Good Neighbors

by Gorman Bechard

Shaken by the death of his friend and neighbor, Reggie DeLillo, during a confrontation with the police, ex-cop Juke Miller decides to investigate on his own and finds himself dealing with a vengeful police chief, his ex-partner, and a beautiful detective as he uncovers secrets that will change his town forever.

280 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Gorman Bechard is the author of seven novels: THE SECOND GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD, UNWOUND (under the pseudonym Jonathan Baine), NINTH SQUARE, THE HAZMAT DIARY, GOOD NEIGHBORS, BALLS and the upcoming NOT SO PRETTY.

He directed/wrote the indie features FRIENDS (WITH BENEFITS) (2009) and YOU ARE ALONE (2006), the horror comedy cult-classic PSYCHOS IN LOVE (1986), as well as the award winning shorts OBJECTS IN THE MIRROR ARE FURTHER THAN THEY APPEAR (2003) and THE PRETTY GIRL (2000), and most recently completed COLOR ME OBSESSED, A FILM ABOUT THE REPLACEMENTS, which Rolling Stone named one of the seven best music docs of the year.

Bechard is in pre-production on ONE NIGHT STAND, a psycho-sexual horror film, and BROKEN SIDE OF TIME, a dark drama set in the world of internet modeling, which are parts two and three of his planned ALONE trilogy, and PIZZA, A LOVE STORY, a documentary on the holy trinity of pizza joints, Sally’s, Pepe’s, and Modern in New Haven, Connecticut.

Reviews

[Susan Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Reggie DeLillo decides to take revenge on the teenager next door who killed his beloved dog, both he and the boy end up dead. Reggie's good friend, Juke who left the police force after a bit of a scandal, is not willing to stand by and accept the obvious answer. Bechard weaves an excellent story here. [I realized - after I posted this on the web page - that I actually read this in 1999.)

Here's what I said then "Bechard's book Balls is one of my all time favorites so when I recently learned that I'd missed another one of his, I grabbed a copy. Balls is not a mystery and I didn't expect this one to be but it is. Reggie DeLillo is shot by a policeman investigating the shooting of the kid who had recently killed Reggie's dog. Clearly Reggie had killed the kid and pointing the gun at the police officer was justification for his own shooting. Or was any of it? This is more a mystery or people than plot. Interesting. "

[Terri Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just got this book at a yard sale and read it in one day. This book kept you wanting to read and read and not put it down because there were so many twists and turns. The only thing I didn’t like was you were not actually told what happened to Natalie and Megan. And I guess that’s the point is that you can just imagine what happened. I don’t know if there’s a book after this but I’m going to look for it very enjoyable reading

[Cat. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good mystery. I had the wrong 'guy' all the way through, and I like my bad 'un better. Still, quite the twisty story. Wish this was a series.

Picked this up because it was being weeded and it looked interesting.

[Mallorie Parkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book you can't put down. Well written and fast moving. Bechard's writing is word visual. Excellent storyline. I reccomend it.

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

I usually dislike a mystery in which the reader is forced to navigate a "who dunnit" plot, but in the case of GOOD NEIGHBORS the plot was so well thought out, and the characters so vivid, that it all worked.

I hope that this leads to a "Juke Miller Series", because I will read every one of them.

Set in a bedroom community near Yale University, Juke Miller is an ex-cop who runs the local tavern, and he is not even close to accepting closure in the murder and rape of his wife which occurred seven years earlier.

His older and wiser, next door neighbor and dear friend, Reggie, has a beautiful Lab,"Molasses" who is the center of his life, and is married to a wife who is twenty-five years his junior. The dog is poisoned by an eminently popular fifteen year old quarterback who lives next door, Reggie kills the kid, and a cop kills Reggie. Or so it seems, and over the next one hundred and fifty pages, 'what really happened' unfolds like a bad dream.

I really found this novel so well written that it was hard to put down. I would recommend this book to anyone!!