Julia Wilding, the narrator of bestseller Watson's overstuffed second novel (after 2011's Before I Go to Sleep), lives a comfortable middle-class life in London with her husband, Hugh, a cardiac surgeon, and their adopted son, 13-year-old Connor. In Julia's younger and wilder days-she's a recovering alcoholic-she was an art photographer, but now she's content to take family portraits. Then tragedy strikes. Julia's younger sister, Kate, is murdered in Paris, and she throws herself into catching Kate's killer. Though the sisters used to be close, a difficult childhood and Kate's often unpredictable ways came between them, but not before Julia and Hugh stepped in to care for Kate's son-Connor is actually their nephew. Julia's quest for answers leads her to a sleazy online dating website, where she initially masquerades as Kate and meets a mysterious man, Lukas, who may or may not have known her sister. Soon she's embroiled with Lukas, as well as with Kate's roommate, Anna, both of whom have the requisite secrets, which are unspooled at a glacial pace. Agent: Clare Conville, Conville & Walsh Literary Agency (U.K.). (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Anticipation will be high for Watson's second novel after the runaway success of his well-crafted, compelling debut, Before I Go to Sleep (2011). But expectations may need to be tempered for this uneven psychological thriller. Julia, an upper-class British photographer married to a surgeon. is devastated when she learns that her sister, Kate, has been murdered in Paris. She feels guilty about their last months of dissension, when Kate was demanding that Julia give Kate back her son, Connor, whom Julia adopted when Kate was unable to care for him. Now Julia is determined to find out what happened, especially when she learns that Kate was active in online chat rooms specializing in Internet sex. But she herself is soon pulled into a relationship that begins to feel dangerous and threatens the stability she has found with her husband and son after a dysfunctional adolescence. After a slow start, the second half of the novel picks up the pace, but Julia's naïveté about the repercussions of her affair is hard to overlook. Still, Watson's many fans will be eager to pick this up. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Be prepared for demand based on the success of Watson's debut, which sold more than four million copies in more than 40 languages and was recently adapted into a movie.--Wilkinson, Joanne Copyright 2015 Booklist

How well do you really know someone, even a family member? Julia seems to lead an enviable life, but she hides dark memories of her earlier existence as a young carefree artist who partied, played, and loved to the extreme-and then walked away from it for a wholesome, upper-class life. When horrific news arrives that Julia's younger sister, Kate, has been brutally murdered, the old Julia seems to reawaken, leading her into the depths of a sleazy online affair and opening the doors she has tried to keep locked all these years. Julia's quest puts everything she has established for herself, including her family, at risk. -VERDICT A thriller for the digital age, unfortunately Watson's second outing doesn't succeed in the same way as his acclaimed award-winning debut, Before I Go To Sleep, did. Although this is a dark story of obsession and addiction, nonetheless, the pace is very slow, and it will be hard for readers to have empathy for Julia or any of the other flatly developed characters. Still there will be interest from fans of the first book. [See Prepub Alert, 11/25/14.]-Marianne Fitzgerald, Severna Park H.S., MD © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.