"Caroline Cooney's Before She Was Helen is a clever whodunnit featuring an immensely likable septuagenarian heroine with a tragic past. Cooney is deft at weaving together the mysteries of a fifty-year-old cold case murder and a still-warm body at a retirement community, slowly unveiling a slew of possible motives and suspects for both crimes. Loaded with action, fast-paced, and offering a series of emotional punches, this book will leave mystery lovers wanting more." — Carter Wilson, USA Today bestselling author
"Caroline B. Cooney has a genius for skewering culture, crime, and society. As once she demonstrated to the world a pressing level of danger we needed to understand, now she whips millennial angst, recreational drug use, and one feisty, heroic retiree into a thrilling, toxic brew that will leave readers cheering by the end. Retirement villages never seemed so mysterious and exciting! Under Cooney's deft hand, hidden dangers emerge, and the ties that bind us, young and old, just may save us in the end." — Jenny Milchman, USA Today bestselling author of Cover of Snow and Wicked River
"As Before She Was Helen opens, readers are drawn into what appears to be a light, retirement-community caper. But author Caroline B. Cooney quickly flips expectations upside-down in this deceptively dark mystery. Between old crimes and fresh murders, septuagenarian protagonist Clemmie faces an unspeakable fear that will keep readers hooked in this twisty whodunit." — Julie Hyzy, New York Times bestselling author
"Caroline B. Cooney is a master of taking a small, common moment—seeing a face on a milk carton, posting a harmless photo—and turning that moment into a thrilling story. In this mystery, Cooney gives us Clemmie—a senior citizen living a long deception, who fights back with intelligence and courage against dangerous foes, both present and past. Before She Was Helen is an emotionally rich page-turner about the lives we want—and the lives we make" — Jeff Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of Never Ask Me
"[A] solid mystery." — Publishers Weekly
"[M]ore Columbo than Miss Marple…A fine mystery from a highly regarded YA author." — Booklist
"A good fat traditional mystery of about 300 pages, with spicy insight, and a perfect distraction from the stresses beyond the doors. Take the passenger seat with this remarkable lady under fire." — Kingdom Books
"I recommend BEFORE SHE WAS HELEN written by Caroline B. Cooney if you really want to read a mystery with a lot of twists and secrets. Every chapter is a new finding." — Fresh Fiction
"Half cozy Miss Marple vibe, half gritty murder mystery." — BookPage
★ 05/01/2020
This terrific suspense tale from best-selling YA author Cooney has a relatable heroine living anonymously in a South Carolina retirement village. Clemmie has been living under an assumed name for 50-plus years. When she goes to check on a nasty neighbor, she finds a beautiful object and sends photos to her grand-niece and nephew, who promptly post it online—and unwittingly put her in jeopardy. Suddenly she's the target of a deadly drug dealer, her double identity could be exposed, and her fingerprints are all over a murder scene. Worse, a cold case involving the murder of her long-ago rapist and stalker, a beloved basketball coach at her high school, is being reopened. Must she run away and make a new life again, or can she continue her dull but safe life in Sun City? The details of the identical "villas" and their decidedly nonidentical residents are spot-on, as are observations about how we live now vs. then. Clemmie and the other residents are fully fleshed characters, not a cutesy oldster in the bunch. How each of them, including Clemmie, deal with disruptions in their placid lives is hilarious and familiar. VERDICT Perfect for fans of domestic suspense and believable, mature characters, and anybody who likes a solid twisty story. [See Prepub Alert, 10/21/19.]—Liz French, Library Journal
