--- description: Find out why 'When No One Is Watching' by Alyssa Cole made the list. title: When No One Is Watching: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc67acc6abf4814be/698a4075b21a9c34c3507965/WhenNoOneIsWatching.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 03, 2023 # When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Sydney Green’s childhood home now exists in a completely changed Brooklyn. Her old neighbors are gone, pushed out by high rent, and the people and buildings that have replaced what she once knew seem very strange. When Sydney throws herself into becoming a walking tour guide in an effort to impress the neighborhood’s Black history upon tourists and newcomers, she makes a new friend, a white neighbor named Theo. But, as they research the history behind the houses of the neighborhood, they quickly develop some larger questions: Where have all their old neighbors gone, really? What’s up with all these new buildings and would-be leaders promising revitalization—are they legitimate, or could the new changes be deadly? In Alyssa Cole’s 2020 thriller, the all-too-real dark side of [gentrification](https://time.com/5802555/nk-jemisin-the-city-we-became/ "undefined") is pushed to its terrifying, enraging max. —_Mahita Gajanan_ --- ### More from TIME --- **Buy Now:** _When No One Is Watching_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780062982650 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3OWCdzo "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309254/when-no-one-is-watching/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309254/when-no-one-is-watching/"},"headline":"When No One is Watching: Best Mystery and Thriller Books","datePublished":"2023-10-03T11:50:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:20:16.163Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309254/when-no-one-is-watching/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc67acc6abf4814be/698a4075b21a9c34c3507965/WhenNoOneIsWatching.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc67acc6abf4814be/698a4075b21a9c34c3507965/WhenNoOneIsWatching.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309254/when-no-one-is-watching/","name":"When No One is Watching: Best Mystery and Thriller Books"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How We Chose the 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time","description":"Here's how TIME created its 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books list. There are books from 15 different countries, and no author appears on the list more than once.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/bNzuDcsg/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-10-02T16:54:39.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bNzuDcsg.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309254/when-no-one-is-watching/","duration":"PT1M35S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309254/when-no-one-is-watching/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```