in the air like the barbecue-scented smoke that once drifted lazily over its tree-lined streets.

When 25-year-old Ruby Fletcher is freed from prison, her conviction overturned after she served a year and a half for murdering the Truetts, her former neighbors are shocked.  They're even more stunned when she waltzes back into Hollow's Edge as if she never left.  Harper Nash, with whom Ruby lived before her arrest, is so astounded by the woman's sudden presence that she doesn't know how to react.  She can't let Ruby take up where she left off as if nothing happened, but she also can't kick her out when she has nowhere else to go.  Ruby swears she didn't kill the Truetts.  If she's telling the truth, then who's lying?  What really happened the night Brandon and Fiona died?  As Harper takes a closer look at her neighbors, she begins to realize that none of them are quite what they seem.  Did one of them kill the Truetts and frame Ruby?  If Harper asks too many questions, will she be next?

I've enjoyed all of Megan Miranda's twisty thrillers, so I was stoked when I got approved on NetGalley for an e-ARC of her newest, Such a Quiet Place (available July 13, 2021).  With its Desperate Housewives-ish premise, it sounded like the perfect summer beach read.  As always with Miranda's books, I was sucked into the story, which is engrossing and compelling.  I whipped through the pages because I wanted to know what was going to happen.  Unfortunately, though, the characters in this one are just not appealing.  For a community made up of smart professionals, they're petty, immature, whiny, two-faced, and dishonest, almost to a one.  Even the kids in Hollow's Edge are unlikable!  The cast members are all so repugnant that it's hard to care much about any of them.  The plot has some odd bits as well, especially when it comes to shoddy police work and illogical motives for some of the characters' actions.  I can't say I really loved the Big Reveal either.  In the end, then, Such a Quiet Place ended up being just an okay read for me.  While the story kept me turning pages, it also irritated me in a lot of ways.  Of all Miranda's books, I have to say this one is my least favorite.  Bummer.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson and The Neighbors are Watching by Debra Ginsberg)