“A brilliant, breathless thriller that kept me guessing to the last shocking page.” —Erin Kelly, Sunday Times bestselling author of He Said/She Said
An Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestseller.
It was supposed to be the perfect reunion: six university friends together again after twenty years. Host Ali finally has the life she always wanted, a career she can be proud of and a wonderful … wanted, a career she can be proud of and a wonderful family with her college boyfriend, now husband. But that night her best friend makes an accusation so shocking that nothing will ever be the same again.
When Karen staggers in from the garden, bleeding and traumatised, she claims that she has been assaulted—by Ali’s husband, Mike. Ali must make a split-second decision: who should she believe? Her horrified husband, or her best friend? With Mike offering a very different version of events, Ali knows one of them is lying—but which? And why?
When the ensuing chaos forces her to re-examine the golden era the group shared at university, Ali realises there are darker memories too. Memories that have lain dormant for decades. Memories someone would kill to protect.
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Absorbing, timely, and beautifully written, What You Did is a superior psychological thriller from a major talent.
3.5 rounded up to 4.
Interesting dilemma at the centre of this read. Ali, who volunteers at a woman’s refuge and has spoken out about women’s rights arranges a reunion party for her university friends, 25 years after they graduated. At the end of a boozy evening, Karen, Ali’s best friend stumbles into the kitchen and accuses her husband of rape. Conflicted, and not entirely convinced of his innocence, Ali stands by her husband and argues it must have been an intruder. This raises parallels with an event at a graduation ball, twenty-five years earlier. A fellow student was murdered and Ali had lied to protect her future husband.
The book could have been a lot darker than it was. The read had more of a mystery feel than the suspense of a thriller. I related well to the characters on a personal level as I was an Oxford student many years ago. In terms of a thriller, I felt it missed the mark although it was an intriguing read. That said, the ending I thought was a little flat.
Overall, an enjoyable read full of intrigue and some interesting insights but not as thrilling as it could have been.
Denial and deceit run through this book from page 1 to the conclusion. Ali, the main character with, perhaps, the most at stake, never really evokes my empathy (though I identify with a willingness to do anything to protect my kids). But … most of the time I felt as if she went to immoral lengths to save herself from public humiliation. The English middle-class neighborhood where she lives is certainly unforgiving, and she has a background of longing to “belong” to that group; but she doesn’t seem to understand that she’ll have to pay a big price to save her husband, accused of raping her best friend. I recommend the book because I think we see a very flawed human being forced to make choices that will shatter her “perfect” life.
With a brilliant premise and beautiful writing, What You Did is intriguing and pacey. I couldn’t stop thinking about the epilogue, and found it fit the book just perfectly.
This phycological thriller is loaded with rancid relationships between people who are supposed to be friends, once again reinforcing the fact you never really know anyone, no matter how close you are. It also deals with the subject of rape and a woman’s right to say no. All sides are presented without fluff. The characters are appallingly despicable in a lot of ways, yet still human. I can’t decide who’s worse, Ali, Kar, or Jodi. And then there are the guys, Mike and Callum, who are both drunks and worse—Bill is the exception, the one shining star. The story starts with a gathering of old college friends, then proceeds down the rabbit hole into an abyss of relationships gone horribly wrong. There are many plot twists, some obvious and other complete surprises, but the book is not dull and held my attention until the end.
Not my cup of tea
This was one of my Amazon First Read picks for July 2019. I really enjoyed it and it especially because it had a surprise twist at the end which I really did see coming.
Another name for What You Did could have been “a cautionary tale.”
We’ve all made questionable decisions or done things we’re not proud of, and sometimes those poor choices come back to bite us.
Because if you ever find yourself in a situation where your best friend is accusing your husband of rape, you can safely assume you took a very wrong turn somewhere in your life.
My full review can be found on my blog MPWNovels.com — https://mpwnovels.com/2020/01/25/what-you-did/
This book will leave you turning pages as quickly as possible. You think you know what happens but you don’t!
Thanks Amazon Prime for this free book but I dislike everyone in it and it is sending me straight back to the refuge of some old favorites.
DNF @ 40% because it is equal parts boring, loaded with characters I just can’t connect with, and somehow self-righteous.
It’s hard to say exactly what it is but I just feel done.
WHAT YOU DID by Claire McGowan is a gripping domestic thriller filled with secrets and lies. I had my suspicion about “who done it” and was proved wrong on more than one occasion. The real culprit was well and deliciously hidden throughout the pages and took me completely by surprise—a very satisfying surprise! I highly recommend this book.
What You Did by Claire McGowan is a modern thriller set in the UK. I enjoyed it and it’s on Kindle Unlimited, so do have a look.
Ali throws a dinner party weekend for friends who she was at uni with twenty years ago. After a fairly drunken night, Karen comes in from the garden, torn and bleeding, saying Mike, Ali’s husband, raped her. As the police come to investigate, it turns out there was a rape/murder twenty years ago too.
So, whodunnit?
What I liked about it was that the characters were sleeping around, lying, drunk and thoroughly human. Kind of Midsomer Murder evil. And there is no emo or angst.
It’s not Art. It’s not Insightful. It’s just a good fun read.
Cold calculating bunch. No one in this book is who they seem to be. Sort of suspected the bad guy at one point, but never saw the bad girl coming.
