The Woman Before Me: A Thriller

Emma has everything Rose lacks: a faithful husband, beauty, and a healthy baby boy. Rose meets her in the hospital after her own baby dies from premature birth, and when Emma’s child dies in a suspicious house fire shortly after, the obsessive and unstable Rose is the primary suspect.

Now, after almost five years in prison, Rose is up for parole, but probation officer Cate Austin must first decide whether this accused murderer can be released or if she really is a threat to society. The answer seems obvious at first, but as Cate delves deeper into Rose’s disturbing past—a suicidal mother, a distant father, on her own at a young age—the probation officer becomes entangled in the inmate’s dark world.

Winner of CWA Debut Dagger Award and the Luke Bitmead Bursary, The Woman Before Me is a poignant psychological thriller that explores relationships, dysfunctional families, and the penal system with depth and sensitivity that culminates in a shocking conclusion. Did she really do it? Where does the line between love and obsession lie? Can justice be served?

Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.