The Life I Left Behind: A Novel

Six years ago, Melody Pieterson was attacked and left for dead. Only a chance encounter with a dog walker saved her life. Melody's neighbor and close friend David Alden was found guilty of the crime and imprisoned, and the attack and David's betrayal of her friendship left Melody a different person. She no longer trusts her own judgment, she no longer trusts her friends. In fact, she no longer really has any friends. She's built a life behind walls and gates and security codes; she's cloistered herself away from the world almost entirely.And then, soon after David is released from prison, Eve Elliot is murdered in an attack almost identical to Melody's. With the start of a new police investigation, Melody is suddenly pulled from her ordered, secluded life and back into the messy world around her. But as she learns more about Eve's murder, Melody starts to wonder if perhaps David hadn't betrayed her after all...if perhaps the killer is someone else entirely, someone who's still out there, preparing to strike again.Narrated alternately by Melody and by Eve's lingering ghost, The Life I Left Behind is a taut thriller and an intimate look at two young women bound together in ways neither of them could ever have predicted. Colette McBeth has proven once again that she is a master of suspense.

Paula Hawkins, author of #1 New York Times bestseller The Girl on the Train

“The Life I Left Behind is a rare thing; a well-paced, meticulously-researched thriller which is not just gripping but compassionate, too. McBeth's characters are three-dimensional, their motives psychologically convincing, and this includes the victims: much more than mere bodies on a slab, they are real and much-beloved characters with families and friends to mourn them.”

Tess Gerritsen

“Colette McBeth digs deep into a childhood friendship that goes dangerously awry. What happens next will chill you to the bone. Precious Thing will make you wonder about your own friends…and whether they just might be your worst enemies.”

Publishers Weekly

“[A] haunting first novel…McBeth imbues her characters with layers upon hidden layers, keeping readers guessing until the end.”

Kirkus

“[A] spellbinding thriller.”

Alex Marwood

“Friendship, betrayal and secrets too big to bear: a book to race through, breathless, in a sitting.”

David Mark

“Keep your eyes peeled this summer for an astonishing new talent in the form of hack-turned-novelist Colette McBeth…Gone Girl but with a Brit voice.”

Cath Staincliffe

“An excellent debut, well-written, gripping and tense which skillfully weaves an unfolding nightmare with a dark past.”

About the Author

COLETTE MCBETH was a BBC TV Crime Reporter for ten years. She lives in West London with her husband and three young children. She attended the Faber Academy Novel Writing Course in 2011. Precious Thing is her first novel.

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