Title: Have You Seen Me? by Kate White
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 384 pages
Book Rating: B+
Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss
Summary:
From New York Times bestselling author Kate White comes a gripping novel about one woman’s dangerous quest to recover lost memories someone would rather she never find.
The key to her missing memories could bring relief—or unlock her worst nightmares.
On a cold, rainy morning, finance journalist Ally Linden arrives soaked to the bone at her Manhattan office, only to find that she’s forgotten her keycard. When her boss shows, he’s shocked to see her—because, he explains, she hasn’t worked there in five years.
Ally knows her name, but is having trouble coming up with much beyond that, though after a trip to the psychiatric ER, she begins to piece together important facts: she lives on the Upper West Side; she’s now a freelance journalist; she’s married to a terrific man named Hugh. More memories materialize and yet she still can’t recall anything about the previous two days. Diagnosed as having experienced a dissociative state, she starts to wonder if it may have been triggered by something she saw. Could she have witnessed an accident—or worse—had something happened to her?
Desperate for answers, Ally tries to track where she spent the missing days, but every detail she unearths points to an explanation that’s increasingly ominous, and it’s clear someone wants to prevent her from learning where those forty-eight hours went. In order to uncover the truth, Ally must dig deep into the secrets of her past—and outsmart the person who seems determined to silence her.
Review:
Have You Seen Me? by Kate White is a spellbinding domestic mystery that is quite suspenseful.
Thirty-four year old Ally Linden notices a few differences when she goes to work after an absence. She is also concerned about her appearance which is not quite up to her usual standards. Grateful when her boss Damien Howe finally arrives at work, Ally is soon shocked at the news she no longer works for the company. And even worse, that she has not worked there for five years.
Ally soon discovers that her memory loss is actually a dissociative state which is usually caused by some type of trauma. She is further stunned when her husband Hugh Buckley tells her she has been missing for the two days she cannot recall. Ally then contacts her therapist Elaine Erling whose advice she soon ignores as she begins trying to uncover what happened to her.
Ally is a finance journalist who is successfully juggling her weekly podcast, written column and book writing until her dissociative state. Although she tries to get back to work, she is distracted by trying to recover her memories and the distance between her and Hugh. Ally thinks she knows why she and Hugh have failed to reconnect but she puts fixing her marriage on the backburner for the time being.
Against Erling’s advice, Ally actively pursues trying to figure out what happened during the days she has lost. During one of her therapy sessions, Ally does not have much success with recovering her recent memories. However, she does recall an important piece of information about a bit of a traumatic incident from her childhood. Realizing she must do the right thing with this new detail, Ally contacts her brother Roger to help her navigate her next steps. Ally cannot help but wonder if what happened in the past might have something to do with her present day problems.
Frustrated by her inability to remember any new details, Ally decides to hire a private investigator for assistance. He does uncover startling leads, but she is more confused than before because she still cannot recall anything new. Even worse, Ally begins to have a chilling sensation that someone is watching her and she becomes even more anxious about her safety. With a few nebulous memories beginning to resurface, Ally begins to fear for her safety.
Have You Seen Me? is a clever mystery with a twisty, turny storyline. Ally’s frantic effort to recover her memories provides a sense of urgency as her anxiety and frustration increase. With some brilliant red herrings and outstanding misdirects, Kate White brings this tension-filled mystery to a jaw-dropping conclusion. I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend this absorbing mystery to fans of the genre.
