The Girls Before, Kate Alice Marshall
The Girls Before, Kate Alice Marshall
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The Girls Before
A Novel

Author: Kate Alice Marshall

Narrator: Ina Barrón, Karissa Vacker

Unabridged: 10 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/24/2026


Synopsis

A search & rescue expert. A kidnapped woman. The lost girls who haunt them both.

"Veteran narrator [Karissa] Vacker performs the novel skillfully.... Her soothing voice, clarity, and intonation draw the listener into the story, while her convincing performance of Theo will hold their attention until the very last syllable." —Booklist on A Killing Cold (Starred Review)

There is a girl in a basement.
The door has stopped opening.
The light is gone.

Stranger is trapped in the dark, with only her imagination and the scribbles on the wall left by long-dead girls to keep her company. Nearly out of food and water, she makes one last attempt to escape. But if the door opens at last, will it mean salvation, or only the beginning of her fight to survive?

Audrey is a search and rescue expert who never stopped looking for her ex-best friend, Janie, who disappeared when they were teenagers. Janie used to love the local legend of a forest witch who saves girls from bad men, but Audrey knows now that for every one saved, there’s always another one lost. When she stumbles upon evidence in the forest that a teenage runaway might have actually been kidnapped from land belonging to the town’s most prominent family, she will have to dig through decades of secrets to reveal the biggest one of all: what happened to the girls before.

Kate Alice Marshall, bestselling author of What Lies in the Woods, No One Can Know, and A Killing Cold, is back with the thrilling new novel Ashley Winstead calls, "magnetic, shocking, heartbreaking, and unputdownable."

"Narrator Karissa Vacker, with scores of audiobooks under her belt, provides a pitch-perfect performance... [her] voice is a solid touchstone guiding listeners through shocks and twists." —Booklist on What Lies in the Woods

A Macmillan Audio production from Pine & Cedar Books

About Kate Alice Marshall

Kate Alice Marshall is the USA Today bestselling author of What Lies in the Woods, No One Can Know, A Killing Cold, and multiple novels for younger readers. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family.

About Karissa Vacker

Karissa Vacker has narrated over 500 audiobooks, and can most frequently be heard in the thriller, YA, and rom com genres. She is Audie nominated, and a proud recipient of many AudioFile Earphones awards and is also a SOVAS award winning narrator. Karissa is a classically trained actor who has always loved the power of storytelling. Along with credits from major regional theaters, she has also enjoyed a career in film and TV. Some credits include NCIS, Castle, How I Met Your Mother and Chuck. She hosts a weekly sleep meditation podcast, Sleep Wave, for the app Sleepiest and does a variety of other VO work. After over a decade of living and working in Chicago and Los Angeles, she moved back to her home state Texas in 2021 with her husband and son. She is a breast cancer survivor and is passionate about finding ways to live a healthier, more present life.


Reviews

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Quotes

“A superb mystery. . . Marshall takes a familiar premise and pushes it into exciting, experimental directions. . . Readers will be thinking about this long after they turn the last page.”
Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A smart and layered mystery with complex characters, a unique structure, and the ultimate in a creepy locked room setting. With its shocking twists and stunning final reveal The Girls Before is the ultimate page-turner.”

—Robyn Harding, bestselling author of The Drowning Woman

“Kate Alice Marshall is one of the best thriller writers working today, and The Girls Before might be her best book yet. Marshall writes haunting poetry about the darkest sins imaginable, gossamer webs made of stygian threads, each story unfolding like a seductive melody sung by a woman in the woods, irresistible as it lures you deeper. The Girls Before is magnetic, shocking, heartbreaking, and unputdownable. What a gift to read her work.”
—Ashley Winstead, bestselling author of In My Dreams I Hold a Knife

“Kate Alice Marshall’s The Girls Before is a chilling descent into memory, myth, and the hidden scars we all carry. Fans of Simone St. James and Jennifer McMahon are going to devour this one!”
—Jess Lourey, Edgar-nominated author of The Quarry Girls

Praise for Kate Alice Marshall:

“Unexpected plot twists, deep psychological perspicacity, and an endlessly interesting dance between past and present that evokes the dread and intensity of Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects.”
—New York Times Book Review

“So good.”
—Emily Henry, bestselling author

“A gripping tale, full of dizzying twists and turns! It is packed with suspense and kept me frantically turning pages until the very end!”
–Freida McFadden, bestselling author

“A propulsive and intricate psychological thriller.”
—Kirkus (starred review)

“Utterly riveting. . . A stunner—dark, unflinching, and as twisty and sharp as a tangle of thorns.”
—Riley Sager, bestselling author

“A tightly wound thriller perfect for fans of Stacy Willingham and Gillian Flynn.”
–J.T. Ellison, bestselling author

“Kate Alice Marshall knows how to deliver fast-paced twists and turns as she takes readers into the dark recesses of the imagination.”
—West Sacramento News-Ledger