Before She Was Helen by Caroline B. Cooney
Release: September 1st 2020
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Groundwood Books
Source: Netgalley
Synopsis:
Her life didn’t turn out the way she expected ― so she made herself a new one
When Clemmie goes next door to check on her difficult and unlikeable neighbor Dom, he isn’t there. But something else is. Something stunning, beautiful and inexplicable. Clemmie photographs the wondrous object on her cell phone and makes the irrevocable error of forwarding it. As the picture swirls over the internet, Clemmie tries desperately to keep a grip on her own personal network of secrets. Can fifty years of careful hiding under names not her own be ruined by one careless picture?
And although what Clemmie finds is a work of art, what the police find is a body. . . in a place where Clemmie wasn’t supposed to be, and where she left her fingerprints. Suddenly, the bland, quiet life Clemmie has built for herself in her sleepy South Carolina retirement community comes crashing down as her dark past surges into the present.
Before She Was Helen Review:
A BIG Thank You to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with an advanced reader’s copy of “Before She Was Helen” for my review.
I thought this book started off really well. I really enjoyed the parallel story-lines between the present and the past, and how a murder takes place in both. There are a lot of twists and turns so you really don’t know how things will turn out. I loved Clemmie as the main character, irrespective of how old or young she is. The plot and setting is also very unique and unlike anything I had read earlier. There was a lot of potential for this book being an amazing page turner. Moreover, I thought the author wrote Rudyard very well and was a terrifying negative character. He is truly insane and unpredictable, and I could sense Clemmie’s fear in confronting him.
However, I felt solely disappointed after completing this book! I felt frustrated to see so many questions left open-ended. For example, I still don’t know who the Coglands are and why their apartment was empty. I also don’t know who and why placed the priceless dragon artifact there. Also, while I liked how the killer turned out to be someone whom I would have never expected, the reason behind their kill was convoluted and didn’t make much sense. There were also a lot of unnecessary dialogue with unwanted characters from the cul-de-sac which didn’t add anything to the plot. For example, pages wasted on dialogues from gossip women on what happened. The present day murder story-line turned out to be a complete disappointment. After a point, I was only looking forward to the flashbacks of Clemmie’s earlier days.
Overall, I expected a more polished story. The only season I didn’t give it a negative rating is because I enjoyed the flashback story-line between Clemmie and Rudyard.
