I know you, although do you, really?

I'm a huge fan of Irish writer, Claire McGowan. Her writing draws me in and I think she's a terrific storyteller. I've read the whole Paula Maguire series and all her standalone novels published up until 2022. Paula Maguire is a forensic psychologist, and those books combine strong characterisation, well-crafted crimes, and the history of Northern Ireland.

I suggest you check out McGowan's standalones. The fall was published in 2012. It's a cracking story of Charlotte and Keisha, two women who couldn't be more different, who team up to get to the bottom of Charlotte's boyfriend's arrest for killing a nightclub owner.

What you did (2019) is also a cracking read. It focusses on a reunion of six university friends after 20 years where secrets and lies are revealed.

The push (2020) is along similar lines, but it's a party of six women with newborns who met at an ante-natal group.

The other wife (2019) is my favourite of the standalones as it's clever and complex and I loved the two women at the heart of the story, as I did in The fall. Women teaming up to bring about the downfall of sh**ty mean is totally my jam!

My rating for both the Paula Maguire series and the standalones mentioned above is ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐.

This post reviews of one of McGowan's standalone novels, I know you., not up there with the books I've mentioned above. I've also reviewed her 2022 standalone, Are you awake?, also not a five-star read. I'm not deterred, though, and I am still looking forward to reading the books McGowan has recently released.

I know you | Published October 2021 | Read March 2022

I wouldn't rate I know you as one of McGowan's best standalone novels, although I still rank her as one of my favourite authors. I liked the dual timeline, and the Jon Benet Ramsay-like crime was both disturbing and intriguing. McGowan did a nice job of capturing the craziness of being a nanny for an LA film producer. It contrasted with the life the protagonist, Rachel, was leading in a quiet Lakes District village some twenty years later. In the present-day storyline, Rachel finds a dead body while walking in the park and realises it's the estranged wife of the man she's been seeing. Rachel doesn't call the police as she is worried about being suspected of the crime, based on the triple murder she was convicted for in LA.

I figured most of it out, and I don't normally do that when I read a McGowan novel, but I still enjoyed reading the unfolding story.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