"Squares are different. Special. Little self-contained, close-knit communities bound by old-world pleasures like movie nights, bake sales and neighbourly croquet tournaments. They're the promise of a long-forgotten life coveted by everyone. Because in the end, isn't that sense of 'belonging' what we're all yearning for? That's what you get when you move into a square - particularly this one."
For years Colette Burton has tended to the tech-needs of the inhabitants of Addison Square: an exclusive, leafy enclave set back from the busy West London high-streets. When you've deleted five years' worth of family memories - two sets of ultrasounds included - when you've accidentally overwritten that crucial work report, when your smart TV, smart doorbell or your iPhone's on the fritz, it's Colette that you call.
She's inside your computer, your phone, your home and your life, but your secrets are safe with her - aren't they? Like every IT consultant Colette has been turning a blind eye to her clients' dubious activities for decades. When she chances upon the porn, the love notes, hate notes and medical notes detailing everything from gynaecological conditions she never knew existed to aborted pregnancies her clients' husbands would never know existed, she'll always say the same thing: "Think of me like a doctor or therapist. I'm a judgement-free zone."
As with doctors and therapists, this is a lie. But those judgements remain dormant until one of her most obnoxious Square clients commits a despicable act in front of her and Colette decides, just this once, to ditch the ethical and moral scruples her job is dependent on, and make that man pay. Only as she gets drawn into the tangled personal lives of these middle-class Londoners, Colette uncovers a succession of secrets and lies that are impossible to ignore.
Because when a man is so blatantly cheating on his wife, and so overtly flirting with the Square's newest arrival - a gorgeous Parisian influencer named Leila - what's the harm in using her stealth power to puppeteer that wife into an affair with her handsome neighbour? Doesn't she deserve to have some fun? And when Colette discovers that the much-loved elderly widow, Sylvia, is being blackmailed over the reason she moved to Addison Square all those years ago - a long-lost child living just a few houses down, oblivious to the fact that her biological mother is "sweet old Sylvia" - is it not her duty to uncover the blackmailer's identity, and make it stop?
Then there's Olivia, the 'Boden mum on speed' and head of the Square committee, always ready to boss her neighbours around via the Square's WhatsApp group, always busy saving local landmarks, setting up the Square's 'Little Free Library', suggesting new recycling incentives and planning the all-important 150th Anniversary of Addison Square party. That's when she's not beating up her husband behind closed doors.
As the night of the Anniversary party draws near and Colette's puppeteering reaches fever pitch, secrets are revealed, worlds collide - and Leila is found dead.
Everyone had a reason to kill her. But who did? And with all that string-pulling, did Colette somehow set this catastrophic act in motion?
Someone in the Square thinks so. Someone who will only keep it to themselves if Colette cuts all ties with Addison Square and starts a new life elsewhere.
But once you've peered through a keyhole, once you've developed a taste for other peoples' lives, seen the power that you can wield from behind a screen and are presented with a whole new set of characters and misdeeds to explore, is it really possible to stop there?
