Dying to Meet You: A Twisty Psychological Thriller About a Single Mom, a Murdered Ex, and Secrets Too Close to Home from the Author of The Five Year Lie

From the author of The Five Year Lie comes a new twisty thriller that probes how well we actually know the men in our lives.

In this gripping psychological thriller, Rowan Gallagher is a devoted single mother and a talented architect with a high-profile commission restoring an historic mansion for the most powerful family in Maine. But inside, she’s a mess. She knows that stalking her ex’s avatar all over Portland on her phone isn't the healthiest way to heal from their breakup. But she’s out of ice cream and she's sick of romcoms.

Watching his every move is both fascinating and infuriating. He's dining out while she's wallowing on the couch. The last straw comes when he parks in their favorite spot on the waterfront. In a weak moment, she leashes the dog and sets off to see who else is in his car.

Instead of catching her ex in a kiss, Rowan becomes the first witness to his murder—and the primary suspect.

But in a deadly twist of secrets and lies, Rowan discovers the dead man was stalking her too, gathering intimate details about her job and her past.

Wrongfully accused and struggling to clear her name, Rowan finds herself spiraling into the shadowy plot that killed him.

Will she be the next to die?

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Published May 13, 2025

370 pages

Average rating: 7

9 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

ValerieRuiz
Apr 06, 2026
10/10 stars
Rowan is a single mom and talented architect hired to restore a historic Maine mansion for one of the area’s most powerful families. Still reeling from a breakup, she makes a reckless choice to track her ex’s location and ends up finding him dead in his car. Suddenly Rowan is tangled in a murder investigation, with suspicion creeping toward her and secrets multiplying inside the mansion and the family who owns it. To protect her daughter and clear her name, she has to figure out who she can trust before disaster strikes again. After discovering my newfound love for a stalker trope, I coincidentally picked this one off my shelf and lo and behold… stalker vibes. Not full-send unhinged, but definitely a mini version…and while the entire book isn’t centered on it, it starts out strong and I’m happy to report it ends strong too. There wasn’t some jaw-dropping, left-field plot twist, but my jaw absolutely dropped for reasons I will not be explaining bc spoilers. But once you figure it out it all makes perfect sense. I also loved the alternating perspectives. Being inside multiple heads added so much tension and context, and it kept me questioning motives the entire time. I was genuinely excited to pick this book up every single time, and that feeling alone is always a win for me as a reader.

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