Before We Met: A Novel

Hannah has been focused on her career in advertising. Originally from England, she’s thrived in New York City. Then she meets Mark Reilly during a trip back to England. His business, DataPro, has an American office in New York, where they meet again. Mark’s charm wears down her resistance to commitment. Within months she’s married him and moved to London. This is the unfolding backstory to Hannah’s confusion and subsequent actions when Mark doesn’t arrive in Heathrow on his scheduled flight one evening.

He doesn’t call. He isn’t at the New York hotel where he said he’d be staying. Friends are surprised to see her the next day: He’d told them he was taking her to Rome. Uncertainties plague her. Is he having an affair? Is he in trouble? The more she probes, the more unsettling mysteries surface. And because Hannah is the persevering type, she can’t stop probing.

The plot is in the hands of a master storyteller. Each new twist moves relentlessly to the next. The characters are multi-dimensional. The ending is a stunner. No spoilers here, but this book is more complex than a mere “thriller”. The story resonates long after the last turned page.