I Know Who You Are

I Know Who You Are by Alice Feeney is a standalone psychological thriller published in May 2019, her second novel following the success of Sometimes I Lie. It's a book that divides readers more sharply than its predecessor - some consider it Feeney's most audacious and tightly plotted work, others find it a step too far - but virtually no one finishes it without a strong reaction, which is perhaps the most honest thing that can be said about it going in.

Aimee Sinclair is finally the actress she always knew she could be. Years of B-list work have given way to something approaching genuine fame, and the industry is starting to take the meetings she always wanted. She has a husband, Ben, a London home, a life built to look exactly the way she wanted it to look. Then she comes home to find Ben gone - a sorry bouquet of flowers on the kitchen counter, a note, and no explanation. The police begin asking questions immediately, and Aimee, who is indeed hiding something, has to decide very quickly which parts of the truth she can afford to tell.

Feeney structures the novel across Multiple Timelines, alternating between Aimee's present-day London life and chapters set in Essex in the 1980s, following a child named Alice through a home life that is far darker than anything in Aimee's carefully maintained public persona. The Identity & Memory mechanics running through both timelines are the book's central architecture: who Aimee actually is, how much of her past she genuinely remembers, and why someone appears to know things about her that she has never disclosed to anyone all become increasingly entangled as the investigation into Ben's disappearance broadens.

The Unreliable Narrator dynamic Feeney established in Sometimes I Lie is deployed differently here - Aimee isn't exactly deceiving readers, but the gap between what she knows about herself and what readers gradually piece together from the parallel timeline generates real, sustained unease. The Trauma and Healing Aimee has never actually done - the past she's buried rather than addressed - shapes every decision she makes under police scrutiny in ways she can't always see in herself. The Deception operating throughout the book involves multiple characters withholding multiple things, and Feeney is skilled at building a reading experience where the question of what's actually hidden shifts from page to page.

The Mystery and Secrets Revealed accelerate sharply in the novel's final third, and the Twist Ending has generated the most divided response in Feeney's catalogue. Readers and reviewers who were gripped consistently report genuinely not seeing it coming; those who found it too much - and there are a significant number of them - tend to be specific about why, in terms that would constitute a spoiler. This is a book with real content warnings attached to it that are worth seeking out before reading, particularly around its treatment of childhood.

For readers who want Feeney at her most uncompromising and are prepared for a genuinely dark direction, I Know Who You Are delivers the kind of ending that stays with you - for good or ill.