cover image The Last Thing She Remembers

The Last Thing She Remembers

J.S. Monroe. Park Row, $15.99 trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-0-7783-0782-2

At the start of this unevenly paced psychological thriller from British author Monroe (Find Me), a woman claiming not to know who she is shows up at the cottage of Laura and Tony Masters in a Wiltshire village. The woman seems to know everything about the cottage the newlyweds recently bought, but nothing about herself. Though she believes she just arrived from Berlin, she lacks any identification, and her suitcase contains only clothing. The woman’s distraught appearance and amnesia touches the Masters, especially Tony, who decides to call her Jemma. It’s “just a name,” Tony tells her, though he may have been subconsciously thinking of a young woman named Jemma Huish who murdered her best friend 12 years earlier and was recently released from prison. The plot stalls while the woman, who accepts the Masters’ invitation to stay with them temporarily, and the locals all try to discover her identity. Eventually, plenty of secrets and hidden agendas emerge on the way to the fascinating denouement. The story’s surprises more than compensate for the lack of memorable characters. Agent: Will Francis, Janklow & Nesbit. (May)