I Know Who You Are: A Novel

I Know Who You Are is the second novel by British journalist and author, Alice Feeney. When actress Aimee Sinclair returns home from the day's film shoot to find her husband missing, she's puzzled. True, they argued the previous night, but now he has disappeared, leaving behind everything he would normally take with him: coat, shoes, wallet, phone, keys. Next morning, she discovers that someone, a woman resembling her, withdrew ten thousand pounds and closed the joint bank account she has with Ben, the previous afternoon.

DI Alex Croft and her (mostly silent) sidekick, DS Wakely, seem sceptical about everything Aimee tells them from the moment they arrive. Not that she tells them everything: she knows better than to trust the police. But she does remind them of the stalker she has told them about before, who signs her cards with the name of someone that Aimee knows is dead. They are dismissive, but Aimee worries that someone from her past is behind it all.

Meanwhile, Aimee tries to get on with life: the final days of the film shoot, the wrap party. She loves acting, especially with Jack Anderson, but doesn't love the interviews (journalists are not to be trusted), the gossip and some of the other actors. And is her agent avoiding her? Maybe he's finally realised what a fraud she really is.

Feeney's protagonist is the quintessential unreliable narrator: Aimee states in the first few lines that she tells lies. And the other half of the split-time narrative indicates that Aimee is definitely not who everyone thinks she is. She seems to do a lot of her thinking in metaphors and aphorisms, which becomes an irritating affectation after a while.

Some of the characters are exaggerated, almost to caricature level and some parts of the story do require quite a degree of suspension of disbelief. Aimee's second guessing is unconvincing. But ignoring that and the plot holes, even the most astute reader is unlikely to guess the truth before the big reveal. Undeniably a page-turner.

This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by HQ Fiction Australia