Lisa Jewell (The Girls in the Garden, The Third Wife) is a brilliant storyteller, creating suspenseful yet believable novels time and again. I Found You is no exception--filled with intriguing characters connected in startling ways. In the present day, Alice Lake, a lonely single mother, finds a man with amnesia on a beach in northern England. Meanwhile, Lily Monrose is a Ukrainian bride who has been in London for three weeks when her new husband goes missing. She turns to the police, but learns that "Carl Monrose" is a false identity, and her husband never actually existed.
Alternating chapters set 23 years earlier tell of Gray and Kirsty, a brother and sister contentedly vacationing at the seaside with their parents until a dark and unpredictable stranger inserts himself into their lives. As the secrets and unknowns build, even the best armchair sleuths will be met with surprises.
As Alice's interest in the amnesiac--whom her daughter has dubbed "Frank"--and Lily's desperation grow, Jewell ratchets up the tension in Gray and Kirsty's lives as well. The dueling time periods make I Found You all the more intense; she is deviously reticent to reveal the siblings' impact on the present. Quickly paced yet delicately nuanced, this novel is sure to appeal to fans of Big Little Lies and The Woman in Cabin 10. --Jessica Howard, blogger at Quirky Bookworm