Remember Me This Way: A Novel

By Sabine Durrant

Behind every perfect life is a perfect lie . . .

An eerie, exhilarating tale of marriage and its dark side from the author of the universally acclaimed psychological thriller Under Your Skin

Everyone keeps telling me I have to move on. And so here I am, walking down the road where he died, trying to remember him the right way.

A year after the death of her husband, Zach, Lizzie goes to lay flowers where his fatal accident took place. As she makes her way along the motorway, she thinks about their life together. She wonders whether she has changed since Zach died. She wonders if she will ever feel whole again. At last she reaches the spot. And there, tied to a tree, is a bunch of lilies. The flowers are addressed to her husband. Someone has been there before her.

Lizzie loved Zach. She really did. But she's starting to realize she didn't really know him. Or what he was capable of . . .

Sabine Durrant’s Remember Me This Way is romantic, mysterious and unbearably tense—a love story you’ll never forget.

“When a thriller leaves you looking over your shoulder, it's a sign the author’s doing something right. In fact Durrant doesn't put a foot wrong with this assured and deeply unsettling chiller. . . . Superb.” —SUNDAY MIRROR

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: May 26, 2015
• ISBN: 9781443420075

Sabine Durrant

SABINE DURRANT is a former assistant editor of The Guardian and a former literary editor of the Sunday Times whose feature writing has appeared in numerous British national newspapers and magazines. She has been a magazine profile writer for the Sunday Telegraph and a contributor to The Guardian’s family section. She is the author of several books, including Under Your Skin, Lie With Me, and Finders, Keepers. She lives in south London with her husband, the writer Giles Smith, and their three children.

Reviews for Remember Me This Way

[sparemethecensor · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I can't remember the last time I read such a slow and uninteresting mystery. I wanted to like everything about this -- unreliable narrator, secret relationships -- but it's just so impossibly slow and uninteresting. There's nowhere to go. Too bad.

[chooki666 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book kept me riveted. It teased me and messed with my mind which is exactly what a psychological thriller should do. I really enjoyed the main character. She came off initially as nothing special but she grew on me because she was very honest, unassuming and tenacious. The ending was exciting yet realistic and left me satisfied.

[melaniehope · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a very good psychological thriller about Lizzie's life one year after the car accident death of her husband, Zach. The book opens up being told in Zach's point of view. Then it flashes forward and the chapter begins with Lizzie. The book got more sinister and intriguing as we discover what a mystery Zach was. Lizzie never knew the real man behind the facade. Each chapter alternates between Zach and Lizzie. I thought it was a real page turner with a satisfying ending for me.

[nicx27 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lizzie Carter is mourning her husband, Zach Hopkins, who died a year ago. Although he was controlling and difficult, she misses him but when she visits his cottage in Cornwall for the first time since his death she starts to realise she didn't really know him at all. As she looks further into his life she gets more and more uneasy about the life they shared and the secrets he kept.I never knew which way this book would go and it kept me guessing until the end. It's quite a tense and, at times, sinister read with lots of twists and turns and I raced through it trying to second-guess what was going to happen. I wanted to shout into the book at Lizzie's naivety too. It's another excellent psychological thriller from Sabine Durrant - I look forward to the next one.Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for allowing me to review this book.

[dianekeenoy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good psychological thriller. On the one year anniversary of her husband's death, Lizzie Carter finds flowers from Xenia. Who is Xenia? And, why does it seem that Zach doesn't seem to be really gone? Getting to these answers makes for a very exciting read!

[jenladuca · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In Remember Me This Way it has been 12 months since Lizzy’s husband died in a freak car accident. The story opens with Lizzy returning to the crash site to place flowers as a memorial to Zach, her late husband. While she’s there, she notices that somebody else has already left flowers and there’s a card addressed to Zach from a woman’s whose name she doesn’t recognize. This triggers thoughts in Lizzy’s mind about all the strange things that have been happening lately and her constant feeling of being watched and followed. Soon, Lizzy starts to question if Zach really died at all.

I absolutely loved this book! From the first page - straight through to the last, it totally sucked me in and I couldn’t put it down. The story is told from the alternating perspectives of Lizzy and Zach; I love this style when it is done well! Lizzy tells the story in the present day as she investigates into whether or not Zach really died. Zach tells the story in the past, from the time they first meet – leading up to the day he “died”. Soon, Lizzy starts to realize that her entire marriage was built on lies and deceptions, that Zach wasn’t at all the person she thought he was. But does this prove that he’s still alive? And if he is, why has he faked his own death? Is he stalking her? Trying to punish her for something? Or simply trying to make Lizzy feel like she’s going crazy? I was asking myself these same questions right along with Lizzy, worried for her yet impatient to find the answers!!

Sabine Durrant has created a terrifyingly creepy character in Zach, crawling inside this man’s head for any length of time would give most of us nightmares! Lizzy, on the other hand, is very down to earth and trusting. At first she’s presented as a grieving, almost weak woman who might not be all that stable. But gradually, as her husband’s true nature comes to light; she changes into a strong woman who’s ready to take control of her own life and her own destiny. I really enjoyed her character development and was so glad she wasn’t left as the “classic victim”. This story has so many twists and turns; I rapidly read through each chapter, changing my mind back and forth as to what I thought really happened and why. I’ve read many books of this style so I thought I’d read it all as far as possible outcomes and endings go, boy was I wrong! So glad that I was, this ending was fabulous!! It then only took me 5 minutes to locate and purchase Sabine Durrant’s first novel Under Your Skin :) Mrs. Durrant is quickly becoming one of my new favorite authors of 2015.

