The blurb on this book reminded me of Minette Walters' "The Sculptress" and as I really liked it, I decided to buy this German edition of "The Woman before me". Unfortunately Dugdall's work can't be compared with what Walters so masterfully spun. To not eliminate the suspense that is indeed there (I finished the book in one afternoon) I will try to tell not much about the plot itself.
There is a lot of potential in this book, which made it for me only more disappointing and frustrating to read. What the book could have been is dangled in front of the reader's eyes like a juicy carrot. For example we get very well written and intriguing views in the twisted mind of protagonist Rose. But the possibility that she is an unreliable narrator and not everything has to bee as it is seen from her eyes is not explored. …
The blurb on this book reminded me of Minette Walters' "The Sculptress" and as I really liked it, I decided to buy this German edition of "The Woman before me". Unfortunately Dugdall's work can't be compared with what Walters so masterfully spun. To not eliminate the suspense that is indeed there (I finished the book in one afternoon) I will try to tell not much about the plot itself.
There is a lot of potential in this book, which made it for me only more disappointing and frustrating to read. What the book could have been is dangled in front of the reader's eyes like a juicy carrot. For example we get very well written and intriguing views in the twisted mind of protagonist Rose. But the possibility that she is an unreliable narrator and not everything has to bee as it is seen from her eyes is not explored. In comparison to Rose it also only strikes that much more that her counterpart Cate, who is assigned to her as a probation worker, stays flat and shallow as a character. This would, again, not have been so bad, if the author hadn't decided to jump in between perspectives throughout the novel, a technique that did the book more harm than good,
We get many deep insights in Rose's thoughts via her diary, which were my favourite parts - but in the end it's this very diary that makes the big reveal in the end weak and unbelievable. When you write a diary you do it to pour out your secrets and not keep them until the end for the benefit of a reader. After the slow building up of the plot (sometimes too slow) the end also felt rushed and bland.
Also, as an avid reader of crime novels and psycho thrillers, I sometimes felt treated like a child by the not very subtle hints that the author keeps throwing around. Take a drink whenever red-blonde hair or the scent of apples is mentioned and you are maybe buzzed enough to not care about the disappointing ending.
Sadly, the book promises more than it can keep. If you want to read a psycho thriller in a very similar setting that keeps up those promises I'd recommend the aforemetioned "The Sculptress" by Minette Walters. For a believable use of flashbacks while still keeping suspense I can recommend Lionel Shrive's "We need to talk about Kevin".
