Andrew Holland is a best-selling horror writer. While none of Andy's neighbors has any interest in reading his macabre books, they're pleased to have a celebrity author living among them. Then, one morning, Andy finds the body of a child several hundred feet from his front door. A little girl who has been raped and murdered. And everything changes on Poinsettia Lane. Andy's neighbors turn on him. Their animosity is subtle at first: a dirty look from across the street, a friendly wave that is not reciprocated. The local media exacerbates the tension in the neighborhood by insinuating connections between the horror writer's work and his role in the girl's murder.

The authorities clear Andy of any wrongdoing, but the stain has set. Before long, this once-quiet, peaceful neighborhood becomes a maelstrom of anxiety and chaos. Andy's neighbors surround his home like a horde of zombies - but instead of a hunger for flesh, these monsters are driven by lies, fear, and hatred. Andy Holland's neighborhood is just like our neighborhoods and his neighbors are our neighbors. They are the people who we interact with on a daily basis and we can easily see them reflected in Newman's characters. That is what makes this book so incredibly frightening. We can easily see what animosity can do to a person. It can bring out the hatred and ugliness in the people we know.

Newman's vision of a picturesque community plays out like the classic Twilight Zone episode, 'The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street' as the true villains are those who claim to be "fighting the good fight". Logic gets tossed to the wayside as mob mentality takes over and people begin looking for any reason to point the finger. The interesting thing is that in a world that claims to embrace diversity, the person with the slightest idiosyncrasy is the most commonly persecuted.