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    Before She Knew Him: A Novel
    Before She Knew Him: A Novel
    Before She Knew Him: A Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    Before She Knew Him: A Novel

    Written by Peter Swanson

    Narrated by Sophie Amoss and Graham Halstead

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    About this audiobook

    Catching a killer is dangerous—especially 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, 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.

    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 he’s 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 she’s been watching him, that she’s really on to him. And that this is the beginning of a horrifying nightmare she may not live to escape. . .

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateMar 5, 2019
    ISBN9780062838186
    Author

    Peter Swanson

    Peter Swanson is the New York Times bestselling author of The Kind Worth Killing, winner of the New England Society Book Award and finalist for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger; Her Every Fear, an NPR book of the year; and Eight Perfect Murders, a New York Times bestseller, among others. His books have been translated into 30 languages, and his stories, poetry, and features have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Atlantic Monthly, Measure, The Guardian, The Strand Magazine, and Yankee Magazine. He lives on the North Shore of Massachusetts, where he is at work on his next novel.

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    Reviews for Before She Knew Him

    4/5

    950 ratings59 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Peter Swanson's "Before She Knew Him" is a serial killer book with a difference. The author lets us know who the perpetrator is, and before long, we get an idea of what motivates him to commit murder. We also get glimpses of his horrendous childhood and learn of his plans for future mayhem. The heroine is Henrietta (Hen) Mazur, an artist who is bipolar (she takes medication to control her condition) and makes her living by creating "dark and arresting" illustrations using copper and zinc plates. When her next-door neighbors, Matthew and Mira Delamore, invite her and her husband, Lloyd, to dinner, Hen spots something that triggers a vivid memory. She fears that Matthew, who is a high school history teacher, may be hiding homicidal tendencies behind a mask of normalcy.

      Hen shares her suspicions with Lloyd, as well as various detectives who do not take her claims seriously. First, she has had mental health issues in the past, including a history of stalking and paranoia, and second, there is no proof that Matthew is anything other than an upstanding member of the community. This is a creepy psychological thriller that portrays most of its male characters as sexual predators, abusers, adulterers, or homicidal maniacs. The women are, for the most part, victims, with the exception of Hen, who refuses to stand idly by and let events take their course.

      "Before She Knew Him" has some twists to spice things up, but the surprises that Swanson springs on us feel more like gimmicks than shocks to the system. This novel is mildly suspenseful, but the plot is too contrived and melodramatic to be wholly satisfying. The only character who is fully fleshed out is Hen and, although the villain earns a modicum of sympathy when we find out why he behaves the way he does, it is difficult to feel sorry for a deranged individual who takes the law into his own hands.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      I am normally pretty good at guessing how a book is going to end, but this one definitely got me! Fantastic book filled with lots of twists and turns. I would recommend this!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Love most of his books. Great writer. Creepy and cool at the same time!
    • 5/5
      Intense and riveting, Peter Swanson always keeps me on the edge of my seat with his amazing books and story telling.
    • 5/5
      I thought the story was interesting and I liked the narrator
    • 5/5
      VERY well done! Kept my interest all the way to the end.
    • 5/5
      Laden with suspense, this stupefying thriller kept me on the edge of my seat.
    • 4/5
      This is actually a decent book, the author did a pretty good job of portraying mental illness and the effects it has on everyone around them. The book was suspenseful and pretty chilling and it ended ok. No complaints, it's a quick, interesting read.
    • 5/5
      Fast paced! Edge of my seat through out the entire book.
    • 5/5
      Very good book and very well performed. Highly recommended. Loved it
    • 5/5
      this book is awesome! such a good thriller, the audiobook version is great.
    • 5/5
      SO GREAT. I was hooked right away and didn’t want to stop listening until the end. Loved all of the twists!!
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed the characters and it was a well written story.
    • 5/5
      Really good. Engaging and surprising. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Narration was pretty good.
    • 1/5
      This was was one of the most absurdly ridiculous books I’ve EVER read. I really hoped that as it went on the story would start to flesh out and a mystery would develop, but there just isn’t one. A lot is revealed early on and it’s just sheer absurdity. Combine that with truly endless, irrelevant filler and a disinterested sounding female narrator made it seem as though it would never end.
      There’s absolutely nothing good I can say about this. RUN!!!!
    • 5/5
      Good book! It kept me interested from beginning til end, which can be difficult for me with audiobooks. The narrator is really good, too!
    • 4/5
      This was a good book, slow at some points although full of wonderful twists and turns!
    • 3/5
      *contains a lot of spoilers*

      I was LOVING the book until the “twist” came. The beginning was phenomenal, it perfectly set the scene and I was marveling at the writing style. As the suspense built towards the end of the middle, when Michelle was killed and Matthew and Hen started talking, I was thinking this is the best book ever and couldn’t want for the big reveal. When it finally happened, when Hen was in her studio and “Richard” came, it just felt so messy and confusing. It wasn’t explained properly and I honestly wasn’t sure if Hen was having a manic episode imaging that Matthew was Richard. I think there’s a lot of loose ends, like why Matthew got the keys if he was Richard. I also feel like his character just fell apart at the end. He was so well developed, and I loved how he was written, then suddenly he turned into an unhinged psycho and it just didn’t seem realistic how he switched in a matter of hours. I wish that there was some sort of flashback, after it was discovered that Matthew was Richard, where we saw what actually happened, regarding the keys and Michelle’s murder. I also don’t understand how when Mira got home from her trip, she wondered if Richard was on the couch. Why would she wonder that if Richard didn’t exist? Did she know about this “Richard” part of Matthew? I feel robbed of what could have been a phenomenal twist!
    • 4/5
      ok. Kinda slow moving, but good twist at the end. Not too bad for working and listening.
    • 2/5
      Great narrators but the ending was no a surprise! The book was well written but had a very predictable ending.
    • 5/5
      Not real twisty for a Peter Swanson, but still good.
    • 4/5
      Would like to give this 3.5, sort of slow and not much happens until the last few hours. Didn’t expect the twist with the villain!
    • 5/5
      As usual a great thriller! Peter Swanson is a master of it!
    • 5/5
      It has a this twist that you’ll never see coming!

    • 4/5
      This book took a long time to really get started, and didn’t really heat up until the last part, part 3. For the most part, I thought it was just kind of going along and going along, without much to it. It did keep my interest enough to want to keep going, although I felt like it was just kind of rambling along. When we get to part 3, though, all the truly shocking stuff starts coming out, and then things do get interesting!

      The format of the story is kind of interesting as well because, right from the get go you think you already know who the killer is, think being the operative word here. I kept thinking to myself, well, we already know who the killer is so what’s the point? Why is he telling us the whole story before the story even begins?? Well, I guess you just have to keep listening to find out!!
    • 5/5
      Great book. . . . . . . . !
    • 5/5
      I loved this book! It was Peter Swanson in his best
    • 5/5
      This was a great read! It kept me guessing all the way until the very end because there are twists and turns all throughout this book.
    • 3/5
      This was just ok. Not the best PS I've ever read. It was good, just not great.
    • 5/5
      I thought The Kind Worth Killing was amazing but Before She Knew Him topped that. I could not put this book down. It has that #WTFEnding to it that I love!