Jessica Treadway’s How
Will I Know You? has a simple whodunit premise: a teenage girl has been
murdered. Joy was found close to a pond in the woods, presumed drowned but actually strangled. Treadway succeeds in developing the suspense
this type of book needs, until what really happened is finally revealed in the
last few pages.
The actual narrative is told through four different
perspectives: Harper (Joy’s best friend), Susanne (her mother), Martin (the man
accused of her murder who is also having an affair with Susanne), and Tom (a
rescue diver and the son-in-law of the town’s police chief). If done poorly, this style of storytelling
can distract from the cohesiveness of the book, but Treadway does it very
well. She also effortlessly goes back
and forth in time. What happened before
the murder to lead up to it, and what are the repercussions to everyone
involved following the tragedy?
How Will I Know
You? was definitely a solid 4 until the ending, which I found disappointing
and unsurprising. However, 95% of the
story is very suspenseful, so I’m going to split the difference for a 3.5.
MY RATING – 3.5
