What to do, who to believe? Ali's best friend is raped in her garden during a college reunion and she says it's your husband. But it can't be, can it? There are lies and layers of lies to be unraveled in this fascinating domestic suspenser. This one hooked me from the very beginning and kept me enthralled all the way through!

Aw I really hate leaving negative reviews but I could not finish this book. I did not like it connect with any of the characters and found the story very slow x

Loved this book it kept you guessing and showed the emotions you would be feeling if this happened to you I really enjoyed this one

Ali and Mike host a disastrous 25th reunion (from the day they started) for their university friends. Karen is first to arrive as Ali gets a frantic call from the "feminist" group (charity) that she chairs. She leaves for just a while. As Ali arrives home, Jodi (8 months pregnant) and her husband, Callum. pull up. Bill arrives later on his motorcycle. Rounding out the group are Jake (17), Karen's son - and Ali and Mike's two children: Cassie and Benji.

Oh, what a night! Boozy and late! And a touch of weed. At 3:30 AM, Ali, asleep, is woken by screams. She goes downstairs to find (a sober) Jodi. In bursts Karen; bloodied, frenzied and disheveled. She says "He raped me". Well, the only one still outside with her was Mike. Did someone come in to the yard and choke/rape Karen? The police arrive and Karen is brought to the hospital as Mike is arrested.

And that is only the start. Brilliantly written, this book will have you up all night!!! Every time you think you have everything all figured out, in comes another surprise. Dark, at times, but a solid MUST read.

Dazzling!

Many Thanks to Amazon Publishing, UK, Thomas and Mercer and NetGalley for an unforgettable read !

I'm going to have to go against the grain and give a lukewarm review. Although the prose is very engaging, it wasn't enough to overcome the story's absence of originality. Within the first few chapters, the premise was easily ascertained, depicting how the story would eventually unfold. The characterizations, along with the roles of each player in this drama, were also predictable. Unfortunately, the twists and turns neither shocked nor thrilled me—they were expected. Where is the fun in knowing what's going to happen next before it happens? While others may have enjoyed this novel, the tale was simply too formulaic for my taste.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and Claire McGowan for an ARC of 'What You Did' in exchange for an honest review.

I have to say that I completely devoured this novel.  It is most definitely one of those books that you pick up and cannot put down until the very end but you seem to move through it at a lightening pace.

The novel begins right in the middle of the action and then takes a step back to the events leading up to it.  Ali has organised a 25 year reunion of her and Mike's (her husband) best friends from university.  The evening ends with some guests wondering off to bed and others staying in the garden drinking further.  Waking up for a drink in the middle of the night Ali is greeted by a distressed and injured Karen coming into the house claiming that she has been raped by Mike - and so begins a path of devastation for all parties involved. 

Ali has no idea who to believe and who to trust anymore after revelations from her husband.  She has two children to care for in the midst of all the chaos and am event from university days which is told in flashbacks scattered throughout the main story-line plants the seed of doubt into the readers head.  What is clear is that not everyone and everything is as it seems.

 Each character is written with depth and precision and if you searched your own group of friends you'd likely find the variety of characters among them - although maybe milder.  The planning that Claire McGowan must have done to prepare for this is phenomenal.  Each chapter weaves a small thread of the story whilst developing the characters and their changing relationships.  As a new thread is added, you are forced to re-evaluate your opinions and everything you had previously thought making this a suspenseful novel full of twists and surprises. 

I cannot rave enough about how brilliant this novel is and tackles a really interesting question.  Who would you believe? 

Highly recommended

for lovers of darker suspense and thriller.

Ali is thrilled to be hosting a twentieth college reunion get together for some of her closest friends. She’s got the perfect home, family and career. But that picture perfect party goes south fast when her old best friend Karen accuses Ali’s husband (and old college boyfriend) of a violent assault. How can Ali decide who to believe? But it turns out that there a plenty of ugly secrets between the friends, dating back to those “carefree” college days. McGowan combines a tightly woven plot with a dynamite cast of characters

This book was fantastic. Whom to believe was the theme, husband or best friend?A high school reunion went wrong when best friend Karen, who was evidently attacked, accused Ali's husband to be her abuser. Ali's world was completely annihilated. Both swore taht they were telling the truth.

My first book by Claire McGowan, this story had me totally stuck to it. The author had weaved an elaborate tale of lies and secrets surrounding Ali. There were subplots which were completely invisible to the naked eye. Only Ali needed the fortitude and courage to go through her past and long forgotten memories to get to the chilling truth.

Short snappy chapters telling me the viewpoint of different characters had me devouring the book in 2 hours. The book caused a shiver down my spine where I suspected everyone. The author sure didn't stop with the twists till the very end. A brilliant story

Shocking, gripping and terrifying, Claire McGowan’s What You Did is a spine-tingling and nerve-twisting tale of love, jealousy, friendship and loyalty that will chill readers to the bone.

