Shari Lapena Books in Order (Updated February 19, 2026)

Shari Lapena is a Canadian novelist best known for tightly plotted standalone domestic thrillers, with a couple of earlier non-thriller novels. There is no shared series continuity across her thrillers, so “order” is about preference, not spoilers.

Choose your path in 10 seconds

• If you want to read in the cleanest, no-debate order: go by publication year (list below).
• If you only want the thriller era: start at The Couple Next Door and keep going forward.
• If you’re curious about her pre-thriller fiction: begin with Things Go Flying.

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Complete publication order (every book gets one line)

1. Things Go Flying (first published 2007): A pre-thriller novel that’s more literary and character-driven than her later suspense work.
2. Happiness Economics (2011): A sharp, earlier novel with a different tone from her thrillers, focused more on relationships and social comedy.
3. The Couple Next Door (2016): A neighborhood dinner party becomes the starting point for a fast, spiraling domestic nightmare.
4. A Stranger in the House (2017): A woman wakes up after a crash with missing time, and the gaps become the threat.
5. An Unwanted Guest (2018): A closed-setting suspense where a group is trapped together and the “who” keeps shifting.
6. Someone We Know (2019): Suburban secrets collide once a private intrusion makes everyone wonder what else has been taken.
7. The End of Her (2020): A marriage is tested when an accusation from the past forces a present-day reckoning.
8. Not a Happy Family (2021): A family gathering detonates into suspicion, with inheritances and resentments doing the heavy lifting.
9. Everyone Here Is Lying (2023): A child goes missing and a community’s carefully maintained normality starts cracking in public.
10. What Have You Done? (2024): A death and a tight circle of likely liars drive a “what really happened” story with high momentum.
11. She Didn’t See It Coming (2025): A disappearance from an apparently secure life turns a familiar world into a contained search for answers.
12. Getting Away With Murder (scheduled 2026): A couple under financial pressure makes a catastrophic plan and then has to keep control of it.

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Recommended “starter sets” (pick the flavor, not the order)

• Most typical Lapena experience: The Couple Next Door → A Stranger in the House → Not a Happy Family
• If you like closed circles and group suspicion: An Unwanted Guest → Everyone Here Is Lying → What Have You Done?
• If you want the newest run first: What Have You Done? → She Didn’t See It Coming → Getting Away With Murder (when released)

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FAQs

Are any Shari Lapena books a series?
No. Her novels are written as standalones with separate casts and resolutions.

Will reading out of order spoil anything?
Not for plot continuity. You’re safe choosing by premise.

Why do I see different years for Things Go Flying?
Some lists cite later editions/reissues; the original publication is earlier.

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Conclusion

If you want the simplest, most satisfying approach, start with The Couple Next Door and read forward. If you only want one book, choose the premise that sounds most claustrophobic to you, Lapena’s strengths don’t depend on series order.

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