Hannah Reilly, the middle-aged British protagonist of Lucie Whitehouse's Before We Met, has enjoyed an idyllic eight-month marriage--until Mark doesn't return from a business trip in New York City on his scheduled flight. He turns up days later, and his plausible, yet rather questionable excuses plant a seed of suspicion in Hannah, who grew up with a cheating father and a chronically skeptical mother. She tries to convince herself that she has no real reason to doubt Mark, but his whereabouts in New York City cannot be confirmed, nor can his coworkers corroborate his story.
Hannah stitches together other unexpected revelations--Mark's contact with a mysterious woman doctor, funds withdrawn from Hannah's bank account and the return of Mark's long-lost brother. At every turn, Mark seems to have answers to explain everything, but can Hannah believe them?
Doubts, secrets and lies drive the engrossing suspense, as Whitehouse (The Bed I Made) effectively employs flashbacks to examine the before and after of Hannah and Mark--their single lives, their working lives, the influences of their dysfunctional families and the life they created together. This well-written and well-plotted psychological thriller peels back layers of information, with deepening implications that will keep readers guessing through chilling twists and turns. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines