Next Door: The Podcast: The Book by Wanda Wattsup and Phil Mehan (Busybodies Press, $19.99 trade paper, 979998O887776, April 1, 2025)
After three seasons, the hosts of the unduly popular true-crime podcast Next Door, Wanda Wattsup and her neighbor Phil Mehan, have compiled the ultimate nosy neighbor guidebook for deducing whether someone in your general proximity is a serial killer or just another boring nobody. Former law clerk Wattsup and puzzle-master Mehan both became preoccupied with following the patterns of people who live nearby during Covid-19 lockdowns and soon afterward connected with each other on various social media platforms whose algorithms thrive on speculation and outrage. Over time, the presumptuous duo have considered the observable differences between morning joggers and evening joggers; people who sort their recycling and those who don't; those who wear shorts in March or hoodies in July. And they have presented this banal array of circumstantial evidence to experts in human psychology, criminal profiling, ballistics, bird law, mortuary services, and thriller scripting--all of whom have come to regret invitations to appear as guests.
Next Door: The Podcast: The Book includes full-episode transcripts, making it easy for readers to identify the point in each conversation when guests realize the error in their judgment. The cumbersome volume also features unsettling illustrations of high-profile crime scenes drawn with a dull crayon, as well as bits of yarn threaded through the pages to highlight obscure details the podcasters are certain connect to one another. In the margins there are tips about angling your mini-blinds for less conspicuous peering and web resources widely disregarded by polite society for their tendency to overstimulate suspicious minds. Like the podcast it's based on, this scrappy guidebook simultaneously inspires an infectious, morbid curiosity and a persistent sinking feeling that eventually abates--after several deep breaths and a few minutes touching grass.