Book Review:
Book: Before She Knew Him
Author: Peter Swanson
Genre: Thriller; Mystery
Rating: 4 stars
Goodreads Synopsis:
Hen and her husband Lloyd have settled into a quiet life in a new house outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Hen (short for Henrietta) is an illustrator and works out of a studio nearby, and has found the right meds to control her bipolar disorder. Finally, she’s found some stability and peace. But when they meet the neighbors next door, that calm begins to erode as she spots a familiar object displayed on the husband’s office shelf. The sports trophy looks exactly like one that went missing from the home of a young man who was killed two years ago. Hen knows because she’s long had a fascination with this unsolved murder—an obsession she doesn’t talk about anymore, but can’t fully shake either...
My Review:
“They had a secret, the two of them, and there was no better way to start a friendship than with a secret.”
Lately, I have been trying to read those authors’ work, who are new to me, and I just randomly selected this book by Peter Swanson from my Mystery/Thriller Tbr. It usually is so much fun when you find a new author’s work and instantly like the book. Before She Knew Him is an unrelenting and fantastic book. It is more of a thriller than a slow-burn mystery. Almost everything starts making sense right from Chapter 2, followed by a course of cat-and-mouse chase and all the events are so captivating that you can’t stop reading.
Hen and Lloyd are new in the neighborhood. When they are invited to a dinner by their next door couple, Mira and Matthew, things started going confusing. Hen noticed a fencing trophy in Matthew’s office that immediately took her back to an old murder and she started suspecting Matthew responsible for that murder. When she finally gathered the courage to talk to the detective about Matthew, they didn’t believe her because of her mental illness and called her an unreliable source. I mean who believes a woman with a bipolar disorder and who has a history of accusing people of murder. Another murder is committed and Hen saw Matthew on the scene but still due to her mental illness police wouldn’t believe her. Matthew, on the other hand, is facing a serious mental disorder and wants to befriend Hen and tell her everything only to free himself from the burden of his unspeakable secrets. What are the secrets that force Matthew to commit murders? Is there any connection between all the murders? Would Hen believe him? Or would she be able to make the detective believe her? Or the truth is something entirely different and someone else is involved in murders?
Before She Knew Him is extremely nerve-racking book. The story will keep on giving you goose bumps, but the last twist is totally unforeseeable. Peter Swanson did a great job in creating an unreliable female and a psychotic male narrator. The book keeps switching back to Hen and Matthew’s points of view which is another thing that I loved about this book. I actually did not like the characters very much as I don’t have a favorite one. Hen is just fine, annoying sometimes, and Matthew is also an okay character, but the story on the whole was really interesting. Also, I rarely come across a book that mentions the characters pertained to my country, Pakistan. Mira, Matthew’s wife has distant relations from Pakistan, and I loved reading about her. Yes, I’d recommend this book to thriller lovers!
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