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Product Description
Review
An enthralling psychological thriller - perfect for fans of Sophie Hannah --Bestselling Author Sam Mills
Dark, disturbing and authentic --CWA Debut Dagger judging panel
Impressive in its unflinching realism - Crime Time
This novel is an extremely addictive debut... a real page-turner... As a debut novel, this is a remarkably assured and well-written book. - Petrona
Authentic... diverting debut - The Daily Mail
Always a page-turner... Just when I thought I'd got it sussed, I'm proved wrong. This is a clever and suspenseful story told in an engaging style. - thebookbag.co.uk
a young British crime-writer who uses her career in the Probation Service to stunning effect... a bleak, dark psychological thriller, at times quite hypnotic... gripping and powerful. --Mike Ripley --Shotsmag
Dark, disturbing and authentic --CWA Debut Dagger judging panel
Impressive in its unflinching realism - Crime Time
This novel is an extremely addictive debut... a real page-turner... As a debut novel, this is a remarkably assured and well-written book. - Petrona
Authentic... diverting debut - The Daily Mail
Always a page-turner... Just when I thought I'd got it sussed, I'm proved wrong. This is a clever and suspenseful story told in an engaging style. - thebookbag.co.uk
a young British crime-writer who uses her career in the Probation Service to stunning effect... a bleak, dark psychological thriller, at times quite hypnotic... gripping and powerful. --Mike Ripley --Shotsmag
Product Description
They came for me, just like I knew they would. Luke had been dead for just three days. Rose Wilks life is shattered when her newborn baby Joel is admitted to intensive care. Emma Hatcher has all that Rose lacks. Beauty. A loving husband. A healthy son. Until tragedy strikes and Rose is the only suspect. Now, having spent nearly five years behind bars, Rose is just weeks away from freedom. Her probation officer Cate must decide whether Rose is remorseful for Luke s death, or whether she remains a threat to society. As Cate is drawn in, she begins to doubt her own judgement. Where is the line between love and obsession, can justice be served and, if so... by what means?
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
88 of 90 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have to begin this review with a caveat. I rarely read crime fiction, so know little about the conventions of the genre. Nevertheless this book was highly recommended to me so I thought I would break with habit and read it. I'm glad I did.
THE WOMAN BEFORE ME was instantly engaging and kept me gripped throughout. I'd go so far as to say it's unputdownable. Partly this is due to the clear and precise prose, partly the carefully structured and controlled plot. Not a great deal happens (if you're looking for lots of murders or car chases I suggest you pick up something else) yet the author manages to take the ordinary lives of people and make them truly captivating.
The novel's greatest strength is Rose Wilks. She narrates the majority of the book in flash back and despite being a convicted child killer emerges as a complex but sympathetic - ultimately even tragic - character. Ruth Dugdall has written her with great psychological insight and captures Rose's descent into obsession with chilling precision. I found myself desperate for Rose to do the right thing and yet simultaneously understanding her needs, even empathising with them. It's quite an achievement and left me disturbed long after I had put the book down.
This is an impressive debut and I would recommend it without reservation.
THE WOMAN BEFORE ME was instantly engaging and kept me gripped throughout. I'd go so far as to say it's unputdownable. Partly this is due to the clear and precise prose, partly the carefully structured and controlled plot. Not a great deal happens (if you're looking for lots of murders or car chases I suggest you pick up something else) yet the author manages to take the ordinary lives of people and make them truly captivating.
The novel's greatest strength is Rose Wilks. She narrates the majority of the book in flash back and despite being a convicted child killer emerges as a complex but sympathetic - ultimately even tragic - character. Ruth Dugdall has written her with great psychological insight and captures Rose's descent into obsession with chilling precision. I found myself desperate for Rose to do the right thing and yet simultaneously understanding her needs, even empathising with them. It's quite an achievement and left me disturbed long after I had put the book down.
This is an impressive debut and I would recommend it without reservation.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Crime novels are 'not my scene' so this is a book I would not have read had it not been selected for our book club. I am glad it was.
At one level, The Woman Before Me does not sit easily into the crime genre ; for me, one of its great strengths is that it is a study of loss - all types of loss - and particularly the conflicting emotions that loss engenders in women. In particular, two women are contrasted - one a superficial woman whose life revolves around the ephemera of our time, and the other a deep, insightful but impoverished spirit, who sinks further into obsession as the story progresses.
