The Woman Before Me

British author Dugdall (The Sacrificial Man) delivers a chilling tale of betrayal and obsession. Rose Wilks has served four years in prison for manslaughter. The facts are stark: she dropped a cigarette in the London home of her friend Emma Hatcher, starting a fire that killed Hatcher’s infant son, Luke. Now up for probation, Wilks is under the scrutiny of Cate Austin, a novice probation officer, who meticulously investigates her past and discovers not only her deeply troubled childhood but also why she broke into Hatcher’s home and fed Luke. Austin also uncovers a complex story of how these two disturbed women became unwittingly involved with the same man. But was Wilks’s arson deliberate? Dugdall paints a bleak picture of a British prison system populated (on both sides of the bars) by men and women who are brutal thugs, bullies, and manipulators. The plot at times verges on melodrama, but it keeps its secrets well. (June)