What You Did

Product Information

What happens when people aren’t what they seem? Well, I’ll tell you, you put on your big girl panties and you handle it. The insomnia stuff is done well, with Tim struggling to differentiate what's real at times. The mother reluctantly awake with her baby in the depths of the night gave me vibes of Celia Fremlin's classic The Hours Before Dawn (and if you're a fan of domestic psychological thrillers and haven't read Fremlin, you really should). Mary wound me up with how she was with her children. She didn’t even sound like she wanted them, was the author hinting at PPD? If so, it was way too subtle and came across instead as Mary just moaning constantly. I have chosen not to have kids as I like my sleep, my time and everything that comes with not having kids. This is a choice; Mary chose to have not just 1 but 2 kids very close together in age. I just found her winding me up constantly!

Excellent stuff and I’ve just added another book by McGowan to my TBR list, if it’s half as good as this one, it’ll be enjoyable. One thing to know about these two, because it will be repeated incessantly for the first quarter of the book: They’re tired. Really, really, reeeally tired. It’s amazing that they can function at all, they’re so tired. Despite their unending tiredness, these neighbors both end up in a park near their homes at 4 AM peering up at a lit window of a home where they both believe they’ve seen a young woman, Samantha Ellis, recently reported missing in the news. Mary and Tim are neighbors who’ve never met. Neither of them sleep well, and they spend their days wishing to go to bed. Mary has 2 young children who are never quiet and keep her up all night (and an unsupportive jerk of a husband to boot). Tim can’t stop thinking about something tragic that happened in his past, and it keeps him up. How can you make the MC a lawyer who asks questions like: "Wasn't it a crime to hide evidence too? But how did they even know that's what it was?" GURL??? ARE YOU ACTUALLY SERIOUS. THE BAG BELONGS TO A MISSING GIRL. OFC IT'S EVIDENCE. AND YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT'S A CRIME. HAVE YOU NEVER WATCHED CRIMINAL MINDS?? EVEN A LIL NCIS??? CMON!!!Rachel is a typical heroine in these types of books; she's annoying, frustrating, and whines often. That was actually really, really good. The book grabs you right from the start and doesn’t let you go until the very end. Poor Casey never had a chance with her useless mother, Jenna, filling her head with rubbish. It’s 2000 as she heads off to LA at the tender age of 19 to be a nanny to a ‘Hollywood couple’ with the hope of breaking into the industry at some point. So she ended up, little more than a child herself, looking after 5 year old Madison and 6 month old Carson.

This was very formulaic like many thrillers from well-known authors this year, which was disappointing. Thankfully Audrey made the first part of the book slightly enjoyable.

Featured Reviews

This story hinges upon the three Ss: secrets, surprises and suspense. It is a well-written multi-POV and well-paced story that had me questioning who I could trust and what was reliable enough to believe.

When the ensuing chaos forces her to re-examine the golden era the group shared at university, Ali realises there are darker memories too. Memories that have lain dormant for decades. Memories someone would kill to protect. DS Alison Hegarty, herself struggling with infertility, is called in to investigate. She’s convinced the fall was not an accident, and finds the new parents have a lot to hide. Wealthy Ed and Monica show off their newborn while their teenage daughter is kept under virtual house arrest. Hazel and Cathy conceived their longed-for baby via an anonymous sperm donor―or so Hazel thinks. This is the second Claire McGown novel I've read, and it didn't disappoint. She does a fantastic job of constructing characters that you can really hate, like Casey/Rachel's mother dearest, and the mom of the family she nanny's for. You really feel for Casey/Rachel, as she struggles with who she is, what she wants, and finding inner strength.

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

I have heard great things about this author’s work, so I will have to give her another try-but this one unfortunately, was a MISS for me! The writing was good, the characters were well developed, and if you like mysteries, I thought it was spot on.

From the bestselling author of What You Did comes a chilling story about a missing girl and two potential witnesses. They both think they saw her. But can they trust their own eyes? But the police are going door-to-door asking questions and trying to locate witnesses. Rachel lies like her hair is on fire. But eventually, the truth always floats to the surface.What I will say I liked how she portrayed Mary, and the feelings she has about being a new mum struggling with her new role in life, I feel she captured that perfectly and did not go down the easy route of PND instead showing how you can have these feelings without it being something deeper, she actually showed a bit humour in this which made Mary less 2D than the other blah characters. Also liked the slight cosy crime feel I got from both Mary and Tim with their amateur detection though am not sure if the author meant them to read like that I suspect not.