Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of
I Know You.
** Minor spoilers ahead **
When Rachel was 19 years old, she was accused of a brutal crime she did not commit.
After five years in prison, she was exonerated and 20 years later, is living under a new name with a new life in a small town in the UK.
But, when the wife of her lover is murdered and her belongings are found near the crime scene, Rachel realizes she is being framed.
With no one to turn to and the police set on pinning her as the perp, she undertakes an investigation of her own and discovers that life has a bad way of repeating itself.
The narrative is told through Rachel's current perspective, and her past, when she was a naive 19 year old nanny struggling to adapt to the US and her new job in a wealthy home.
Rachel is a typical heroine in these types of books; she's annoying, frustrating, and whines often.
She's not likable, not when she was 19 and not 20 years later.
She ignores obvious tells and clues; when she unearths clues that jeopardizes her lover's alibi, she dismisses them and blames the errors on the witness.
She trusts a man she barely knows because...he's her lover?
Sigh. Another female nitwit protagonist dependent on a man for her self worth and fulfillment.
The narrative drags on far too long and most of it read as filler and was really repetitive.
There was a lack of urgency and tension through the story. Not once did I worry or fear for Rachel.
Rachel spends most of her time wondering why her lover hasn't called; playing Miss Marple, talking about how annoying Jeremy is and the reasons she left him.
As a 19 year old, she spends it whining about how naive she is at 19, how she's a foreigner in a new country, how she fantasies about the kids she's nannying being her own children, and how she and the husband have a connection.
There is a hard to belief twist (IMO), like how Rachel's lover was also accused of a heinous crime.
What are the odds the both of them would be accused of such heinous crimes and exonerated and found not guilty?
Also, how come in these books the main character always relocates to a small town?
If you have a sordid past, isn't the first place you go to a big city so everyone doesn't know your name and business?
I guessed whodunit early on, and what really happened 19 years ago.
I did like how Carson makes a reappearance and now he and Rachel have a secret of their own.
This wasn't a bad read, but I was looking for something more suspenseful with characters who weren't so slapable.