When Ali had agreed to host a reunion for her university friends, she had been so excited. Not only was she going to be reunited with some of her dearest friends whom she hadn’t seen since those halcyon university days, but she was going to be able to show them all that she has finally got the life she had always wanted and dreamed about. With her dream job, perfect husband and wonderful family, Ali’s life is glossy magazine perfect. Ali and Michael have a rock-solid relationship and a marriage most people can only dream about. Ali thinks that nothing and nobody could ruin her happiness, however, little does she realise that the reunion is going to end up shaking the foundations of her perfect world to its core as she finds herself forced to choose between her best friend and the man she loves with all of her heart.

When on the night of the reunion Ali’s friend Karen staggers in from the garden bruised and bloodied, everyone is shocked. However, the shocks looks set to keep on coming when Karen announces that the man who attacked her was not a random stranger, but Ali’s husband, Mike. A flabbergasted Ali has less than a split second to choose a side, but whom will she choose? Will it be the man she shares her life with whom she had hoped to spend the rest of her life married to? Or should she believe Karen? Mike is horrified to be accused like this. He swears that he is innocent and that he would never do something so vicious and horrible, but Karen is adamant that he is the man who assaulted her. The two parties are offering two very different versions of events and Ali does not know whom she should believe. The only thing she is certain about is that one of them is lying. But who? Is it her husband? Or her best friend?

Ali finds herself having to untangle a web of twisted lies, shocking deception and dangerous secrets and when jaw-dropping revelations come to light that unearth long-buried memories that have lain hidden for so long, Ali realises that there is a terrifying enemy in her midst who will stop at nothing to ensure that the truth about those university days is never discovered…even murder!

Claire McGowan keeps her readers on a knife’s edge with her engrossing chiller, What You Did. A fantastic domestic noir tale that will send pulses sky-rocketing, What You Did is a brilliantly written, densely plotted and wonderfully compelling thriller that will be devoured in a single sitting. Claire McGowan brilliantly explores the fears and insecurities within a marriage and the dark aspect of female friendships in an intelligent, sensitive and incisive way, leaving readers enthralled from start to finish.

Claire McGowan has penned a winner with What You Did, a compulsively readable thriller that will get under readers skins and keep them guessing till the very end.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 / 5 rounded up

What You Did by Claire McGowan is the ultimate page-turner that will keep you glued to the pages until the very last word. It is also not going to be for the faint of heart (see triggers for rape).

What it's about: Ali decides to put together a reunion with her friends from university after twenty years. The six of them meet at Ali's home where she lives with her college boyfriend turned husband, and their two kids - Cassie and Benjamin. But what is supposed to be a fun reunion turns into a nightmare when Ali's best friend Karen stumbles inside from the garden saying Ali's husband Mike just sexually assaulted her. Mike claims it didn't happen, but Karen is sure it did. Ali doesn't know who to believe, and after things from their past start coming to light, things will never be the same again.

I really, thoroughly enjoyed What You Did and I didn't want to put it down. The chapters were all pretty short, and that combined with different character viewpoints really kept me guessing and speeding through it. I really didn't like Mike, especially as the book goes on, but I found myself liking Ali a lot, even as she does things that are really dumb. I don't know what I would do if my husband were accused of sexual assault, but I would like to think that I would still believe my best friend if she said he did it. In other words, this book is really makes you think.

What You Did felt like it had a little bit of everything and wasn't strictly just about sexual assault even though that was definitely a main theme. There is also a murder mystery aspect, and I really had no idea what was going to happen. McGowan manages to make you doubt every person in the book, and completely kept me guessing. I felt like there was something going on throughout the entire book which also made it a fast read for me. The end managed to give me chills because it was so unexpected and that is something I love in a book.

Song/s the book brought to mind: Criminal by ZZ Ward.

Final Thought: I wasn't really sure what to expect from What You Did, but I am so glad I read it. It looks like the reviews for this one are all over the place so I'm glad I liked it as much as I did. There wasn't really anything wrong with it at all, and I really enjoyed McGowan's writing style. Reading this makes me want to read more from her ASAP!

Thank you to Damppebbles Blog Tours and the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy of this book!

I am familiar with Claire McGowan’s books having read a few from her Paula Maguire series. This is a stand-alone novel and she has proved that she can do both perfectly well.

When the six ex Oxford University friends had a reunion years after their graduation none of them had any idea that things would go so tragically wrong. The way each of them handled it revealed how their friendship wasn’t as strong or genuine as they thought.

Most of it is modern day and concerns Ali, wife of the charged man and ‘best friend’ of the victim. She was a character who baffled and annoyed me the more I read. Her obsession with image, her snobbery and especially her noticing that her daughter Cassie had chipped nail varnish on her toes when she had a lot more to think about.

But there are flashbacks to 1993, when they finished university and differing accounts of what happened on the night of the dinner. In each of these more dubious aspects of each character is revealed.

