The less you know about Peter Swanson’s latest novel before reading it, the better. I always go out of my way to avoid letting spoilers slip into my reviews, not only out of courtesy to the reader but also out of respect to the author, who for many months combined inspiration and perspiration to produce the end result that finds its way into the collective hands of the public. This makes it difficult to describe this newly published treasure, but I’ll try.

BEFORE SHE KNEW HIM is an A-list domestic thriller set in a small neighborhood in West Dartford, a comfortable bedroom community outside of Boston. Hen Mazur and her husband, Lloyd Harding, have only recently moved into their new house as the book begins. Hen is the more complex and interesting half of the couple. Lloyd works in public relations out of an office in Boston, but Hen is a printmaker, whose illustrations for books for younger readers have made her an artist of some renown thanks to her disturbing but attractive images.

"BEFORE SHE KNEW HIM burns slowly but brightly from the first paragraph. You won’t find a good place to stop reading. The pacing is so well staged that the pages flow one into the next until you’re sliding feet first into the story with no hope of attaining any sort of traction."

Please note: Swanson’s descriptions of these drawings, which are peppered throughout, are worth the price of admission all by themselves and are enough to make one yearn for an illustrated version of the book somewhere down the road. Hen’s unsettling drawings stem in part from her bipolar disorder, which has caused her some problems, including legal ones, in the past but are (more or less) under control in the book’s present.

Their next-door neighbors are Matthew and Mira Dolamore. Mira is a sales representative for an educational software company and is absent for extended periods on sales calls. But it is Matthew, an outwardly personable teacher at a local high school, who is the focus of this particular couple. The book’s initial pivotal event occurs when Matthew and Mira invite Hen and Lloyd over for one of those “welcome to the neighborhood” dinners. The obligatory tour of the house includes a quick viewing of Matthew’s study, where Hen spots a disturbing object. It’s an otherwise innocuous sports trophy, but it appears to be an exact match for one that went missing from the residence of Scott Doyle, a young man who was murdered two years previously.

Hen, who has been obsessed with that unsolved killing, immediately concludes that Matthew is the murderer. One could jump to the conclusion that Hen jumps to conclusions, given her past history. However, when she discovers that Scott graduated from the high school where Matthew teaches, she is certain that she is correct. Hen reports her findings to the police, who kind of take her seriously but not enough to do much. This results in some tensions between the neighbors, as one might expect, but Hen won’t be deterred. Her investigation takes her to places she never would expect as she uncovers secrets that lie waiting in the house next door and in her own home as well. By the time this emotional roller coaster comes to a halt, everything has changed, most of it irrevocably so.

BEFORE SHE KNEW HIM burns slowly but brightly from the first paragraph. You won’t find a good place to stop reading. The pacing is so well staged that the pages flow one into the next until you’re sliding feet first into the story with no hope of attaining any sort of traction. If that isn’t enough, Swanson lobs a few hand grenades into the proceedings during the final quarter of the book, just to make sure you’re still awake. You will be, and you’ll never meet the new folks on the block again without thinking of it.