Before You Were Anne

 

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Thank you to Simon and Schuster Audio for the gifted audiobook. 

Some books tell you who a person was. This one shows you who she had to become.

Anne Walker is found murdered in her Seattle home and her sixteen-year-old daughter Naomi is gone. Detective Chelsey Calhoun and her partner Ryan Montoya catch the case, and what starts as a straightforward investigation cracks wide open when the detectives learn Anne was born Rika Takahashi on a remote farm in Japan. Her path to that suburban house runs through Tokyo's underworld, an isolated town in Idaho, and decades of carefully built lies. 

Chelsey has to find Naomi before she becomes the next victim, and the closer she gets to Rika's real life, the more dangerous the truth turns out to be. Rika’s not the only one with secrets. 

This is slow-burning, atmospheric, character-driven suspense told in three voices across timelines. Author Emiko Jean expertly weaves them together. The flashbacks are what make it. Rika's whole life unfolds in them, and by the end you understand exactly who she was and what she survived. Jean writes about motherhood, identity, trauma, and the damage that silence and secrets do to a family. Her prose is more lyrical than sharp, but it still takes the story to dark places. Meanwhile Chelsey is wrestling with her own family secrets and her own sense of identity, and that parallel gives the whole book real emotion. 

On audio, narrators Mizuo Peck, Meiko Gavin, and Mirai turn in outstanding performances. Their three distinct voices all carry real tension and heartbreak. If you want a layered, emotional mystery that stays with you long after the last page, this is your book. It's the second Chelsey Calhoun book but works completely as a standalone. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Grab a copy at Bookshop.org and help an indie bookstore while you're at it.

If you liked this review you might be interested in my review of The Return of Ellie Black. It's the first book in the Chelsey Calhoun series.

About the Author

Emiko Jean is a New York Times bestselling author of young adult and adult fiction, including Love Me Tomorrow and Love Me Always. Her work has been published around the world and translated into over thirty languages. Follow Emiko on Instagram and visit her website for more news and information about her books.