Review of YOU DON'T KNOW ME by Sara Foster (New Release)

3 Stars

While on vacation in Thailand, Noah Carruso meets Alice Pryce.  A mutual attraction leads to a passionate affair.  Unfortunately, Noah must return home to Australia because he will have to testify at an inquest into the disappearance of Lizzie Burdett 12 years earlier.  Lizzie was the girlfriend of Noah’s older brother Tom who has long been suspected of knowing something about Lizzie’s fate because of an argument the night of her disappearance, an argument that Noah witnessed.  Noah eventually tells Alice about Lizzie, and Alice reveals a secret about her family, but neither tells the entire truth for fear of destroying their relationship.

The book is marketed as a thriller, but it is much more of a romance.  Though there is a mystery and there are certainly elements of a family drama, it is the romance that takes precedence.  I am not a romance fan so I found myself, especially at the beginning, losing interest.  Love-at-first-sight relationships are especially irksome to me. 

Chapters alternate between Alice and Noah, but they do not emerge as fully developed characters because they think so much about each other.  It is difficult to connect with characters who are so infatuated.  Both are consumed by guilt and shame (and Noah also by anger) so they are not the most engaging of people.

The pace at the beginning is almost glacial.  Only once the inquest begins does the pace pick up.  Then there’s a scene where everything seems to happen at once, including an overly dramatic confession.  That confession is not convincing.  The identity of the guilty was not a surprise to this reader so it is unbelievable that so many people were misled for so long.  Narcissism is a motivation for murder?  An 18-year-old would behave as Lizzie did that night? 

Parts of the novel are repetitive.  Tom bullied Noah when they were boys and every encounter between the two of them in the present just shows more of Tom’s aggressiveness (so any efforts to suggest a possible reconciliation are unconvincing).  The meetings between Alice and Noah always involve much more sex than real communication (so the true depth of their relationship is questionable). 

This is not a bad book; it is just not the intense thriller I expected.  There is little that is particularly memorable, so I’d recommend it for a light summer holiday/beach read.  

Note:  I received a digital galley from the publisher.