Before She Was Helen, Caroline B. Cooney
Before She Was Helen, Caroline B. Cooney
List: $20.00 | Sale: $14.40
Club: $10.00

Before She Was Helen

Author: Caroline B. Cooney

Narrator: Kimberly Farr

Unabridged: 11 hr 13 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/08/2020


Synopsis

Her life didn't turn out the way she expected―so she made herself a new one

When Clemmie goes next door to check on her difficult and unlikeable neighbor Dom, he isn't there. But something else is. Something stunning, beautiful and inexplicable. Clemmie photographs the wondrous object on her cell phone and makes the irrevocable error of forwarding it. As the picture swirls over the internet, Clemmie tries desperately to keep a grip on her own personal network of secrets. Can fifty years of careful hiding under names not her own be ruined by one careless picture?

And although what Clemmie finds is a work of art, what the police find is a body. . . in a place where Clemmie wasn't supposed to be, and where she left her fingerprints. Suddenly, the bland, quiet life Clemmie has built for herself in her sleepy South Carolina retirement community comes crashing down as her dark past surges into the present.

From international bestselling author of The Face on the Milk Carton Caroline B. Cooney comes Before She Was Helen, an absorbing mystery that brings decades-old secrets to life and explores what happens when the lie you've been living falls apart and you're forced to confront the truth.

About The Author

An incredibly prolific author of young adult novels, Caroline B. Cooney is perhaps best known for The Face on the Milk Carton quartet, which tells the story of Janie Johnson, and what happens when she discovers she was kidnapped as a child. She is also the author of the Losing Christina series, the Time Traveler Quartet, as well as dozens of other stand-alone books for young adults.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Darla on December 12, 2022

Oh, Helen. Or, would I call you Clemmie. Aunt Clemmie, perhaps? Since I am in the right age bracket to be your niece. Can I say that I just loved your story and so want you to be appreciated by someone who can help you heal from the past. From the time you discovered that enigmatic glass sculpture i......more

Goodreads review by Bonnie on February 23, 2020

Before she was Helen is the story of a woman leading two lives. Helen is a Latin teacher who lives in a retirement community and plays a lot of cards with her neighbors. Clemmie is a teenager in the 50s who is raped and stalked by a popular teacher. This story flashes back and forth between Clemmie......more

Goodreads review by Joy on June 17, 2020

#NetGalley #CarolineBClooney #PoisonedPenPress Clemmie lives in a quiet retirement community. Her neighbor Dom texts her everyday to let her know he's ok,until one day he doesn't. Worried, Clemmie !uses her key to his place to go check on him and he's not there, but she discovers a door in his garage......more

Goodreads review by Therese on October 11, 2020

This was really a fun read! Crime mysteries aren’t my typical genre, so I was completely in awe and entertained by the number of details swirling around in this story, and how the author kept track of everything, tying it all together in the end. It’s the story of an elderly woman with a double iden......more

Goodreads review by disco on October 23, 2020

Read if you are interested in: ~ 456 reasons getting old sucks ~ the words "In the 1950's this is how it was!" at least 500 times ~ shitty men, except that one that was not shitty because we know nothing about him ~ wigs (or lack of) ~ unsatisfying conclusions and very few answers ~ very handsome millenn......more