Before I Let You In by Jenny Blackhurst

Before I Let You In by Jenny Blackhurst
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Karen is meant to be the one who fixes problems.

It's her job, as a psychiatrist - and it's always been her role as a friend.

But Jessica is different. She should be the patient, the one that Karen helps.

But she knows things about Karen. Her friends, her personal life. Things no patient should know.

And Karen is starting to wonder if she should have let her in . .

Billed as a psychological thriller ,this is the story of three women who have been friends since they were little. They have shared happiness, sadness, trauma, living together at University and living alongside each other seemingly forever. Each believing they knew the other although they lived very different lives. Karen is a high flying psychiatrist who lives with her equally hard working partner Michael; Eleanor is married with children to Adam who, although not a hands on father is the love of her life; and Bea is single, carefree and happy. The friends are so close they are like sisters and each would drop whatever they are doing if one of them were in trouble - true friends with a strong bond.

Each of the women however harbour secrets and lies that the others are unaware of and it's not until Karen has a new patient - Jessica Hamilton who appears to threaten the friends relationship - that things begin to unravel for each of the girls whose past lives threaten to destroy them forever. Who is out to ruin their friendship and why?

The pace is good helped by the short chapters and the characters are as well defined as they needed to be in order not to give anything away too soon in the story but I have to confess that I guessed the mystery quite early on however it did have enough red herrings to make me question my theory. I wouldn't say this was the best in the genre that I have read but it was sufficiently well written to keep me engaged until the end (I had guessed correctly).

A good read on a long plane journey or by the pool, not too deep and disturbing just enough to keep you entertained. 3.5 stars from me. Rounded up to 4 stars for Goodreads and Amazon.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.