Review: You Don't Know Me

Title: You Don't Know Me

Author: Sara Foster

Publisher: 1st November  2019 by Simon & Schuster (Australia)

Pages: 384 pages
How I Read It: ARC book
Genre: mystery, crime

My Rating: 3.5 cups

Synopsis:

He’s guarding a dark secret, but so is she.

Lizzie Burdett was eighteen when she vanished, and Noah Carruso has never forgotten her. She was his first crush, his unrequited love. She was also his brother’s girlfriend.

Tom Carruso hasn’t been home in over a decade. He left soon after Lizzie disappeared, under a darkening cloud of suspicion, and now he’s back for the inquest into Lizzie’s death – intent on telling his side of the story.

As the inquest looms, Noah meets Alice Pryce on holiday. They fall for each other fast and hard, but Noah can’t bear to tell Alice his deepest fears. And Alice is equally stricken – she carries a terrible secret of her own.

Is the truth worth telling if it will destroy everything?

My Thoughts

‘As he reaches the threshold, the next words pierce him like bullets in the darkness. “I know what happened to Lizzie.”

‘You Don't Know Me’  is another great read from Aussie author Sara Foster. With good pacing and plenty of twists with well timed revelations that will keep you turning the pages. Told from the perspectives of the two leading characters - Noah and Alice - this is an absorbing family drama with a lot of mystery and a little romance thrown in for good measure. 

Sara investigates the many complicated family and community dynamics after the mysterious disappearance of Lizzie both in the past and throughout the current day inquest. With little love lost between some family members, many an accusatory finger is pointed at a range of suspects as underlying regrets and old rivalries surface. The guilt and anger increase to a rather climactic ending. 

The inclusion of Alice and her story is an aside and may be just a stimulus to resurface the many emotions all involved parties are feeling. It provides a good outlet for the exploration of the emotional toll such incidents can have on individuals.

“Are you listening to me? You can’t change the past, and it sounds like you didn’t have much say about it in the first place. So why are you clinging so hard ...why can’t you let it go?”

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.