AUGUST 2023 - AudioFile
Narrator Megan Tusing delivers fast-paced excitement in this gripping thriller with two strong female characters. Julia Benet is a mom and a college professor; Ren Petrovic, who is four months pregnant, is a professional assassin with a moral code. After a school shooting occurs on move-in day at the college campus where Julia is helping her daughter, both women set off on a mission to figure out who was behind the attack. Tusing keeps the alternating perspectives of Julia and Ren distinct and amplifies the tension as each of the women races to figure out how the other and Ren's husband are involved. An intricately plotted guessing game. V.T.M. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
07/17/2023
An empty-nester and a pregnant assassin share more similarities than they realize in this serviceable thriller from Chavez (Blood Will Tell). Julia Benet, 38, is waiting in line with her daughter, Cora, for move-in day at Anderson Hughes College in Point Loma, Calif., and is less than thrilled when her ex-husband, Eric, shows up with his new wife, Brie. When shots ring out on campus, Julia takes a bullet to the arm, and two people die—including Brie. At first, the incident is categorized as a motiveless mass shooting, but Julia comes to suspect it may have been a targeted hit on her. Meanwhile, Ren Petrovic, who is four months pregnant with her first child, is finding it increasingly inconvenient to be a professional assassin. When she catches news of the nearby Anderson Hughes shootings on TV, she comes to suspect—based on the timeline of the attack and the weapon used—it was a job by her assassin husband, Nolan. If it was his handiwork, why hadn’t he told her about it? In chapters that alternate perspectives between Julia and Ren, the two women approach their investigations from different directions, and their lives eventually intersect. Erratic pacing and predictable plotting weigh down the proceedings, but Chavez excels at establishing her characters’ voices (especially Ren’s, who casually asks, “What did today’s victims do to deserve to die?”). It’s nothing especially memorable, but fans of character-driven thrillers may enjoy themselves. Agent: Peter Steinberg, UTA. (June)
From the Publisher
With characters that leap off the page with their flawed humanity, Heather Chavez crafts a story that is both timely and emotional. Before She Finds Me is sure to be the next big summer thriller.”—Julie Clark, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Flight and The Lies I Tell
"Slick, smart, layered and full of surprises, Before She Finds Me will have you hooked on page one and guessing as you breathlessly turn the pages. With her complex female characters and expert plotting, Chavez takes her readers on a wild, unpredictable ride. So grab this book and buckle up!”—Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author of Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six
“A botany professor is nearly as lethal as the assassin she’s evading. The cat-and-mouse game between Ren and Julia is the novel's crux, and their interactions are intense and often surprising. . . . With its cinematic pacing and fascinating protagonists, Before She Finds Me is a fresh and surprising thriller.”—BookPage (starred review)
"With breathless pacing and complex female leads, Before She Finds Me is a page-turning and action-packed thriller that asks the question, how far would you go to protect your family? Chavez is at the top of her game."—Jeneva Rose, USA Today bestselling author of The Perfect Marriage
“Wholly addictive, binge-worthy, with whiplash plotting that will keep you guessing until its explosive conclusion, Heather Chavez’s Before She Finds Me is both an intricate, razor-sharp thriller and also a searing, emotional read with complex female characters that will leave you gasping for more. I couldn’t put it down.”—May Cobb, author of A Likeable Woman and The Hunting Wives
“From the very first page, Chavez jettisons the reader into a web of intrigue, lies, and murder. Fast-paced and hard-edged, Before She Finds Me is a whip-smart, heart-stopping thriller that will have you flying through the pages and guessing to the very end.”—Heather Gudenkauf, New York Times bestselling author of The Overnight Guest
“Chavez plays with thriller conventions . . . an intense, high-stakes thriller that also explores what it means to be a family and the lengths to which one will go in order to keep that dynamic safe. Fans of suburban thrillers or of Lisa Unger and Alex Finlay will want to read this one.”—Library Journal (starred review)
"Well paced, often gripping, and builds with expert tension."—Kirkus Reviews
"Before She Finds Me has characters you love, yet don't trust. Page by page, the dual points of view unfold to reveal one secret after the next, taking you on a whirlwind ride of good versus evil until the lines blur. Chavez delivers a gripping five star read to the last pages when you question everything you thought you knew. A true thriller by all definitions."—Jaime Lynn Hendricks, bestselling author of Finding Tessa and It Could Be Anyone
