Clementine Lakefield has a home at Sun City, a lovely retirement village just south of Charlotte, in South Carolina. She has enough money to pay her bills. She has family who keep in touch. She has friends to spend her days with. And she has a 50-year-ol secret that she’s never breathed a word about.
Sun City is a tight-knit community, and while Clemmie’s next-door neighbor Dom isn’t very social himself, he’s given Clemmie an emergency key to his place. After he took a fall and was unable to get help, he’d given her a key and sends her a daily text that he’s okay.
But one day, he didn’t text. He didn’t answer Clemmie’s follow-up texts or calls, so she got worried. She knocked on his front door, but no one answered. So she got her emergency key and went inside. Dom lived simply, and Clemmie noted the pile of pizza boxes and giant tv, and not much else in his apartment. She called out his name and looked in all the rooms, but he wasn’t there. When she checked the garage, the golf cart he used to get around was missing, so Clemmie figured that he’d gone out for some reason and had forgotten to text her. Relieved that Dom was probably okay, Clemmie was about to back to her own unit when she saw the door.
The building where they lived in Sun City was split into 3 units. Clemmie lived on one end, Dom lived in the middle, and the unit on the other end belonged to a couple who only used it when they came into town to visit their grandchildren. Hardly any of the Sun City residents had even me them, they were there so infrequently. Each unit was complete, with separate entrances and garages. So Clemmie was confused when she saw the door that led from Dom’s garage to the third unit.
Clemmie’s curiosity overtook her, and she crossed the garage to try the door. Surprisingly, it was unlocked, so she opened the door to see what was inside the unit. It had only the barest of necessities. It was clearly almost never used. Clemmie turned to head back home when something on a shelf caught her eye. It was a beautiful, colorful work of art made of glass. It looked a little like a dragon and a little like a tree, and it was the most beautiful thing Clemmie had ever seen. On an impulse, she pulled out her iPhone and took a photo to send to her nephew and niece.
That one impulsive moment had the potential to destroy everything Clemmie had ever worked for, since she’d been a teenager back in the 1950s. What happens next brings together greedy neighbors, news reporters, the sheriff, a vengeful drug dealer, cold case true crime fans, and very nosy card-game friends bearing plum cake. As they all try to figure out where Dom could be and why he’s missing, Clemmie just tries her best to hold on to her lifelong secret that could possibly send her to prison.
Before She Was Helen is a compelling thriller with lots of twists and surprises. Author Caroline B. Cooney is well known for her YA books and has branched out to adult mysteries with this page-turner. This was just nominated for an Edgar Award, and deservedly so. It’s a powerhouse and a head-scratched, a layered mystery that will keep you wondering at the whole picture until you get to the end.
I really enjoyed Before She Was Helen. I will admit I struggled a little at first, but as I got deeper into the story and found out Clemmie’s lifelong secret, I was hooked and needed to know more. The ending is a little vague, with minor threads still hanging, but the characters are written in a way that you know they can deal with those small pieces of unfinished business themselves. I was impressed with the intricacies of the plotting, and I can’t wait for Cooney’s next mystery.
Egalleys for Before She Was Helen were provided by Sourcebooks Early Reads Program, but I liked it so much I bought a copy.
