EDGAR AWARD NOMINEE FOR BEST NOVEL
As Before She Was Helen opens, readers are drawn into what appears
to be a light, retirement-community caper. But author Caroline B. Cooney
quickly flips expectations upside-down in this deceptively dark mystery.
Between old crimes and fresh murders, septuagenarian protagonist Clemmie
faces an unspeakable fear that will keep readers hooked in this twisty
whodunit.--Julie Hyzy, New York Times bestselling author
From the critically acclaimed, international bestselling author
Caroline B. Cooney comes a domestic thriller perfect for fans of mystery
books by Laura Lippman and Alice Feeney.
Her life didn't turn out the way she expected--so she made herself a
new one
When Clemmie goes next door to check on her difficult and unlikeable
neighbor Dom, he isn't there. But something else is. Something stunning,
beautiful and inexplicable. Clemmie photographs the wondrous object on
her cell phone and makes the irrevocable error of forwarding it. As the
picture swirls over the internet, Clemmie tries desperately to keep a
grip on her own personal network of secrets. Can fifty years of careful
hiding under names not her own be ruined by one careless picture?
And although what Clemmie finds is a work of art, what the police find
is a body. . . and she was the last person at the crime scene, where she
left her fingerprints. Suddenly thrown into the heart of a twisted
investigation, Clemmie finds herself the uncomfortable subject of
intense scrutiny. And the bland, quiet life Clemmie has built for
herself in her sleepy South Carolina retirement community comes crashing
down as her dark past surges into the present.
From international bestselling author of The Face on the Milk Carton
Caroline B. Cooney comes Before She Was Helen, an absorbing mystery
that brings decades-old secrets to life and explores what happens when
the lie you've been living falls apart and you're forced to confront the
truth.
