Before We Met – Lucie Whitehouse

Psychological Thriller
4*’s

Hannah sits at Heathrow airport ready to greet her husband of eight months, realising he is not on the flight she expected she waits for the next one to arrive from JFK.  In the early hours of the morning she returns home worried and alone.  Instantly I was able to imagine myself in a similar situation and measure Hannah’s behaviour to how I believe I would behave, in short sympathise with her.  When she finally receives word from Mark, it is to tell her that he will be away for the weekend without a phone. At this point Hannah begins to question her marriage and how much she actually knows about Mark.

Hannah is not a particular complex character but she has a dread of turning into her mother; a wife who drove her husband mad with her constant snooping and accusations of adultery until he left.  Her brother Tom is a good secondary character with a much more balanced view of life.

I enjoyed this read, travelling in Hannah’s footsteps as she turns up clue after clue, desperately wanting to believe that she is being paranoid, just like her mother was. With the tension heightened, as mad as an angry fishwife I was as keen as Hannah to hear Mark’s explanation. Unfortunately for Hannah her mind is not put completely at ease and she continues to question her marriage.

As this book hurtles towards its denouement you could be forgiven that you have finished by reading a different type of book than the one you started as things take a turn of the thriller variety.  For once I had worked out the twist before it happened which is highly unusual but instead of disappointing me I gave myself a pat on the back!

A well-paced plot and although I was left feeling that there were some unanswered questions it was an enjoyable read and one that I would recommend to other lovers of psychological thrillers.

Due to be published on 6 January 2014, by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. who gave me a free copy of this book in return for my honest review.