Don't I Know You?

by Karen Shepard

Book Overview

Gina's son, Steven, caught only a fleeting glimpse of the killer as he fled. If only, he wonders again and again.

As Lily Chin prepares for her upcoming wedding, a mysterious woman appears to inform her of her fianc 's secret life--which may have included Gina Engel.

Louise Carpanetti received a phone call from the dying Gina. Now, more than a decade later, she is forced to finally acknowledge a shocking possibility: the killer might...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060782382
• ISBN13: 9780060782382
• Release Date: June 2007
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.6" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Not Disappointed one bit!

I needed something to read and only had a few minutes to peruse the library. I picked up this book after reading the inside cover. My expectations weren't very high and I wasnt that excited about reading it as I was for other books. Well, let me say I LOVED THIS BOOK! It was a pretty fast read too, which I sometimes enjoy if Im not in the mood for 5 or 6 pages to express one thought. It was truly a page turner and extremely suspenseful. Too many books claim they are "edge of your seat" but this one delivered. You constantly thought you knew what was coming next only to find out you were wrong. I highly recommend this book. You will enjoy!

No, Not Really: A Review

This is the best book I've read in a very long while. It lifts the psychological thriller out of the realm of the sensational and plunks it down in the middle of ordinary people with all too ordinary fears and foibles. The story reminds us that it's impossible to fully know another person, since our perception of them is filtered through our own needs and limitations. The things we say, as well as the things we don't, can have equally devastating consequences. One character is haunted by the truthes he never told, while another sabotages an entire lifetime of trust and devotion with four simple words - tragically, when it's too late to do anything to set things right. These are the threads woven throughout the novel,and the resulting tapestry reveals murderer, motive and at least one of the weapons - the deadly power of words. That's more than a fair payoff in a mystery.

Haunting and memorable

I read this book in one sitting. Afterwards I thought about it for days - the subtle characters are brillantly developed and the story is haunting - the main characters are all flawed in interesting and realistic ways. The fact that it is a mystery is secondary - although I found the mystery intriguing and was surprised by the final twists. I would not, however, recommend the book for someone who is simply looking for a mystery/whodunnit - it is a more "intense" read and definitely more about the characters than the underlying mystery.

A Real Page-turner

This is not an easy book to review without spoilers, but I will try: SUMMARY, NO SPOILERS: Part One takes place in 1976 in New York. A young boy named Steven finds the body of his mother Gina in the hallway of his apartment. She has been brutally murdered. The story continues with a police investigation, and we are introduced to several characters who will reappear in various places and times in this novel. Part Two takes place a little over a year later, and we are introduced to a woman named Lily Chin, who is engaged to be married. We follow her as she becomes concerned and distrustful of Nickolai, the man she is to marry. Part Three takes place 10 years after this, when we focus on a 73 year old woman named Louise and her son Michael, who has developmental problems. Louise is the upstairs neighbor from Gina, and she has secrets of her own. By looking at the title of this book, one would put it in the mystery genre - but it is more than that. And that is a good thing because I'm not sure the book works completely for a "mystery" book. If you read it as such, you will be disappointed. This book was an absolute page-turner for me, and it gets 5 stars for this reason. Shepard does raise the issue of the problems we all have in really "knowing" the people we love, and I think is the real gist of this novel. Recommended, especially for those in a reading slump. This will grab you from page one.

fascinating whodunit

In 1976 twelve years old Steven Engels comes home to his family's Upper West Side apartment only to discover the corpse of his single mother Gina who is stabbed to death. Stunned not just by his mom's violent death, but finding her silently laying there, none of his family members or even his mom's boyfriend Phil know what to do with the grieving preadolescent. One year later, the case remains unsolved with Phil still considered a person of interest. Meanwhile a stranger visits schoolteacher Lily Chin to warn her about her fiancé Nickolai Belov. The woman claims to have been Nickolai's former lover and provides Lily the whereabouts of Gina's journal hidden by Nickolai. Over a decade later, the Engels homicide remains unsolved and considered by NYPD as a cold case. Meanwhile seventy-three years old Louise Carpanetti knows she is dying, but the cancer is not what worries her. Instead she fears what will become of her childlike fiftyish son Michael when she learns from the news that a break in the Engles murder has occurred. Now she ponders how Michael was involved and what should she tell the police, if anything. This fascinating whodunit is told in three parts over a dozen or so years apart. What is interesting is how far reaching the Engels' homicide is as many individuals besides Steven are affected even indirectly. Readers will be hooked by the ensemble cast who have been impacted though only the son and the two women ((think of five degrees of separation) provide insight. This is a stunning insightful mystery. Harriet Klausner