Finished: The Whispers (Audrain) A good page-turner by the same author who wrote The Push, which was quite a thriller. It explores the lives of four neighborhood couples who live next to each other whose outer appearances in no way match their inner turmoils. One couple is childless and has been through several devastating miscarriages, having a profound impact on their relationship. One couple is married with one child with a stay-at-home mom who everyone else sees as perfect, but who sees herself as anything but. One couple is the "older" couple on the block who most of the younger couples just dash past on their way here or there. They have no idea that they once had a son who passed away at a young age, and the torment that mother goes through. One couple is married with three children, with a working-outside-the-home mother, who actually hates being a mother and loses her temper and patience with her kids quite often with words that greatly impact her ten year old son, Xavier. When Xavier falls from his upstairs bedroom window in the middle of the night and lies in what looks like an unrecoverable coma, all the actions and histories of the neighbors come to light, including an adulteress relationship among two of the friends. Was it an accident? Did he try to commit suicide? Did his mother lose her temper and push him? A really good lesson in that saying "you never know what someone is going through", even if things looks perfect and shiny on the outside. The very ending is satisfying, but not before the few likable characters go through horrendous heartbreak.