**I received a complimentary, advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher, Atria Books, in exchange for my honest review**

[judithdcollins · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A special thank you to Atria/Emily Bestler Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. REMEMBER ME THIS WAY by Sabine Durrant is a chilling psychological suspense thriller, a mystery of intrigue, leaving the reader pondering . . . which character is more twisted?“You can love and hate someone at the same time. You can so pity them it’s like a fist in your stomach, be so resentful you want to hit them. They can be the best thing that ever happened to you, and the worst. You can have thoughts of leaving them, and yet the memory of their skin, the pads of their fingers across your rib cage . . . these can take your breath away, even for a year.“Lizzie’s husband Zach was killed in an accident and a year later, on Valentine’s Day, after everyone has told her to move on, here she is walking down the road where he died, trying to remember him the right way. When she arrives, she finds flowers and a note. Someone else cares about her husband, plus she feels someone is always watching her? Stalking her? Who is Xenia? All the self-help books with their formal stages from grief, shock, disbelief, bargaining, anger, depression, and final acceptance. She thinks she has pathological grief. No one is out to get her, it’s pathological. Survivor’s guilt, Leaver’s guilt. Unfinished business.“Thank God he died before he read the letter. That’s one thing to be grateful for. He never learned her betrayal. When I get there I will burn it. She had decided to leave and written a letter which would be waiting for him in Cornwall. She had spoken to him an hour before he died.”If Lizzie had to face the truth, she most likely would never have left him, as it was his darkness that drew her in, his obsession and insecurities. Everyone thought he was such a catch and she was so lucky. What comes next is twisted, and chilling making Lizzie wonder who Zach really was (or is)? Strange things begin happening, leading her to second guess Zach’s death – the body was hardly unidentifiable, what if he is really still alive and watching her? Zach was always so controlling, possessive, and jealous… narcissistic behavior—stating she better never leave him. Zach is clever…what about the painting, the message, the breakin, the diary, the lies, his past, Sam …Evil can be attractive- she is haunted and possibly mad, or PTSD? She wanted to escape him. Did his love for Lizzie, lead him to his death? Lizzie’s mind since he died has her twisted and manipulated; dreaming of hauntings and revenge, waiting for violence?Switching from Zach to Lizzie, from past to present, the author keeps you glued to the pages with intensity of solving the mystery, if Zach is alive or dead, and more about each personality; if the accident is a charade of torment in the event he had read her letter, or if there is someone else trying to drive her nuts.Zach is one mind-blowing psycho guy, (thriller readers will love his sadistic, mind, mixed with humor), as Lizzie digs further into this past, she begins to wonder if anything he said or did was real? However, both Lizzie and Zach are complex, keeping you wondering if Lizzie is wacko. We also meet some secondary characters which add some deliciously evil and scandalous suspense and secrets, as well as the poor dog Howard. Can she move on with a new life with someone else? Does Zach still hold power over Lizzie even from the grave? Will she ever be free of his hold over her? Will she always be looking over her shoulder, hoping he will be there? My first book by Durrant and looking forward to reading more. Well-developed characters and twists and turns, for a compelling psychological suspense crime thriller. Loved the mysterious front cover depicting the road, the accident, and what lies behind the fog, the curve, the tree, the person behind the wheel—drawing you in. Gone Girl fans will love this one! “Four percent of the population is supposed to fit the definition of sociopath. That’s one in twenty-five of us living without a conscience.” ---darn scary!

[susan.macura · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a well-written psychological thriller. Lizzie Carter is a young widow who goes to lay flowers at the site of her husband’s fatal car crash one year earlier. However, hers is not the only bouquet left at the site commemorating this anniversary. This causes her to start looking at various events and coming to the conclusion that her husband is still alive. She further believes he means her harm because she had sent him a letter telling him that she wanted out of the marriage that she assumed he had not read prior to his death, but perhaps he had. There are a lot of twists and turns with poor Lizzie never sure what her next move should be. I enjoyed it.

[kbranfield-837433 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Remember Me This Way is a spine-tingling, suspense-laden psychological thriller. The novel is full of clever twists and turns and Sabine Durrant makes it virtually impossible to guess the mystery's final outcome right up until the very end.

On the one year anniversary of her husband Zack's death, Lizzie Carter is finally ready to visit the site of his accident and finish settling his estate. She is surprised to see that someone has left a bouquet of memorial flowers at the accident scene, but it is the attached message that rouses a few suspicions. When she reaches his cottage, she is further unsettled by some missing items that lead her to believe that Zack might have faked his own death. After she returns home, Lizzie becomes certain that is Zack alive and he is stalking her. When no one takes her fears seriously, she begins her own investigation and Lizzie quickly discovers that she really did not know Zack at all.

Lizzie is a somewhat unreliable narrator because she is rather fuzzy on the day to day details of her life. She feels guilty for some of the events that occurred in the days leading up Zack's death and her lingering grief further clouds her judgment. There are also some very strange occurrences that bolster her belief that he is still alive but why would Zack fake his death? The answer to that question is revealed bit by bit through the lies that Lizzie uncovers and her memories of her relationship with Zach.

The most chilling revelations are divulged through passages from Zack's point of view. As he reflects on his previous relationships and his marriage, a frightening picture become to emerge. In the days and months leading up to his death, he becomes increasingly controlling of Lizzie and his behavior grows more volatile and erratic. But does this mean that Zach deliberately faked his death only to return to stalk and terrorize Lizzie?

Remember Me This Way is a riveting mystery that is fast paced and quite engrossing. The storyline is well written with numerous plot twists and Sabine Durrant brings the novel to a very unexpected conclusion. A positively brilliant psychological thriller that I highly recommend to fans of the genre.