Ruth Dugdall draws her characters with consummate skill, using her personal experience as a Probation Officer in a women's prison to bring them to life. She holds the reader's atention through to the end, with its horrifying twist.
I have no hesitation is recommending this to any reader.
At one level, The Woman Before Me does not sit easily into the crime genre ; for me, one of its great strengths is that it is a study of loss - all types of loss - and particularly the conflicting emotions that loss engenders in women. In particular, two women are contrasted - one a superficial woman whose life revolves around the ephemera of our time, and the other a deep, insightful but impoverished spirit, who sinks further into obsession as the story progresses.
Ruth Dugdall draws her characters with consummate skill, using her personal experience as a Probation Officer in a women's prison to bring them to life. She holds the reader's atention through to the end, with its horrifying twist.
I have no hesitation is recommending this to any reader.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is one of those books that Amazon kept recommending so aggressively that in the end I just gave in and bought it and I'm very glad that I did.
It tells the story of two women: Rose, who is in prison having been found guilty of causing the death of a young baby and Cate, the propbation officer who must decide whether Rose is freed on parole. Gradually Rose's tragic past is unravelled and the reader flits from sympathy to pity to disgust to sympathy again as her story progresses. The pace never flags. All the way through, I was second-guessing the twists, and the author often wrong-footed me yet it never felt contrived. The final twist, when it came, was unexpected yet rang entirely true, and made me want to turn right back to the first page to re-read the novel again, this time finding new and even more tragic resonances in the story.
The contrast between the claustrophobia of prison and the equally lonely yet physically expansive Suffolk seaside town of Lowestoft is brilliantly done. If I had any criticism of this novel it would be that there are numerous typos in the text, but that's a rap on the knuckles for the copy editor and the publisher, not the author.
It tells the story of two women: Rose, who is in prison having been found guilty of causing the death of a young baby and Cate, the propbation officer who must decide whether Rose is freed on parole. Gradually Rose's tragic past is unravelled and the reader flits from sympathy to pity to disgust to sympathy again as her story progresses. The pace never flags. All the way through, I was second-guessing the twists, and the author often wrong-footed me yet it never felt contrived. The final twist, when it came, was unexpected yet rang entirely true, and made me want to turn right back to the first page to re-read the novel again, this time finding new and even more tragic resonances in the story.
The contrast between the claustrophobia of prison and the equally lonely yet physically expansive Suffolk seaside town of Lowestoft is brilliantly done. If I had any criticism of this novel it would be that there are numerous typos in the text, but that's a rap on the knuckles for the copy editor and the publisher, not the author.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Jumped Ships
As a confirmed reader of historical novels for years - reading all the novels that Ruth has produced to date I have now switched genre and cannot wait for the next one. Read more
Published 1 day ago by Connaught
Wonderful characters, great psyche.
The Woman Before Me is the first of Ruth Dugdall's psychological thrillers about probation officer, Cate Austin, and her prison in-mate clients. Read more
Published 3 days ago by jaxbee
Good Read!
What a great book - read it in 2 days straight. Well written and great twist at the end. Highly Recommend this book.
Published 5 days ago by Anon
The Woman Before Me
Badly written and with a prurient underside this novel belongs with those pulp fiction novels that exploit a cast of characters that march woodenly through the pages and the plot. Read more
Published 5 days ago by Carol M Horne
You MUST try Ruth Dugdall
I won't give anything away in terms of plot (you can read the synopsis above), so suffice it to say that this is a quietly disturbing read by an author who really should be better... Read more
Published 7 days ago by self-conscious gimmickry
Loved it!
The story is compelling and original, but that was not this book's greatest asset. The characters are so very well written they seem like real people. Read more
Published 8 days ago by SilQ
Quite a good idea, but a rather badly-written book
This book is a debut novel by Ruth Dugdall. It is not really a crime novel, as we are not so much concerned with finding the culprit as with finding out whether or not Ruth Wilks,... Read more
Published 14 days ago by djeffrey
Haunting read
This was a most enjoyable read - not my usual kind of genre but thoroughly enjoyed it. The twist at the end was not really a big shock as very early in the book it was kind of... Read more
Published 27 days ago by Anne Foley
The Woman Before Me
Although this was a compelling read, it's subject matter is grim. I worked out the plot fairly early on in the book, though I didn't guess the final twist! Read more
Published 1 month ago by kerrylyn
Ruth, you can do better
This book has real potential, but it is hindered by poor editing (the inscription on Joel's tomb as example), the use of over-worn phrases and clichés, and a rather... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Anna
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