Before You Knew My Name

2022 Longlist

When she arrived in New York on her 18th birthday carrying nothing but $600 cash and a stolen camera, Alice Lee was looking for a fresh start. Now, just one month later, she is the city’s latest Jane Doe, an unidentified murder victim.

Ruby Jones is also trying to start over; she travelled halfway around the world only to find herself lonelier than ever. Until she finds Alice’s body by the Hudson River.

From this first, devastating encounter, the two women form an unbreakable bond. Alice is sure that Ruby is the key to solving the mystery of her life – and death. And Ruby – struggling to forget what she saw that morning – finds herself unable to let Alice go. Not until she is given the ending she deserves.

Before You Knew My Name doesn’t ask whodunnit. Instead, it asks: Who was she? And what did she leave behind?

About the Author/Translator

Jacqueline ‘Rock’ Bublitz wrote her debut novel Before You Knew My Name after spending a summer in New York, where she hung around morgues and the dark corners of city parks (and the human psyche) far too often. She is now working on her second novel, where she continues to explore the grand themes of love, loss and connection.

Librarian’s Comments

It is a thrilling, unputdownable debut novel that starts off as a great crime novel and then becomes much more. It explores in an often darkly funny way such complex and challenging issues as societies obsession with dead girls, connectivity and trauma. Wellington City Libraries, New Zealand