Before We Met (Whitehouse)

Before We Met 
Lucie Whitehouse, 2014
Bloomsbury USA
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781620402757


Summary
Hannah, independent, headstrong, and determined not to follow in the footsteps of her bitterly divorced mother, has always avoided commitment. But one hot New York summer she meets Mark Reilly, a fellow Brit, and is swept up in a love affair that changes all her ideas about what marriage might mean.

Now, living in their elegant, expensive London townhouse and adored by her fantastically successful husband, she knows she was right to let down her guard.

But when Mark does not return from a business trip to the U.S. and when the hours of waiting for him stretch into days, the foundations of Hannah’s certainty begin to crack. Why do Mark’s colleagues believe he has gone to Paris not America? Why is there no record of him at his hotel? And who is the mysterious woman who has been telephoning him over the last few weeks?

Hannah begins to dig into her husband’s life, uncovering revelations that throw into doubt everything she has ever believed about him. As her investigation leads her away from their fairytale romance into a place of violence and fear she must decide whether the secrets Mark has been keeping are designed to protect him or protect her. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—1975
• Raised—Warwickshire, England, UK
• Education—B.A., Oxford University
• Currently—Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA


Lucie Whitehouse was born in the Cotswolds in England 1975 and grew up in Warwickshire. She studied Classics at Oxford University and then began a career in publishing while spending evenings, weekends and holidays working on the book that would eventually become The House at Midnight (2008). Next came her novel The Bed I Made (2010), followed by Before We Met (2014).

Having married in 2011, she now divides her time between the UK and Brooklyn, where she lives with her husband. She writes full time and has contributed features to the London Times, Sunday Times, Independent, Elle and Red Magazine. (From publisher.)

Book Reviews
Lucie Whitehouse's third novel is slow to get going, but a growing sense of dread makes this "marriage thriller" a nail-biter.... Characters, particularly the more minor ones, are not fleshed out.... But despite its flaws, once Before We Met hits its stride, it turns into a creepily effective thriller, Whitehouse ramping up the chills with her dark wintry weather and her glimpses into the creation of a disturbed mind.
Guardian (UK)

The tension builds revelation by revelation and barely loosens its grip throughout—the kind of thriller to keep you turning pages into the small hours and then miss your stop on your morning commute.... the quiet tension of the first half dissipates into a more action-packed and rather predictable run of events. Whitehouse has a feel for a compelling plot but she has a tendency to over-write around the edges.
Alice Jones - Independent (UK)


This type of domestic thriller...is clearly having a moment, and there are some terrific and terrifying versions out there. Some aspects of what Whitehouse is doing here have been done before, and better. That said, there’s no doubt that Whitehouse’s writing keeps you glued to the page—I read this in one sitting, and it was an enjoyable one at that..
Daneet Steffens - Boston Globe


Newly married Hannah thinks she knows her husband, Mark, until the night he doesn’t arrive home and she realizes nothing it what it seemed. Even when you think you’ve figured it out, this one is hard to put down.
Good Housekeeping


Whitehouse takes a familiar premise—a woman with doubts about her new husband—and spins it into an intriguing thriller that avoids romantic-suspense clichés.... As [Hannah] struggles with her trust issues, she must consider whether Mark is trying to protect her.... [The novel] soon picks up speed and builds to a tense, unexpected climax.
Publishers Weekly


Will hook readers from the first page...a gripping cat-and-mouse read.
Booklist


[T]he relationship between two newlyweds following the husband's disappearance.... Whitehouse cleverly builds the suspense bit by bit, taking the reader deftly from the couple's initial newlywed bliss to Hannah's growing realization that things may not be what they seem.... [A] well-drawn, taught thriller all the way to the end.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)

top of page (summary)