The Woman Before Me
A Thriller
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3.7 • 13 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Emma has everything Rose lacks: a faithful husband, beauty, and a healthy baby boy. Rose meets her in the hospital after her own baby dies from premature birth, and when Emma’s child dies in a suspicious house fire shortly after, the obsessive and unstable Rose is the primary suspect.
Now, after almost five years in prison, Rose is up for parole, but probation officer Cate Austin must first decide whether this accused murderer can be released or if she really is a threat to society. The answer seems obvious at first, but as Cate delves deeper into Rose’s disturbing past—a suicidal mother, a distant father, on her own at a young age—the probation officer becomes entangled in the inmate’s dark world.
Winner of CWA Debut Dagger Award and the Luke Bitmead Bursary, The Woman Before Me is a poignant psychological thriller that explores relationships, dysfunctional families, and the penal system with depth and sensitivity that culminates in a shocking conclusion. Did she really do it? Where does the line between love and obsession lie? Can justice be served?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
British author Dugdall (The Sacrificial Man) delivers a chilling tale of betrayal and obsession. Rose Wilks has served four years in prison for manslaughter. The facts are stark: she dropped a cigarette in the London home of her friend Emma Hatcher, starting a fire that killed Hatcher's infant son, Luke. Now up for probation, Wilks is under the scrutiny of Cate Austin, a novice probation officer, who meticulously investigates her past and discovers not only her deeply troubled childhood but also why she broke into Hatcher's home and fed Luke. Austin also uncovers a complex story of how these two disturbed women became unwittingly involved with the same man. But was Wilks's arson deliberate? Dugdall paints a bleak picture of a British prison system populated (on both sides of the bars) by men and women who are brutal thugs, bullies, and manipulators. The plot at times verges on melodrama, but it keeps its secrets well.
