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 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.