Claire McGowan is a class act, no question.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of What You Did by Claire McGowan. This thriller kept me guessing, although I did have my suspicions. I just couldn’t reconcile the scene with my suspicions, but then it all came together in the end. The last line was particularly chilling!
Six friends attended Oxford together, and 25 years later, they have a mini-reunion. Alison and Mike, Jodi and Callum, Karen, and Bill. Two couples are married, Karen, Alison’s best friend, is unmarried and flirty. Alison works on the board of a refuge for women attacked by men. Alison and Mike are married, but Ali has always wondered what would have happened if she had gotten together with Bill and not stood up for Mike all those years earlier. Jodi and Callum are expecting their first child at age 43.
The friends gather at Ali and Mike’s home and proceed to get drunk and some even get high. Ali is awakened at 3 am, and is stunned when her best friend, Karen, comes in the house screaming that she was raped. Ali’s life is turned upside down when secrets about all of the friendships come to light.
I was interested in finding out who raped Karen, and was shocked to read of all the indiscretions and hurt the friends caused each other over the years. I thought the author did a nice job keeping the reader guessing and tied it up nicely at the end, with a surprising chill to the bones about what some people will do to cover for others to get what they want.
#WhatYouDid #ClaireMcGowan #NetGalley
I started a book club this month, and this is the book I chose! I absolutely love this book and it kept my interest until the last page. I will not say any spoilers but this is a MUST read.
Opening this book is like opening an unkown box, you’re excited, nervous, not sure what is going on or who is involved. On one level it is a fictional account of a reunion of college friends. On another level, there are under currents, hidden agendas, lies and betrayals.
It is about domestic abuse, rape, illusions, friendship, and marriage.
Ali ,married to Mike, mother of Cassie and Benji, is hosting this reunion. She has a beautiful home, a new career, and wears rose colored glasses to maintain the life.
You meet Callum and wife Jodi, expecting a baby later in life. Bill is alone, still has a crush on Ali all these 25 years later. And then there is Karen, never married, close friend of Ali, and her son Jake.
The atmosphere becomes very charged as after a night of drinking, Karen screans she’s been raped by Mike. This is when the house of cards starts falling apart. People take sides, Mike is arrested, and Ali still keeos the damn rose glasses on.
It is partly a mystery of did or didn’t Mike attack Karen but also it goes into the college years, where a girl named Martha was killed and into the relationships of the friends.
Ali comes across for some critics as stupid or irritating…she is irritating as she deals with Cassie, her daughter about sex and life in general. But I see Ali as someone who grabbed the gold ring for a better life and just acquiesced to Mike…..because if the domestic abuse she saw and endured growing up. She does irrational things when blindsided by Karen and Mike…who wouldn’t. It’s like the woman in the movies opening a door to a killer and the audience yells to her no….and she opens the door.
There are many secrets, and looking back on the early friendship, things were already going on …hindsight and all.
Whom do you trust, your partner or your best friend? Think carefully, really. Do you honestly think you’d behave better when your whole life is being attacked? 4.5 stars
This is more a piece of fiction than a mystery and deals with women’s issues and families.
I got this book from Netgalley and I’m voluntarily leaving a review.
Got pulled in right from the very first paragraph. This story shows that you don’t always know people, even your own spouse, as well as you think you do. Mike, Ali’s husband is accused of raping a mutual friend between them during a party in which all of their college friends are present. Now that he is sitting in a jail cell being interrogated, Ali tries to get to the bottom of exactly what happened between her friend Karen and her husband. The story takes a very serious turn almost immediately after all of this happens with another violent crime and I have to admit that completely floored me. Once the family skeletons start tumbling out of the closet it’s a fast ride from here on out! I kind of saw the revelation, the big one, coming near the middle but it was still kind of unbelievable even though I’d gotten the sense that this is what had occurred. Towards the end of the book, just when I thought I knew everything a new suspect pops up, at least in MY mind. This throws everything into a spin for me as multiple people began to appear guilty of the crime. Not to mention a previous crime which had occurred back when all the characters were in college in 1993. About 90% into the book the story shifts again and brings yet another suspect to light! I feel that the author did a really good job at casting suspicion around to the different people in Ali’s social circle. At this point I really had no idea who committed this crime now or the crime that happened back in 1993. The suspense element is definitely there because now I’m itching to know who did this. So by the end of the book I’m completely blown away by all that has transpired. All in all I felt this was a really good book, and even after the people that committed the crimes were found out there were even further surprises right at the very end of the book that completely caught me off guard. What a story! I would definitely read something else by this author.
I see some people loved What You Did, but for me it was only a 3 star read.
Mostly I didn’t enjoy the chaos of being inside our main character’s head, as hit after hit pounded down on Ali’s oddly uptight life: accusations of rape, confessions of adultery, financial issues, a murder attempt, a suicide attempt, terminations of life-long friendships.
Perhaps I wasn’t all that patient or sympathetic with Ali’s string of troubles was because she wasn’t a very likable character? Maybe all people are that neurotic and annoying inside their heads? I don’t know. All I do know is that I didn’t enjoy being stuck in the whirlpool while Ali’s life circled the drain.
In any case, the premise of the novel was interesting, but the execution felt far from “thrilling” and more like I was merely an observer while so very much tragic and slow drama played out for a few hundred pages. I felt sorry for Ali, but I couldn’t identify with her.
Kept me guessing!