Emily Elgar lives in East Sussex, England. If You Knew Her is her debut thriller and was published firstly in January 2017. Learn more about the author, her book, as well as ratings and reviews on the latter.
Emily Elgar was born in the 80’s and grew up mostly in the West Country, but she had spells in New York, London, and Southern Africa.
As she says on her website, she started taking writing seriously when she was accepted onto the Faber Academy six month novel writing course in 2012. At the time, she was a support worker for male, female and transgender sex workers in London. She took the course because she loves writing, not because she was necessarily seeking a change in career. She felt too audacious to transform herself into a novelist! After some knocks, she wrote – in a frenzy at 4am one morning – what is now the preface to If You Knew Her. From the off, she felt different to everything she’d written before. The words galloped out of her.
She met her agent, the brilliant Nelle Andrew, soon after the course finished. Nelle sent an early draft of If You Knew Her to publishers and in October 2014 she signed a contract with the fantastic Lucy Malagoni at Little, Brown.
What followed was an intense, but enjoyable, two years of completely reworking the book. The result is If You Knew Her.
Now let’s delve into the book story…
Synopsis:
From a terrific new voice comes a standout debut thriller in the vein of What She Knew and I Let You Go.
“Emotionally charged and tautly plotted, Emily Elgar’s debut is a stunning example of psychological suspense.”—Clare Mackintosh, international bestselling author of I Let You Go and I See You
A woman in a coma.
The man who could save her life—if only he could speak.
When young, beautiful Cassie Jensen arrives unconscious to the intensive care ward at St. Catherine’s hospital after being struck in a hit-and-run while out walking her dog, chief nurse Alice Marlowe thinks she looks familiar. She starts digging deeper into Cassie’s relationships, only to discover something about her patient that she’d been keeping secret from everyone, including her devoted husband and family. Soon Alice finds herself obsessed with her patient’s past and future, even willing to put her own career on the line in her single-minded search for answers.
Frank, a patient on the same ward who has locked-in syndrome, can hear and see everything around him but cannot speak. Soon he comes to understand that Cassie’s life is still in danger. While the police continue to look for clues, only Frank holds the truth, but he’s unable to communicate it.
As the novel flashes between points of view, the reader will get closer and closer to the truth of who Cassie Jensen was, and why she was out on the road that fateful night . . .
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