He’s guarding a dark secret, but so is she.
Lizzie Burdett was eighteen when she vanished. 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. Now he’s coming home for the inquest into Lizzie’s death, … inquest into Lizzie’s death, intent on telling his side of the story for the first time.
As the inquest looms, Noah meets Alice Pryce while on holiday in Thailand. They fall in love fast and hard, but Noah can’t bear to tell Alice his deepest fears. And Alice is equally stricken, for she carries a terrible secret of her own.
Featured in the Big W Top 100
‘Dark, compelling and truly memorable.’ Dervla McTiernan, author of The Ruin
‘A propulsive, dark and mysterious thriller.’ Christian White, author of The Nowhere Child
‘A compelling mystery and heart-stopping pace.’ Natasha Lester, bestselling author of The Paris Seamstress
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“You Don’t Know Me” by Sara Foster is the story of two people today and two people in the past; the past is different, traumatic even, and filled with secrets. Lizzie is gone, disappeared after having a fight with her boyfriend; day after day they kept searching. Twelve years later, Noah sees her in Bangkok, Thailand, but it is not her. It is someone who looks remarkably like her; it is Alice. Alice is an English teacher, and no one knows more than that.
Foster cloaks characters in mystery and structures the story in alternating narratives to give readers a global perspective. Readers find out immediately that Alice and Noah both have secrets. While they want those secrets to be starved of oxygen and die in the past, some cannot be hidden. Those secrets threaten to undermine their lives. Details emerge at an agonizingly slow pace, and produce more questions than answers. Who is lying? How could everyone be fooled for so many years? Little by little pieces of the traumatic puzzle fall into place.
Noah and Alice must eventually make decisions about the past or it will destroy everything. I received a review copy of “You Don’t Know Me” from by Sara Foster and Blackstone Publishing. It is filled with mystery, but it is really the story of two people as they move from the past and develop new relationships. It is quick to read, and the ending leaves room for another book in the future.
While more romance than thriller, I did enjoy this story, reading it in two sittings. The characters were well drawn, each with their own realistic faults. The two brothers’ lifelong animosity towards each other was a credible snapshot into the family life of many siblings. Noah’s sense of being trapped into a life he hadn’t chosen, obligated to follow his father’s dreams, not his own, was also well drawn. Noah only began to question his purpose when he met lonely Alice, herself isolated by past events. What lifted this from a simple romance was the unresolved mystery of Lizzie Burdett’s disappearance. The mystery trapped Noah and his family, and the missing girl’s family, into stagnated lives, the ever-revolving question of who, what, where and why behind her vanishing. By the story’s close those questions are answered, while the HEA leaves the reader with a delightful cliffhanger.
The book description was more interesting than the actual book.
This book is well worth the read. I highly recommend.
Took my mind from the Coronavirus for a few days. A fantastic book. Couldn’t put it down. So shocked by the disclosure of the true murderer.
This book had a lot of twists & turns…the ending was a complete surprise to me!!
Noah Carruso is on a well deserved vacation. When he sees Alice Pryce, his first thought is that she looks eerily like Lizzie Burdette. Lizzie was 18 when she disappeared, after a huge argument with Tom Carruso, Noah’s brother and Lizzie’s boyfriend. She’s never been found.
Tom couldn’t take all the accusations and left to not return in a decade. There is now an inquest into Lizzie’s disappearance and Tom is back to face the accusations once again.
Noah and Alice fall for each other hard … but they both have secrets.
Is the truth worth telling if it will destroy everything?
This is a well written psychological thriller with a well paced plot. It starts as a love story but develops into so much more. I liked the interaction between Alice and Noah. The family dynamics were different for both, but it was the family that made them who they were. There were some twists along the way … and the conclusion was surprising and unexpected.
Many thanks to the author / Blackstone Publishing / Legend Press /Netgalley for the digital copy of this riveting mystery. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
4.5 stars
This is my first book by the author and I have to say that I was rather hooked on the characters as well as the storyline.
Even though the blurb gives us a hint at what the story will hold, needless to say the suspense, the building relationship between Noah and Alice and the secrets they hide are not for the faint of heart.
I thought Noah contained himself rather well despite the way his family was as well as his obligations to them but meeting Alice on holiday does help him see that there are bright sides to life and that he does deserve some happiness.
I rather liked the way both Noah and Alice were in Thailand, uninhibited and free but when they return home things are not what they appear to be. Struggles and the ability to maintain their relationship will be difficult but also give a level of support they both really need to each other.
I was shocked at certain parts and really wondered what will happen.
I really enjoyed this suspenseful thriller but also the genuine friendship they build.
Paperback copy received from Simon & Schuster AU for review.
Twelve years ago, Lizzie Burdett disappeared – and for the Carruso family, nothing has ever been the same since. Tom was Lizzie’s boyfriend, and the prime suspect, but with nothing ever found, he wasn’t charged. This story is told from the perspective of Tom’s younger brother Noah, only 15 when Lizzie vanished, who has a strained relationship with Tom and is struggling to find his own way in life. On a holiday escape in Thailand, Noah meets Alice, who reminds him of Lizzie at first, but soon Noah has fallen for Alice for her own sake.
Alice has secrets and trauma in her own past, though, and it soon becomes obvious that neither of them are in the right headspace for a relationship, no matter how well suited they are or how much they want to make it work. Returning to Australia to attend Lizzie’s inquest, Noah must face the past and accept that he may never know what happened to Lizzie… or discover that he doesn’t really want to know the truth after all.
This is a superbly-written whodunnit with a twist I genuinely didn’t see coming, but which, in hindsight, made complete sense. Noah’s romance with Alice acts as an interesting vehicle for the reader to get information without it being info-dumped, as Noah shares rather naturally with Alice, and in turn we get to see just what in Alice’s past makes her understand Noah so well. While this isn’t precisely a romance (no happy ending) there’s rather an open ending which leaves the possibility of an HEA in the future.
There’s some genuinely great writing here, with a unique angle as a crime podcast follows the events of Lizzie’s disappearance, realistic characters whose pain was almost tangible as I read, and an absolutely believable storyline. A five-star read and easily one of the best books I’ve read this year.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book via NetGalley.