Before She Knew Him

After the last book I read proved to be such a disaster and was a genre totally out of my comfort zone, erotica, I went back to one of my favorite genres, mystery/thrillers and picked this book up randomly. I wasn't sure what to expect but I liked the synopsis and gave it a shot. Well, I was very pleasantly surprised. This book is a good psychological thriller, just like I was hoping for. I will definitely be reading the other books by this author.

The book centers around a couple, Hen and Lloyd, who move into a new house together and after having dinner with their new neighbors things transpire and Hen becomes convinced that their neighbor, Matthew is a serial killer and a whole chain of events ensues. The premise of the book itself was very interesting to me and it delivered.

To begin with, the plot of the book, as I've mentioned before, was up there in my opinion. I'm fairly new to thriller mysteries but I've read some and this one was unique enough to peek my interest. The book itself moved at a decent pace, although the first have of the novel dragged just a little bit. We didn't find out much until a good portion into it and I prefer books that reveal a little bit at a time but even with that minor flaw I didn't want to put the book down. That is the only negative I found with this book and the reason I gave it four and not five stars.

Further on, the characterization was pretty good. It could have been better if it was written from first person but even without that, we got a good look into the various characters' psyches and I loved finding out what made them tick and why the were the way that they were. If a character doesn't have a drive behind why they are a certain way it really ruins the book for me but in this case the backstory was really delivered well and I was satisfied on that front. Overall, the characters were above average I would say.

In continuation, when talking about the writing style, it was precise and to the point, just how I like it. It was easy to follow along and brought the story to life very well. It definitely helped me to keep reading, even when the pace of the story lagged a bit. As I have mentioned before, I will be checking out the other works from this author because I really enjoyed this one a lot.

In conclusion, I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a good psychological thriller. It might not be the most exciting for the first half of the book but it picks up and more than makes up for the lack in the beginning. I don't particularly know if this is a read that will stay with me for a long time but it was definitely somewhat memorable and enjoyable while I was reading it in the moment.