The woman he loved before (by Dorothy Koomson)

(Amazon UK link)

I’m glad I decided to reread the novels I’ve acquired by Dorothy Koomson. I don’t have her most recent ones, which - so the reviews tell me - are quite dark thrillers. But I like her earlier books very much. I hadn’t read ‘The woman he loved before’ since 2015, so - unsurprisingly - I had no memory of it.

The characters, as is the case with most of this author’s books, are believable, rounded people even if some of the things that happen to them are way beyond my experience or knowledge. And the main two characters in this are a married couple called Jack and Libby. However the book opens in a dramatic way with what is obviously an excerpt from a diary, saying that someone has most likely died…

Chapter one is even more dramatic. Libby is falling in and out of consciousness, trapped in a car after a crash. There’s a fireman cutting her free, and also talking to her, so that she stays awake. She’s aware of Jack, but he isn’t in the car with her. We’re not sure if she’s going to survive, at first - but then we meet her in hospital, swathed in bandages, and in a lot of pain.

Jack, we learn early on, was previously married to a woman called Eve whom he loved very much.  Sadly she died, and he didn’t think he would ever fall in love again, though he starts having brief one-night stands with a lot of women in reaction to her loss. There are quite a few flashbacks to the time when he meets Libby, and their relationship also starts with an episode that has far too much intimate detail for my tastes, and feels almost violent - although she is a willing participant at the time.

Thankfully this is the only ‘18’ rated section of the book, or I might have given up. There’s a fair amount of bad language, and a great deal that’s implied, but mostly the author manages to give the gist without extraneous detail. The chapters alternate between Jack and Libby at first. 

After Libby returns home she’s interviewed by a rather unpleasant police officer who seems to think that Jack might be trying to kill her. She suggests that he killed his first wife, though Libby can’t believe it. Jack is a likeable, peaceable man - yet in Jack’s sections he mentions something that happened in the crashed car which Libby has clearly forgotten about. And he doesn’t want her to know. 

So there’s doubt - and I still didn’t remember anything about the outcome, though Jack does everything he can to help Libby recover. Then Libby discovers Eve’s diaries, and starts reading them. From that point, her perspective, as told in the diaries, intersperses with Libby’s chapters and Jack’s rather shorter ones. 

Eve had a stressful time as a young teenager, fending off the advances of her mother’s new boyfriend, and she leaves home at fourteen. She goes to London where she finds that there are very few jobs that she can take, even if she lies about her age. So gradually things go from bad to worse…

Eve’s situation seems almost unbelievably sordid to me, although she somehow remains a likeable person, forced by circumstances to take on employment that she hates. It was hard to believe that there was nowhere she could go to; but she’s quite naive at first.  And I really didn’t foresee one shocking twist in her story before Libby reaches the end.

The writing is excellent, the pace perfect for my reading style. There’s tension but it’s never chilling - or not until nearly the end, and then the suspense only lasts for a few chapters. Jack, Libby and Eve all have faults, and all keep secrets and tell half-truths at times. But they’re usually doing so to avoid hurting someone else. They all, in their different ways - and their voices are quite distinct - come across as kind, empathic and generous. 

There are a lot of issues that come up. Quite apart from being uncertain about how Eve died, and whether Libby’s life is in danger, there are questions about when teenagers can be believed, how far people go to protect and help each other, and when it might be best to withhold some information. There’s the question about whether Eve could have done anything different, at each point in her life; and there’s the question about whether Jack loves Libby as much as he loved Eve. 

Overall I found it gripping, emotive and unputdownable writing.  I already look forward to reading this again in another decade or so.

Review copyright 2026 Sue's Book Reviews