Title: After All I’ve Done by Mina Hardy
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Genre: Contemporary, Domestic Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
Length: 265 pages
Book Rating: B+
Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley
Summary:
Writing as Mina Hardy, New York Times bestselling author Megan Hart delivers a thrilling new psychological suspense for fans of The Woman in the Window and When the Lights Go Out.
She’s lost her best friend, her husband–and possibly, her mind.
Five months ago, an accident left Diana Sparrow badly injured and missing a few months of her memory. As if that’s not enough, she’s started having recurring nightmares about the night of the accident. Dreams that feel so real, she’s left questioning: maybe she didn’t just slide off the road into a ditch. Maybe, just maybe, she hit something. Or someone.
She can’t turn to her former best friend Val, who’s been sleeping with Diana’s husband Jonathan for months, but she might find some comfort in newcomer Cole Pelham. Yet the closer they become, the more Diana begins to wonder what really happened that night–and how Cole might be connected. Worse, it seems everyone else could be involved, too.
Who was with her that night? What really happened? As her life unravels thread by thread and the dreams become too real to ignore, Diana will have to face the unthinkable–and do the unforgivable.
Review:
After All I’ve Done by Mina Hardy is a riveting domestic mystery that is full of suspense.
Diana Sparrow is recovering from a car accident that left her with two broken collarbones and a six month void in her memories. Thankfully her mother-in-law Harriett Richmond is close by to care for her. But what really makes Diana happy is the extra time her husband Jonathan is spending away from home. Their marriage has been strained for quite some time and she recently discovered he is having an affair with her childhood best friend Valerie “Val” Delagatti. But Diana is unable to leave him since her injuries are taking a long time to heal and a pre-nup agreement. Finally regaining some of her independence, she is beginning to feel smothered by Harriett. Diana is also suddenly plagued by extreme tiredness along with a few other puzzling symptoms.
Diana’s lost memories may never return and she is haunted by nightmares. Determined to spend time on her own, she begins going to a favorite coffee shop and she signs up for an art class. She also makes friends with Cole who is also taking the class. But who is this mysterious stranger? By all appearances, Cole is compassionate and caring, but is his nice guy persona just an act? Is he trying to help Diana? Or is there a more sinister reason for his involvement with her?
Val is the only person Diana would trust to confide in about her ongoing confusion and frustration. The two women are lifelong friends who bonded over their dysfunctional and abusive childhoods. Their friendship has always been close, but Val has an agenda of her own as she continues carrying on her affair with Jonathan. Does Val know more about what happened during Diana’s lost months than she is letting on? And just how far would she go to steal Diana’s husband for herself?
Alternating between three distinctive viewpoints, After All I’ve Done is a fast-paced and enthralling mystery. Diana is a sympathetic character whose struggles to regain her health and missing memories are realistically portrayed. Harriett is the loving mother Diana never had but she is becoming extremely overbearing and intrusive. Jonathan and Val are difficult to like as they remain self-absorbed while the person they purport to love struggles in the aftermath of her accident. With an eye-popping plot twist, Mina Hardy brings this mesmerizing psychological thriller to an absolutely jaw, dropping conclusion. I thoroughly enjoyed and HIGHLY recommend this domestic mystery to readers of the genre.
