Before He Finds Her: A Novel

Michael Kardos

Feb 2015 · Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

About this ebook

A girl in witness protection hunts for her fugitive father in this thriller with “an ending you don’t see coming” (The New York Times Book Review).
 
Everyone in the quiet Jersey Shore town of Silver Bay knows the story. One day in the early 1990s, Ramsey Miller threw a blowout block party—then murdered his beautiful wife and three-year-old daughter.
 
But everyone is wrong. The daughter got away. Under another name, she has spent the last fifteen years in small-town West Virginia as part of the witness protection program. She has never been allowed to travel, go to a school dance, or even get onto the internet at home. Precautions must be taken at every turn, because Ramsey Miller was never caught and might still be looking for his daughter.
 
But now she has a pressing reason to defy her guardians and take matters into her own hands. Returning to Silver Bay, she hopes to do what the authorities have failed to do: find her father before he finds her . . .
 
“A compelling story about sad truths, loss, and resilience . . . should make fantastic fodder for book-group discussions.” —Booklist
 
“[An] outstanding crime thriller.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
 
“Read the first page and kiss the next 24 hours goodbye.” —Jeffery Deaver

Ratings and reviews

Before He Finds Her

About the author

Michael Kardos is the author of the story collection One Last Good Time. His short stories have appeared in The Southern Review, Crazyhorse, Prairie Schooner, Blackbird, Pleiades, Prism International, and many other magazines and anthologies, and were cited as notable stories in the 2009 and 2010 editions of Best American Short Stories. He lives in Starkville, Mississippi, where he co-directs the creative writing program at Mississippi State University and edits the literary journal Jabberwock Review.