Before She Was Helen

Book 7 of 2022 — Before She Was Helen by Caroline B. CooneyFollowing up Feeney’s book, this title was recommended for me. Since I so enjoyed Rock Paper Scissors, I figured I would give it a whirl. I was not disappointed! This book had everything you could want.Pros: Clementine is fabulous. What more can you say about this seventy-something firecracker. I loved everything about her. Most books I read feature characters closer to my own age (37), so it was interesting and new to read something told by a septuagenarian!Most of the characters in this book are colorful and comical. While the topics start to get heavy about midway through, Clemmie has a positive attitude and soldiers on. Her friends are characters who add zest and drama to the storyline.Cons: I wasn’t ready for it to get quite so dark. It starts as what seems like a comedy. Quickly, when the past resurfaces and we see what “Before She Was Helen” refers to, the tone went incredibly dark.Let’s talk about villains who you want to smash in the face with a hammer. The descriptions of the bad guy set my teeth on edge. If you’re a woman, be prepared. We’ve all known people who make us feel this way.Perhaps it’s just me, but I don’t know anything about drug paraphernalia, so I still can’t picture what this glass dragon actually looks like??? I’m sure it’s quite different from what I’m envisioning in my head.Also, to my readers who are younger — please don’t give out people’s personal info online, ya dummies. Even if your great aunt isn’t in what could be construed as WitPro, don’t share personal details with strangers (especially criminals!)A fantastic read. My second 5⭐️ of 2022. I’m very happy I hit that download button after finishing my last read. I will be continuing to check out Cooney’s work and look forward to her next quirky character!5⭐️/5

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.

This is a well plotted and witty mystery. The entire story takes place in a retirement community where everyone has a past that almost no one knows anything about. At its center is Helen, aka Clemmie, a semi-retired Latin teacher, who has spent her entire life as an imposter, making her almost impervious to fear and adept at adapting to rapidly changing circumstances.Helen/Clemmie lives in a three pod retirement situation with her only real neighbor, Dom, being a semi-invalid recluse living in the middle pod which has only front and rear light, the sides being the walls of the adjacent units. The third, and other end unit, is owned by a couple who "use it as a hotel room while in town visiting grandkids." Since Dom rarely leaves home, doesn't drive and only has a golf cart, he texts Helen daily to let her know he is alive and well. When Dom doesn't text for a day or so, Helen, joined by another neighbor, uses his spare key to check that he has come to no harm.While searching Dom's garage, Helen/Clemmie discovers a door which leads to the garage in the adjoining unit. Curious, she finds that the door is unlocked and she is able to easily move from Dom's unit into the seldom seen neighbors'. She discovers that the seldom seen neighbors also seemingly had no furniture, no belongings whatsoever except for a rather unusual glass sculpture sitting along on a coffee table in an otherwise deserted apartment. To her everlasting regret, Helen/Clemmie snaps a photo of the glass sculpture which she then forwards to her great niece and nephew who, of course, post it online which leads to consequences, including greed, drugs, murder and bodily harm. So clever.