With its large, stately houses and well-manicured lawns, Woods End appears to be the perfect neighborhood in the bedroom community of Oak Hill, New Jersey. Bored housewives host garden parties, sip cocktails, eat exotic hors d'oeuvres, and gossip about their neighbors. However, the idle gossip turns to vicious slander when one of the neighborhood children, five-year-old Billy Barnes, disappears while walking home from school. Everyone becomes a suspect in his disappearance. Billy's parents, his babysitter, eccentric neighbors, and hired help are all investigated. When another child mysteriously vanishes, the perfect neighborhood of Woods End becomes the perfect nightmare.Prepare to lose some sleep over Liz Alterman's horrifying domestic thriller, "The Perfect Neighborhood." Novels about disappearing children have always intrigued me. In 1977, I read John Saul's ghostly horror novel, "Suffer the Children," which involved the disappearance and grisly murders of children in a small, coastal village. Later, I read Mary Higgins Clark's classic mystery, "Where are the Children?," in which a mother relives a horrifying nightmare when, once again, her children disappear and she is suspected of being the culprit. Having their child snatched from them is every mother's worst fear. Fear and horror grip the residents of Woods End--a neighborhood that was once thought to be perfect."The Perfect Neighborhood" reminds me of my own neighborhood. Thanks to financial assistance from my parents who live directly across the street from me, I have the good fortune of living in a "well-to-do neighborhood" where most everyone owns a swimming pool, a boat, an RV, and several SUVs. We live at the foot of the Great Smoky Mountains, but my neighbors still take weekend jaunts to beach resorts and gambling casinos. Last year, a house near mine was robbed and everyone began installing sophisticated alarm systems. I kept hearing neighbors say, "I thought this was a safe neighborhood." The only safe neighborhood is the one in Heaven. It is humorous how easily our illusions of safety are shattered."The Perfect Neighborhood" is a perfect tale of intrigue and suspense that is told from the first-person point of view (POV) of five distraught women: the teenage babysitter, Cassidy McLean; the model/actress, Allison Langley; and three housewives, Rachel Barnes, Lindsay Jordan, and Sarah Davies. Readers will soon learn that all of them are hiding dark secrets. In fact, the mystery of Billy Barnes's disappearance is a complex one. There are many suspects. I honestly didn't have a clue to the culprit's identity until after the second child went missing. This novel contains numerous red herrings. It is the type of mystery Agatha Christie would've written if she were still alive.Most readers will agree that "The Perfect Neighborhood" is not your typical mystery. Because of the numerous POVs, it was difficult for me to choose a protagonist. I must admit that I felt great sorrow for the teenage babysitter, Cassidy McLean. She was supposed to be waiting at Billy's home when he arrived from school, but a major indiscretion on her part caused her to be late. Everyone in town begins gossiping about her. Unfortunately, Cassidy's bad luck only grows worse as the plot progresses as though someone is determined to destroy her life. Naturally, the antagonist is whoever is abducting the children, and their identity remains a mystery until nearly the end.Normally, I crave an action thriller with a high body count. However, I also enjoy reading a domestic thriller where the suspense is thick enough to slice with a kitchen knife. Liz Alterman's "The Perfect Neighborhood" kept me intrigued from beginning to end. It has a ton of human drama. I felt as though I was one of the housewives who was lounging on their back patio, idly gossiping about their neighbors. I laughed aloud when Lindsay stated that, in Oak Hill, drinking is a competitive sport. She implies there are numerous alcoholics and, therefore, Woods End is a far-from-perfect neighborhood. Perfect or not, "The Perfect Neighborhood" was a very entertaining read and I look forward to Alterman's next mystery.