After Everything You Did by Stephanie Sowden

It ends with a car crash. Two women, both maimed, their long blonde hair matted with blood.

It begins with waking up, in an unfamiliar hospital bed. Bright lights, nurses – and handcuffs.

She is told her name is Reeta Doe, and that she’s been in an accident. That she’s in Florida. That the FBI have been following her since Mississippi. That she has brutally murdered two women. College girls, who look just like her. Two more are missing, and one survived.

Reeta recalls nothing. She cannot answer the questions; all the things they want her to explain are no more familiar to her than the prison she is taken to. Her only hope is a journalist named Carol, who can follow the trail of devastation Reeta left in her wake.

All the way back to Pine Ranch, and the only family she ever knew.

An astonishing debut crime novel, exploring identity and nature versus nurture, with an unforgettable character at its heart. Perfect for fans of Girl A and The Girls.

About the author

Stephanie Sowden grew up in Manchester and studied History and Politics at Durham University. After a brief foray into magazine journalism, she retrained in another love of hers – food – and now runs her own catering company. Stephanie took part in Curtis Brown Creative’s selective novel writing course, during which she completed her first novel. She lives in South Manchester with her partner, Dave, and their little mad staffy, Butter.

Review

‘After Everything You Did’ is a compelling, taut, dark tale of a young woman with no memory but accused of the most depraved crimes. I devoured this one. I was thoroughly captivated with Reeta’s story and was desperate to reach her conclusion.

Reeta wakes up in pain and handcuffed to a hospital bed. She has no memories not even her name. But the FBI are convinced that she is a serial killer. Two bodies have been found, two girls are missing and during the car crash that caused her injuries a girl was found alive in the boot of the car. Could she have done these crimes - but she feels she is good in her heart? She has no one on her side until a journalist called a Carol agrees to help her out - all so she gets the story! But where does that story lead?

I thoroughly enjoyed this one! I have always been a bit fascinated with memory and after watching ‘The Tourist’ recently even more so. I can certainly see this one working on screen as well! There is a lot of social discourse present in the narrative - race relations, anti war, women being allowed to go to colleges, the idea of death row and these added rich veins into the story. Reeta was a great character to root for and was treated with a lot of empathy by the author even though we were being told her story and her crimes on the flip side. I was even surprised by the twist at the end showdown. I thought I was oh so clever thinking that I had worked it out about half way through before Carol did. Nope! But that’s a good thing - means the author manages to allude to a theory but still shock you at the end.

This is a great debut from Stephanie and I will be looking forward to reading more of her work!