Before I Disappear

It’s everyone’s worst nightmare: waking up in a strange room, with injuries, a new name and hair color, and being told by an undercover cop that you are in a witness-protection program. Academic criminologist April can’t remember anything that has happened for the last several months. All Hollister, the cop, can fill her in on is that bad folks are looking for her, and if she can’t remember what how occurred before she was brought into the ER with a bullet in her head, the case against her attackers won’t fly. Bit by bit, conflicting memories come back—a fiancé, Chris, who secretly put a tracking device in her purse; a room full of bodies and red threads coming down on her; her Aunt Dahlia, who raised April after her parents and brother were killed in a car accident. Quinn (The Bridesmaid) spools out small details that build the story and keep readers guessing about Chris’s possible involvement with the mob, April’s mysterious injuries, and secrets about her family. As the trial grows near, the pressure for memories to return mounts, as does the speed and pace of the book. Triggered by flashbacks, April’s recollections begin to unravel and a desperate cross-country race to get to the evidence ensues. Quinn has built a breathless cinematic psychological thriller that leans into dissociative identity disorder, with revenge and subterfuge on the front burners.—Dodie Ownes