Pinterest tracking pixel
If you are having difficulty navigating this website please contact us at member.services@bookofthemonth.com or 1-877-236-8540.
Oops! The page didn’t load right. Please refresh and try again.
All booksThrillerBefore She Knew Him
Before She Knew Him by Peter Swanson
Thriller

Before She Knew Him

by Peter Swanson

Quick take

The suburban neighbor's guide to dealing with the sociopath next door.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Icon_Psychological

    Psychological

  • Illustrated icon, Icon_MultipleNarrators

    Multiple viewpoints

  • Illustrated icon, Icon_Scary

    Scary

  • Illustrated icon, Icon_MarriageIssues

    Marriage issues

Why I love it

Riley Sager
Author, The House Across the Lake

Now that I’ve read Before She Knew Him, all I want to do is talk about it. Only I can’t. Not because there isn’t anything to say (there’s plenty.) And not because the book is bad (it’s so good.) I can’t talk about it because I don’t want to risk giving away a single one of its many surprises.

Here’s what I can tell you: When Hen—short for Henrietta—and her husband, Lloyd, move into a new house, they quickly meet Matthew and Mira, the only other childless couple in the neighborhood. While having dinner at the neighbors’ house, Hen lays eyes on a peculiar object that ties Matthew to an unsolved murder from years before. Is Hen’s neighbor a killer? Or is her bipolar disorder, something she’s struggled with in the past, returning to mess with her fragile mind once more?

Sounds like a book with an ending you can see coming after turning the first page. It’s not. At all. Before She Knew Him is deeper, darker, and more twisted than it seems. Once you read it, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. And why I absolutely can’t tell you any more right now.

Read less

Synopsis

Hen and her husband Lloyd have settled into a quiet life in a new house outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Hen (short for Henrietta) is an illustrator and works out of a studio nearby, and has found the right meds to control her bipolar disorder. Finally, she’s found some stability and peace.

But when they meet the neighbors next door, that calm begins to erode as she spots a familiar object displayed on the husband’s office shelf. The sports trophy looks exactly like one that went missing from the home of a young man who was killed two years ago. Hen knows because she’s long had a fascination with this unsolved murder—an obsession she doesn’t talk about anymore, but can’t fully shake either.

Could her neighbor, Matthew, be a killer? Or is this the beginning of another psychotic episode like the one she suffered back in college, when she became so consumed with proving a fellow student guilty that she ended up hurting a classmate?

The more Hen observes Matthew, the more she suspects he’s planning something truly terrifying. Yet no one will believe her. Then one night, when she comes face to face with Matthew in a dark parking lot, she realizes that he knows she’s been watching him, that she’s really on to him. And that this is the beginning of a horrifying nightmare she may not live to escape. . .

Read less

Preview

Get an early look from the first pages of Before She Knew Him.

Read a sample →

Member thoughts

All (15862)
All (15862)
Love (7908)
Like (7284)
Dislike (670)
16158 ratings
  • 49% Love
  • 45% Like
  • 4% Dislike
    Thriller
    • The Soulmate
    • Blacktop Wasteland
    • The Only Survivors
    • All the Dangerous Things
    • The Broken Girls
    • The Family Game
    • The Hunting Party
    • We Were Never Here
    • The Golden Couple
    • The Collective
    • Too Good to Be True
    • Things We Do in the Dark
    • You Are Not Alone
    • Rock Paper Scissors
    • The Push
    • Not a Happy Family
    • A Flicker in the Dark
    • The Last Flight
    • Reckless Girls
    • The House Across the Lake
    • The Wife Upstairs
    • The Last Thing He Told Me
    • The Maidens
    • Everything We Didn't Say
    • Invisible Girl
    • The Paris Apartment
    • You're Invited
    • The Last Party
    • Dark Places
    • The Alienist
    • Into the Water
    • Girl, Forgotten
    • Pieces of Her
    • The Wife Between Us
    • Then She Was Gone
    • Cross Her Heart
    • The Silent Patient
    • The Winter Sister
    • The Family Remains
    • Before She Knew Him
    • Daisy Darker
    • The Other Woman
    • Necessary People
    • The Family Upstairs
    • The Night Swim
    • The Girl in the Mirror
    • Goodnight Beautiful
    • Girl A
    • The Hunting Wives
    • First Born
    • The Lies I Tell
    • Breathless