"Perfect plotting and propulsive action, along with a cast of complex female characters, make Before She Finds Me irresistible!”—Wendy Walker, bestselling author of Don’t Look for Me
Praise for the novels of Heather Chavez
“Sensational – compelling, hypnotic, full of suspense and quiet menace. Don’t miss it!”—Lee Child, on No Bad Deed
“The kind of twisty, jet-fuelled thriller that explodes on page one and has you happily abandoning work, sleep, life as you race to the stunning end!”—Lisa Gardner, on No Bad Deed
Library Journal
★ 02/01/2023
Two families collide unexpectedly in Chavez's latest thriller (after Blood Will Tell) when there's an attack on a college campus. Julia Bennett's quick thinking saves her daughter's life during the attack but leaves her wondering if it was random. Ren Petrovic is pregnant, but she and her husband are professional assassins, and his latest job could jeopardize everything they hold dear. His assignment puts Julia and her family directly in the path of destruction. The aftermath unravels secrets and forces Julia and Ren to confront their pasts and question how far they will go to save their respective families. Chavez plays with thriller conventions, and readers will find themselves rooting for characters with questionable moral codes. The main incident brings a timely quality and authenticity to the traumatic repercussions the characters face. The story is an intense, high-stakes thriller that also explores what it means to be a family and the lengths to which one will go in order to keep that dynamic intact and safe. VERDICT Fans of suburban thrillers or of Lisa Unger and Alex Finlay will want to read this one.—Jeff Ayers
AUGUST 2023 - AudioFile
Narrator Megan Tusing delivers fast-paced excitement in this gripping thriller with two strong female characters. Julia Benet is a mom and a college professor; Ren Petrovic, who is four months pregnant, is a professional assassin with a moral code. After a school shooting occurs on move-in day at the college campus where Julia is helping her daughter, both women set off on a mission to figure out who was behind the attack. Tusing keeps the alternating perspectives of Julia and Ren distinct and amplifies the tension as each of the women races to figure out how the other and Ren's husband are involved. An intricately plotted guessing game. V.T.M. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2023-05-09
When the pop pop pop of shots sound off at college move-in day, Julia Bennett is the first to recognize the menace, intuitively dropping and rolling to protect her daughter, Cora. The aftermath brings: a grazed Cora; her murdered stepmother, Brie; long-suppressed memories of Julia’s own troubled past; and her increasing suspicion that what seems like just another random mass shooting in America is actually anything but.
Julia is a botany professor at Anderson Hughes, the San Diego college where Cora will be a freshman. Julia is also a connoisseur of carnivorous plants and is long divorced from Cora’s dad, Eric, who has a shiny new life with Brie. While Julia reluctantly confirms her doubts about the shooting (“If the sniper attack was random, why did it end so quickly? And why weren’t more people dead?” she asks herself), she’s also forced to reckon with the violence that ended her own youth: the shooting deaths of her parents when she was 14. As Julia unpacks the shooting, up in Los Angeles, contract killer Ren Petrovic is realizing she’s got some mysteries of her own to solve. She’s learned about the Anderson Hughes killings on the news and recognizes the work of her husband and partner, Nolan. Ren is a second-generation assassin, raised to take on only “ethical kills,” meaning the target—not the victim, if you please—deserves their fate. But Nolan no longer seems as committed to the mission and has started bending their rules. When it comes out that Brie is the daughter of Oliver Baird, a Malibu billionaire who happens to be Nolan’s best client, the dovetailing of the two women’s stories becomes inevitable. This is author Chavez’s third suspense novel, and she writes well: Before the attack, the packed crowd of students and parents “undulated like a snake digesting”; afterward, Eric “wore the past two days as thick stubble along his jaw and bruise-like smudges beneath his eyes.” The two protagonists nicely mirror each other, sharing a chaotic upbringing, a cerebral reserve paired with extreme capability, a love of mordant plants (Ren’s specialty is poison, and she grows her own). Though the book doesn’t quite stick the landing—for all its tragedy, Julia’s backstory is uninteresting, and Ren’s naïveté is hard to fathom—it’s well paced, often gripping, and builds with expert tension.
Straightforward suspense served without guile or gimmick.
