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heyyyitsericm 's review for:
Before She Knew Him
by Peter Swanson
Before I review this, I feel like I need to take a walk down memory lane with Swanson. When I listened to "The Kind Worth Killing", it was a book I recommended to every friend who asked for a good read. It was suspenseful, dramatic, and a good kind of twisty-turvy that I had come to really enjoy in suspense novels. I was beyond thrilled for "Her Every Fear", and although it didn't match "The Kind"...I felt it was book that touched on loneliness and love, covered in the trappings of a thriller. I absolutely LOATHED "All The Beautiful Lies" - it was creepy, boring, and left me needing a shower.
So, I am torn on "Before She Knew Him." The concept is pretty amazing - Hen, a woman with a history of mental health problems, and her husband Lloyd, are invited to a dinner party at their next door neighbors', Matthew and Mira. While touring the house, Hen discovers a fencing trophy that belonged to a murder victim. Thus begins the story.
I was intrigued from that moment, and for the first half of the book, "Before She Knew Him" is a tight, well-written, evenly paced suspense thriller. It moves swiftly through the narrative, avoiding anything superfluous (save the in depth descriptions of what the characters eat and drink - common in all Swanson novels) to tell a tense, riveting story where the tension escalates. However, once the book introduces narration from Matthew's sparsely mentioned brother, Richard, the story hits a speed bump and starts to slow down, almost detracting from the well-written first third. As we move away from Matthew and Hen, the book sometimes stumbles through Mira's perspective - which takes on a needless detour where she once considered adultery.
And as much as the story ramped up aggressively in the beginning, the climax comes to a head so slowly and suddenly, the entire book just...deflates. There is all this tension that disappears in the dud of a conclusion. To be fair, I saw it a mile away, but it seems once Swanson got to a certain point, he didn't really know where to go. There were tons of directions he could've gone, and it seems like he picked the ultimate direction at random, rather than considering the logical choices for the characters in the novel. It's almost as if Swanson got bored, realized he needed to wrap this thing up, and didn't think how his narrative choices would truly impact the story.
Hen makes an intriguing protagonist, especially since the author doesn't rely on her mental illness to make her an interesting character. Although he previous mental health history does impact the direction of her relationship with Matthew, the serial killer next door, and the story, it's not used as a crutch to move the story along. In fact, the story is almost about how she needs to overcome her past to confront what is facing her in the future. There's even a scene where she communicates with a number of people in her life who are potential roadblocks, and her history of mental illness doesn't define here.
I won't saw Swanson is back on top of his game, but it's a marked improvement over his last work.
So, I am torn on "Before She Knew Him." The concept is pretty amazing - Hen, a woman with a history of mental health problems, and her husband Lloyd, are invited to a dinner party at their next door neighbors', Matthew and Mira. While touring the house, Hen discovers a fencing trophy that belonged to a murder victim. Thus begins the story.
I was intrigued from that moment, and for the first half of the book, "Before She Knew Him" is a tight, well-written, evenly paced suspense thriller. It moves swiftly through the narrative, avoiding anything superfluous (save the in depth descriptions of what the characters eat and drink - common in all Swanson novels) to tell a tense, riveting story where the tension escalates. However, once the book introduces narration from Matthew's sparsely mentioned brother, Richard, the story hits a speed bump and starts to slow down, almost detracting from the well-written first third. As we move away from Matthew and Hen, the book sometimes stumbles through Mira's perspective - which takes on a needless detour where she once considered adultery.
And as much as the story ramped up aggressively in the beginning, the climax comes to a head so slowly and suddenly, the entire book just...deflates. There is all this tension that disappears in the dud of a conclusion. To be fair, I saw it a mile away, but it seems once Swanson got to a certain point, he didn't really know where to go. There were tons of directions he could've gone, and it seems like he picked the ultimate direction at random, rather than considering the logical choices for the characters in the novel. It's almost as if Swanson got bored, realized he needed to wrap this thing up, and didn't think how his narrative choices would truly impact the story.
Hen makes an intriguing protagonist, especially since the author doesn't rely on her mental illness to make her an interesting character. Although he previous mental health history does impact the direction of her relationship with Matthew, the serial killer next door, and the story, it's not used as a crutch to move the story along. In fact, the story is almost about how she needs to overcome her past to confront what is facing her in the future. There's even a scene where she communicates with a number of people in her life who are potential roadblocks, and her history of mental illness doesn't define here.
I won't saw Swanson is back on top of his game, but it's a marked improvement over his last work.