Review: "Thought I Knew You" by Kate Moretti

Claire Barnes is shocked when her husband goes on a business trip and fails to return. Yes, he has always traveled a lot for business, and yes, their marriage had been in trouble lately, but Greg is an excellent father and Claire just can't fathom how he couldn't return, even if only for the girls' sake.

Local police investigators are put on the case but the clues that they turn up are of little help. Claire leans on her best friend Drew for support while she tries to figure out where Greg could possibly have gone while finding out that Greg was not the man that she once thought that he was.

A good friend who has similar reading taste to mine recommended that I read Thought I Knew You and I'm glad that she did! Even though the character of Claire felt distant from the reader at first, she quickly endears herself to us for the most part and we want her to find closure as well as a happy ending. One of the great parts of this story was the mystery behind Greg's disappearance. We know absolutely no more information than Claire and the police, so while they frantically search we wonder what has happened to him. Often stories that contain a mystery give us hints and clues as to what the ending will be, but Kate Moretti gave away nothing.

Most enjoyable about this book for me, though, was how it examined the complexity of marriage in a way that I found both interesting and incredibly honest. As Claire searches for her husband she finds that she didn't really know him at all. He managed to keep an essential part of himself closed off to her despite the fact that she shared children and a life with him. Moretti also reflects on the ebb and flow of the average marriage. I found an amazing quote that would have illustrated my point, but for some reason my eReader decided to un-bookmark it for me and I can't find it now! I do believe that most marriages contain a variety of highs and lows and Thought I Knew You illustrated this fact beautifully.

While I did fail to connect with the main character at times (she was too flippant for me at parts) Thought I Knew You is a worthy debut from an author to watch for. It is available from Amazon as well as from Smashwords.