Before She Knew Him: A Novel

Catching a killer is dangerousespecially if he lives next door From the hugely talented author of The Kind Worth Killing comes an exquisitely chilling tale of a young suburban wife with a history of psychological instability whose fears about her new neighbor could lead them both to murder . . . 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, shes 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 husbands 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 shes long had a fascination with this unsolved murderan obsession she doesnt talk about anymore, but cant fully shake either. Could her neighbor, Matthew, be a killer? Or is this the beginning of another psychotic episode like the one she suffered back in college, when she became so consumed with proving a fellow student guilty that she ended up hurting a classmate? The more Hen observes Matthew, the more she suspects hes planning something truly terrifying. Yet no one will believe her. Then one night, when she comes face to face with Matthew in a dark parking lot, she realizes that he knows shes been watching him, that shes really on to him. And that this is the beginning of a horrifying nightmare she may not live to escape. . .