Was it The Woman Next Door by Sue Watson? That's the closest I can find on Google.

Donna

Thanks Donna....no, that wasn't it. It seems that the book has a one word title.

Could it be Tangerine: https://www.bookbub.com/books/tangerine-by-christine-mangan?source=tbbb_books or

The Neighbor: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/35988661

Not the first one, the second title sounds close.

Lol.....after reading the first reader review for The Neighbor I have to say definitely it is not the book I'm searching for :0) My friend is an erudite woman and that would not be a book she'd have read !

I haven't read either, I was looking for one word titled books about toxic relationships and that's what popped up.

For years I had been looking for a book that I had enjoyed and gave away about a boy spending a summer in his aunts' home in Belgium just after WWII. Could not remember the title or the author for the life of me, just knew it was a memoir. And then I saw a book in a mail order catalogue and knew immediately that was the book I'd been looking for all these years. It was A House in Flanders. Such a simple title and I couldn't remember it.

Merry, I read Michael Jenkins' A House in Flanders several years ago . . . and may have recommend it here. Well worth reading with his descriptions of the Aunts, the way of life and the surroundings.

Although we think of Flanders as being in Belgium, in fact the 'house' was over the border in France. I was surprised that MJ was able to speak such good French, remembering what French lessons were like in England! I believe he went on to become a diplomat.

yoyo, sorry I can't help you with your title. Was the book set in the US?

Yes, Vee.

I recognize the book from your description, Yoyo. I wish I could recall the title or author. All I remember now is that the author was a woman and the theme was a very toxic psychological relationship between two American female friends.

sounds like maybe---The Couple Next Door, by Shari Lapena....?

or.. The Accident, by Natalie Barelli

Not a woman next door exactly - but Notes From a Scandal by Zoe Heller springs to mind when I think about two women and a toxic relationship. Marvellous book!

I agree that Notes on a Scandal is a great read and the older woman (played in the film by Judi Dench) is quite evil, though I seem to remember that the nastiness was one-sided. But as you say the women knew each other as teachers and it was set in London not the US.

I'm very familiar with "Notes from a Scandal" but this book was set in America.

from Amazon Prime video :

Psychological thriller starring Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett. Barbara Covett (Dench) is a domineering and solitary teacher who rules with an iron fist over her classroom at a decaying state-run secondary school in London

from Amazon BOOK :

A lonely schoolteacher reveals more than she intends when she records the story of her best friend's affair with a pupil in this sly, insightful novel Schoolteacher Barbara Covett has led a solitary existence; aside from her cat, Portia, she has few friends and no intimates. When Sheba Hart joins St. George's as the new art teacher,

I would say that this also takes place in London............