Book Review: Before She was Helen by Caroline B Cooney

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What would you think of a book that is set up in a retirement village and features a heroine who is well past her prime? Meet Clemmie or Helen who will dispense all your preconceived notions about who can do what and at what age. Helen had a tragic past and to escape it she changes everything about herself and her life. She chooses to become Clementine and we meet her at a retirement village called Sun City where she is now living in her old age. She has keys to the house of her next door neighbour Dom- for emergencies. Not having seen him for a day or so,Clemmie goes to investigate about his welfare. She finds the villa almost as if no one has ever lived in there and also finds a glass dragon whose picture she clicks on her phone and shares with her nephew.

And like they say all hell breaks loose. The glass piece apparently belongs to a drug dealer who will go to any length to get it back. As he arrives in Sun City, we begin too know more about Clemmie's past- how she was raped and stalked by a man in the 50s, who was later found dead. Why she chose to become Clemmie from being Helen. We also are told about her teenage pregnancy and the fact that she had to give-up the child for adoption.

The book tries to do just too much at times juggling the past, present and the characters inhabiting these spaces. Interesting in places and somewhat slow in some, pick up Before she was Helen for the story of the woman who reinvents herself an her life to escape a horrible past.

A septuagenarian heroine....I would have never even thought that it was possible to weave a whodunnit with a heroine this special. Thanks NetGalley for the copy.


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