Try Not to Breathe : A Novel

For fans of Gillian Flynn, Laura Lippman, and Paula Hawkins comes Holly Seddon�s arresting fiction debut�an engrossing thriller full of page-turning twists and turns, richly imagined characters, and gripping psychological suspense. � Some secrets never die. They�re just locked away. Alex Dale is lost. Destructive habits have cost her a marriage and a journalism career. All she has left is her routine: a morning run until her body aches, then a few hours of forgettable work before the past grabs hold and drags her down. Every day is treading water, every night is drowning. Until Alex discovers Amy Stevenson. Amy Stevenson, who was just another girl from a nearby town until the day she was found unconscious after a merciless assault. Amy Stevenson, who has been in a coma for fifteen years, forgotten by the world. Amy Stevenson, who, unbeknownst to her doctors, remains locked inside her body, conscious but paralyzed, reliving the past. Soon Alex�s routine includes visiting hours at the hospital, then interviews with the original suspects in the attack. But what starts as a reporter�s story becomes a personal obsession. How do you solve a crime when the only witness lived but cannot tell the tale? Unable to tear herself away from her attempt to uncover the unspeakable truth, Alex realizes she�s not just chasing a story�she�s seeking salvation. Shifting from present to past and back again, Try Not to Breathe unfolds layer by layer until its heart-stopping conclusion. The result is an utterly immersive, unforgettable debut. * Advance praise for Try Not to Breathe � �A razor-sharp plot and wonderfully complex characters . . . Not since The Girl on the Train have I been so captivated by a work of suspense.� � New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen �A fast-paced debut about�long-buried secrets and tangled truths.� � New York Times bestselling author Kimberly McCreight � �Engrossing . . . Seddon�s storytelling skills are strong. . . . The world she�s constructed is fascinating and slightly dark.�* � Kirkus Reviews ** For fans of Gillian Flynn, Laura Lippman, and Paula Hawkins comes Holly Seddon’s arresting fiction debut—an engrossing thriller full of page-turning twists and turns, richly imagined characters, and gripping psychological suspense. Some secrets never die. They’re just locked away. Alex Dale is lost. Destructive habits have cost her a marriage and a journalism career. All she has left is her routine: a morning run until her body aches, then a few hours of forgettable work before the past grabs hold and drags her down. Every day is treading water, every night is drowning. Until Alex discovers Amy Stevenson. Amy Stevenson, who was just another girl from a nearby town until the day she was found unconscious after a merciless assault. Amy Stevenson, who has been in a coma for fifteen years, forgotten by the world. Amy Stevenson, who, unbeknownst to her doctors, remains locked inside her body, conscious but paralyzed, reliving the past. Soon Alex’s routine includes visiting hours at the hospital, then interviews with the original suspects in the attack. But what starts as a reporter’s story becomes a personal obsession. How do you solve a crime when the only witness lived but cannot tell the tale? Unable to tear herself away from her attempt to uncover the unspeakable truth, Alex realizes she’s not just chasing a story—she’s seeking salvation. Shifting from present to past and back again, Try Not to Breathe unfolds layer by layer until its heart-stopping conclusion. The result is an utterly immersive, unforgettable debut. Praise for Try Not to Breathe “A brilliant, beautifully written thriller.” —Augusten Burroughs, New York Times bestselling author of Running with Scissors “A razor-sharp plot and wonderfully complex characters . . . Not since The Girl on the Train have I been so captivated by a work of suspense.” — New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen “A fast-paced debut about long-buried secrets and tangled truths.” — New York Times bestselling author Kimberly McCreight “Engrossing . . . Seddon’s storytelling skills are strong. . . . The world she’s constructed is fascinating and slightly dark.” — Kirkus Reviews For fans of Lianne Moriarty, Paula Hawkins, and Tana French, an arresting debut novel of psychological suspense: a young journalist struggles to keep the demons of her alcoholism at bay as she finds her purpose again in tackling the mystery of a shocking headline-making crime, still unsolved after fifteen years. Amy Stevenson was the biggest news story of 1995. Only fifteen years old, Amy disappeared walking home from school one day and was found in a coma three days later. Her attacker was never identified and her angelic face was plastered across every paper and nightly news segment. Fifteen years later, Amy lies in the hospital, surrounded by 90s Britpop posters, forgotten by the world until reporter Alex Dale stumbles across her while researching a routine story on vegetative patients. Remembering Amys story like it was yesterday, she feels compelled to solve the long-cold case. The only problem is, Alex is just as lost as Amyher alcoholism has cost her everything including her marriage and her professional reputation. In the hopes that finding Amys attacker will be her own salvation as well, Alex embarks on a dangerous investigation, suspecting someone close to Amy. Told in the present by an increasingly fragile Alex and in dream-like flashbacks by Amy as she floats in a fog of memories, dreams, and music from 1995, Try Not to Breathe unfolds layer by layer to a breathtaking conclusion. A young journalist fights against the demons of her alcoholism and attempts to restore her professional reputation by tackling the dangerous cold-case mystery of a woman who was left in a coma fifteen years earlier by an unknown assailant