The Woman Before Me - Hardcover

Dugdall, Ruth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1444808079 ISBN 13: 9781444808070

Publisher: Ulverscroft Ltd, 2011

Synopsis

Emma has everything Rose lacks: a faithful husband, beauty, and a healthy baby boy. Rose meets her in the hospital after her own baby dies from premature birth, and when Emma's child dies in a suspicious house fire shortly after, the obsessive and unstable Rose is the primary suspect.

Now, after almost five years in prison, Rose is up for parole, but probation officer Cate Austin must first decide whether this accused murderer can be released or if she really is a threat to society. The answer seems obvious at first, but as Cate delves deeper into Rose's disturbing past--a suicidal mother, a distant father, on her own at a young age--the probation officer becomes entangled in the inmate's dark world.

Winner of CWA Debut Dagger Award and the Luke Bitmead Bursary, The Woman Before Me is a poignant psychological thriller that explores relationships, dysfunctional families, and the penal system with depth and sensitivity that culminates in a shocking conclusion. Did she really do it? Where does the line between love and obsession lie? Can justice be served?

About this title

Review

‘Gripping, original, authentic and, in the final few pages, utterly heartbreaking’ Erin Kelly

'Ruth Dugdall's novels are intelligent and gripping, with a sophisticated psychological sensibility. She is a huge talent.' Sophie Hannah

'An absolute tour de force that left me thinking for days' Alex Marwood

‘a chilling psychological thriller with a shocking twist. I read it one day and couldn't put it down'. Louise Millar

‘sad, moving and beautiful’ Penny Hancock

Winner of the Crime Writers Association Debut Dagger Award
Winner of the 2009 Luke Bitmead Bursary
Shortlisted for the People’s Book Prize 2011
Longlisted for the New Angle Book Prize
Shortlisted for the Brit Writer’s Novel Award

From the Author

How can we escape what others have created? We all become what our pasts make us. Whether it's in replication or rejection, rebellion or duty, our life's journey is written on our skin like a tattoo, the map to the heart of us. What has the teacher learnt? What does the barrister wish to defend? Those who hold others under lock and key, what do they seek to control?
(The Woman Before Me)

We are all just one event away from the loss of love, of the status quo, of the illusory balance in our lives.

The characters in The Woman Before Me are ordinary people made extraordinary by an unusual situation or an unusual choice. I am interested in extremities, situational and emotional, which would include crime but also madness, sexual deviance, and obsessive love....

Happiness is a fragile, transitory thing. In some ways only when it is gone can we truly discover what we are made of, the very essence of our self: integrity, courage; or the opposite. Whether or not we can be survivors. I'm compelled to explore human emotion (especially grief, jealousy, anger) and the tentative grip any of us have on our lives.

I spent years working with criminals, including murderers and sex offenders, and every novel has been inspired by a true event. Although there is often a crime or violent incident at the core of my writing, my novels explore the real consequences of crime. In much genre crime fiction, when the perpetrator is successfully caught, natural order is restored. If anything, my writing is the opposite of such escapism.

The Woman Before Me is (I hope!) a reflective novel. A careful exploration of loss and love, an emotional insight into ourselves. I want the reader to close the book and hug their child a bit tighter, kiss their lover more softly. To feel they have actively participated in the journey, arriving with a different view of their own surroundings...

...If only for a moment.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ulverscroft Ltd
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1444808079
• ISBN 13: 9781444808070
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 432