Before She Knew Him by Peter Swanson

A special thank you to Edelweiss and William Morrow for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Hen (short for Henrietta) and her husband Lloyd have settled into a quiet life in a new neighbourhood just outside of Boston, Massachusetts.  Hen is an illustrator that works out of a studio close to her new home and she is finally feeling a sense of peace and stability after finding the right medication to control her psychotic episodes.

At a block party, Hen and Lloyd are relieved to meet the only other childless couple, Mira and Matthew Dolamore.  It turns out they live next door in a matching Dutch Colonial.  The Dolamores extend a dinner invitation and while on a tour of their home, the sense of peace that Hen feels starts to dissipate after she recognizes a trophy in Matthew's office that went missing from the home of a young man that was killed two years prior.  Hen knows this because she has a secret obsession with this unsolved murder.

Is Matthew a killer?  Or is this just another one of Hen's psychotic episodes?

The more she watches Matthew, the more she not only suspects him, but that he is planning something terrifying that she may not survive.

I read All the Beautiful Lies as an early reviewer and was impressed at Swanson's character development—he has a gift for writing characters that boarder on being psychotic, yet believable.  Each of these characters are flawed, yet it is these flaws that help drive the narrative.  Hen is the perfect unreliable narrator and given her history, nobody believes her, even when she figures things out.

There is a cleverness and preciseness with just enough plot twists to not be predicable or confusing.  If you like psychological thrillers, I encourage you to pick up this book, Swanson is at the top of his game.

PETER SWANSON'S debut novel, The Girl With a Clock for a Heart (2014), was nominated for the LA Times book award. His second novel The Kind Worth Killing (2015), a Richard and Judy pick, was shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger and named the iBooks Store's Thriller of the Year, and was followed by two more critical and commercial hits, Her Every Fear (2017) and All the Beautiful Lies (2018).

He lives with his wife and cat in Somerville, Massachusetts.

All the Beautiful Lies by Peter Swanson

A special thank you to Edelweiss and HarperCollins for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Alternating between past and present, Swanson's newest domestic psychological thriller is a standout in the genre which seems to be increasingly popular as of late.

Harry Ackerson is set to graduate from college when he receives word from his stepmother, Alice, that his father has died in what appears to be a suicide.  Devastated, Harry skips his graduation ceremony and travels to his late father's home in Maine.

Harry and Alice lean on one another to pick up the pieces after such a monumental loss.  For Harry, things start to become uncomfortable and awkward with Alice—he has always considered her attractive, and she has been nothing short of kind to him.  Alice is also 15 years younger than his father was.

A mysterious young woman named Grace makes Harry's acquaintance shortly after he arrives.  She claims to be new to the area, but she was at Harry's father's funeral.  Things aren't adding up, and Grace seems to know more than she is letting on.  Grace is not the only woman with interest in Harry, Alice is also growing closer and ends up seducing him.  The more involved Harry gets to with these women, the more he realizes that he doesn't know them at all.  Both women are hiding secrets and the truth about who they really are.  Things are not what they appear, including his father's death which is now looking like murder.

Swanson excels at character development and this novel is no exception.  He has a gift for writing characters that are boardering on being psychotic, yet believable.  There is a cleverness and preciseness to Swanson's storytelling without being overly dark.  With just enough plot twists, the story is not predicable or confusing.  If you like psychological thrillers, I encourage you to pick up this, or any of Peter Swanson's other books.

PETER SWANSON'S debut novel, The Girl With a Clock for a Heart (2014), was was nominated for the LA Times book award. His second novel The Kind Worth Killing (2015), a Richard and Judy pick, was shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger and named the iBooks Store's Thriller of the Year, and was followed Her Every Fear (2017).

He lives with his wife and cat in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Her Every Fear: A Novel by Peter Swanson

A special thank you to Edelweiss and William Morrow for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Kate Priddy, a Londoner, swaps apartments with Corbin, a distant cousin, in Boston.  She suffers from anxiety and panic attacks as a result of an ex-boyfriend that kidnapped her and nearly ended her life.  Kate thinks that a change in scenery is just what she needs.  

Soon after her arrival to Corbin's apartment, Kate learns that Corbin's neighbour was murdered.  Questioned by the police, Kate realizes how little she knows about Corbin.  She is left shaken and with more questions.

Kate makes the acquaintance of another tenant, Alan Cherney, as well as the grief-stricken former boyfriend of the victim who thinks Corbin is responsible for what happened.  Her jet lagged mind and fragile state begin to wreak havoc, things are not what they appear to be.

Hearing great things about Swanson's previous works, I was excited to get my hands on this book but, it fell a little flat.  There was so much more that could've been done to to really flesh out the main character.  She has a pivotal life event in her backstory that seemed to be disconnected. It is here that Swanson falls down—he doesn't connect this to the character so it comes off as weak and being filler.  This is a life-changing event that should really define who she is.

The ending was predictable.  I wanted suspense and where's the twist?  I did have it all figured out unfortunately.  That being said, his writing is good as is the pace.  The premise was also good, and I will definitely check out his other works (I haven't given up on him yet).

PETER SWANSON'S debut novel, The Girl With a Clock for a Heart (2014), was nominated for the LA Times book award. His second novel The Kind Worth Killing (2015), a Richard and Judy pick, was shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger and named the iBooks Store's Thriller of the Year.

He lives with his wife and cat in Somerville, Massachusetts.