This is a complex story of mystery and suspense about two girls who went to New York in search of a new beginning. The only problem is one is dead and discovered by the other. Ruby Jones is 36 years old and travels to New York City from Melbourne, Australia after her boyfriend, Ash, is already engaged and planning on marrying someone else. Even in NYC, Ash keeps messaging her. Her life becomes complicated when she finds a young woman's body while walking along the Hudson River. She can't seem to forget the "Jane Doe" and the circumstances that brought her to that place.

Alice Lee is an 18-year-old who wants a fresh start and is drawn to New York City where her mother once lived and worked as a model. She has only $600 in her pocket, a few clothes and a camera she stole from her high school art teacher, Jamie Jackson. Unfortunately, she ends up dead but narrates from beyond the grave as she believes that Ruby is the key to finding out what happened to her. Ruby feels compelled to discover the identity of the Jane Doe but isn't prepared for what she discovers. She ultimately learns more about herself and her past bad decisions and how she can change her future.

Thank you NetGalley and Edelweiss and Atria Books for providing me this book for review consideration. My review is my unbiased opinion. ( )

There was a lot of buzz about this book and for the most part I enjoyed it. Somewhere around the middle my interest waned a little but it picked up again towards the ending. It wasn’t hard for me to figure out whodunnit well before the revelation. I do wonder if this book is better suited to younger women. ( )

I appreciate the intentions here. Jacqueline Bublitz set out to write a mystery thriller in which the murdered woman—girl, really; Alice Lee is just 18 when she is killed—and the aftershocks of her death are the focus and the whodunnit and the murderer are both incidental. In that much, I suppose, this novel succeeds, but I found Before You Knew My Name trite and overwritten. Despite its much-trumpeted feminist perspective, the book's got all the depth of a Dateline voiceover. ( )

4.5 Stars

Two women, world's apart, manage to escape the men who both enchant and manipulate them. Their paths cross in the most tragic of ways when one discovers the body of the other. I love that this novel was more about the women and the new chapters they were embarking on rather than the murder itself. The unique point-of-view (the murder victim's spirit) made the story an overwhelmingly intimate experience. However, this POV also made for some uncomfortable moments as we are right there with Alice through some disturbing incidents. Through it all though, is an undercurrent of hope, which seems crazy given we know the outcome. The hope that grows and blossoms through the story is for all women needing to make a fresh start, all women taking control back and writing their own futures, all women who find people to lift them up with love, encouragement and support. A powerful and moving story. ( )

In 2022 Jacqueline Bublitz's novel BEFORE YOU KNEW MY NAME won both the Best Novel and Best First Novel categories of the Ngaio Marsh awards. It was the first time this had occurred since the award was established in 2010, and there are some really good reasons for that.

There's also some reasons for the delay in posting this review, mostly because when something is this good, writing words about such excellent words is more than a bit daunting. It's taken a long while to decide whether or not I could say anything that was vaguely coherent, other than plead with as many people as possible to read this book. I'm going to cheat a bit though and quote one of the blurbs from the book cover - because it sums it up perfectly:

'This astonishing debut turns the traditional crime story on its head... Darkly funny, deeply insightful and completely heartbreaking.' Petronella McGovern, author of SIX MINUTES

The other blurb worth repeating is simple:

This is not just another novel about a dead girl

On the same day in New York City, two women arrived, each in their own way looking for a fresh start. On her eighteenth birthday, Alice Lee stepped off a bus from Wisconsin with $600 cash and a stolen camera. Thirty-six-year-old Ruby Jones flew in from Melbourne, a long way to travel to be more lonely than before. Four weeks later Ruby Jones finds the battered body of Alice Lee while jogging beside the Hudson River.

This novel takes the reader way beyond the standard fare of "victim" and "jogger who found the body" - this is the story of Alice Lee and Ruby Jones and it's powerful, moving and profound. There's a connection between these two characters that goes way beyond their initial "meeting". The story is narrated by Alice, who believes Ruby is the person who will solve the mystery of her life and death. Ruby on the other hand, is unable to let go without the ending she believes Alice deserves. 

Bublitz has deliberately centred the story on Alice, a young woman who did not deserve to die at the hands of another. Someone who should never be defined in terms of who killed her and how she died. In the same way that Ruby isn't a "jogger who found the body", or that person who feels compelled to be a version of herself that her lover wants her to be. 

The message within BEFORE YOU KNEW MY NAME is very much that of women's experience - of the men around them, of the reduction that happens by deliberate coercion, or involuntary submission, and in particular the manner in which female victims of violence are ranked as "worthy" or "tragic".  A continuation of the "if only she hadn't (worn those shoes / walked home / breathed / glanced at that stranger) ...  " argument. The argument so infuriating, reductive, and lazy it will trigger an aneurysm in this reader one day. 

BEFORE YOU KNEW MY NAME, on the other hand, was none of those things. It's the emotional, powerful, moving, insightful and eloquent story of a crime, and the affect that it had on Alice Lee and Ruby Jones.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/you-knew-my-name-jacqueline-bublitz ( )