Cassie, her brother Benji and Jake, Karen’s son, were the only characters I really liked. They were the only ones who could see how tragic the events of the night and the few days after were and they were not thinking about the consequences for themselves.

This is a great novel that made me question everything I was reading. I missed a lot, I suspected the wrong people and I seethed occasionally at the elitist attitudes. It is probably one of the most character driven novels that I have read recently.

What you did it what we all would like to know, but who is that you??? Because it seems that more than one person has something to hide. 

A reunion with friends. That has to be a happy occasion, right? Some food, some drinks, reminiscing, laughter, joy but the evening ends in a disaster. One person is accused and it seems like everything points in his direction. But even the best evidence can be deceptive. 

The author keeps throwing curveballs and you are gobsmacked by the revelations. When everything is in the open or that's what I thought at least, the author has one last trump card up her sleeve.

Still waters do run deep ...

It's true that sometimes you are the last to know, but are you really or did you just not want to see the truth ...???

This is a book I really enjoyed. 4 stars.

Thank you, Claire McGowan and Damp Pebbles.

Twenty-five years of friendship and one night changes it all. Rape, lies, murder, fear, desperation…cover ups for the lives they wanted to keep.

I loved this book! It is a very suspense-filled mystery between college friends told mostly in Ali Morris’ voice. Their lives change in one instant filled with lies, unfaithfulness and deception. The buildup to Ali’s realization of the facts is intense and eye-opening. Her life is shattered and any normal human being would have been broken, but she garbles through the untruths and changes her life to save what’s left of her family and friends.

I thought I had it all figured out and was blown away to find the truth at the end! Recommend highly.

Thank you to Claire McGowan and Damppebbles Blog Tours for giving me the opportunity to review this book with no expectation of a positive review.

Six college friends have a reunion 25 years later.

When the alcohol flows they begin to reminisce but then Karen, battered and bruised, says Mike, married to Ali, raped her……..

Ali’s life starts to unravel…..who does she believe…?

The story jumps between the past and the present to gradually build a picture of what had happened …..just who is telling the truth ?

What follows is a story of lies, denials and betrayals. Where old grievances and prejudices are brought into the open…..I have to say I didn’t really find any of the characters particularly likeable…but I think that’s the point…so you can look at the story objectively and not side with anyone….it deals with tough issues so is not a light read, but is definitely compelling…..

Thank you to The publishers, the author and NetGalley for a free copy of the ebook. This is my honest, unbiased review.

Six friends have kept in touch since their university days. It is now twenty five years since those hallowed days and they get together at Ali and Mike’s house for a celebration. Mike is a corporate lawyer and works all hours god sends and a few more besides to keep them in the style they are accustomed to. Ali volunteers for a women’s shelter and has become a local media star by doing this.After the meal and a few drinks most of the crowd had gone to bed, all being put up at Ali and Mike’s house and there are a few stragglers still chatting. Ali having gone to bed herself, comes down for some water and is horrified to find Karen staggering in from the garden cut and bleeding, covered in grass saying that she has been raped….. by Mike- Ali’s husband. What follows is her worst nightmare, one thing leading to yet another revelation. What on earth is happening and what will happen to both Mike and her and her family? OMG! This book is brilliantly written with the tension almost palpable. My heart was beating faster and I found my self devouring page by page wanting to read faster to find out what was happening. I felt for Ali and how everything in her world was crumbling around her. This is one stunning read , one to keep you on the edge of your seat whilst feeling anxious at the same time. Wow! Just wow!
(links as part of blog tour)

I was definitely intrigued when I learned that Claire McGowan had written a stand-alone thriller, having previously read her Paula Maguire novels I knew I was in for a treat.

There’s an intense opening to What You Did, twenty-five years after a group of friends first got together at university they are catching up. Of course, there’s a lot of drinking and even the odd smoke of weed. But calamity strikes when one member of the group, Karen, enters her friend, Ali’s house, and tells her that Ali’s husband, Mike, has raped her. Ali is torn between her best friend and her husband. Who does she support? Who should she believe? But as an intense police investigation ensues, it brings back haunting memories from their time at university, when one of their friends was murdered. No one was ever caught for their friend’s murder. Could this about to be changed?

This was a real page-turner. Right from the shocking opening, I wanted to know what the outcome for Ali and her family was going to be. I was convinced that there was definitely more to the situation they now found themselves in. And then I was trying to work out if anyone else in the group could have been responsible, or if someone else could have gained access to the property. This was another possible theory I kept thinking about.

Each character kept me asking questions, particularly about their time at university twenty-five years ago when one of their friends was killed. I was convinced they knew more than they were letting on. There’s a darkness that runs right throughout the book, especially when there is an even more shocking turn of events which forces Ali into an impossible dilemma, and she learns some horrifying truths. She is a character who goes through a lot of emotions in this book, and she is someone who is torn between her loyalties.

This is a top, extremely well written psychological thriller from Claire McGowan with strong character development. I’ve always found her writing gripping, and her latest book is no exception. I was kept hooked right the way through.