Who Is Sarah Lawson?

Richie Stevens Investigates, Book 1

By: K.J. Rabane

Narrated by: Megan Green

Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

How would you feel coming home to find a family living in your house who call you Sarah, tell you your brother's name is Andy, and insist that you should be ashamed of calling the police for help?

My name is Rowena Shaw and I've never seen any of them before.

They are total strangers. It's Thursday and it's just the beginning.

©2011 K.J.Rabane (P)2018 K.J.Rabane

An entertaining listen.

A good story about a woman with an identity issue. I don't want to say more, fearing it would give too much away.( I received this book free for reviewing purposes. ) I would have gladly used a credit or purchased the book though. My only complaint would be that the narrator's male voice was a little tough for me to follow. But she did a wonderful job other than that.

Unique and refreshing storyline

I think I can give this’s solid 3.75 stars which rounds right up to 4. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I’ll admit, I didn’t think I was going to enjoy this book much at first, but once I was introduced to Richard Stevens I knew he was a character I was going to enjoy getting to know.

I listened to this book and the narrator was lovely, I never realized there were so many types of British accents!

Although the different voices were distinct, there were a lot of characters and once the book went back in time to “before,”I was getting confused. As soon as I realized I was in over my head, I grabbed a notebook and spent a chapter or two writing down peoples names and drawing lines to other characters to signify how they were related. Who know that 6th grade character web would come in handy in real life! It didn’t take much time at all. I’ve done it with authors like Liane Moriarty and it always makes the book more enjoyable. Also, it was a good excuse to buy a notebook. I love notebooks :-)

I know some people are very concerned with bad language, but I’m the opposite. If I see a bunch of reviews praising an author for writing a book without “bad words” I question the diversity of characters and the authenticity of the dialogue. In this case however, I didn’t notice any bad words but everyone still seemed real to me.


I hate spoilers so none will be included in my review. As far as the story goes, I think it’s best if you go in as blind as possible. Just read the blurbs and dig in. I thought I knew what was going on within the first chapter or two, but I was wrong. As I continued to listen, I continued to guess and I continued to be wrong. Eventually I stopped trying and just enjoyed the story. I liked several characters and hated at least one. If an author can make me hate someone, she’s doing something right. While this is definitely much lighter than my usual read, it was a refreshing change of pace.

I see this novel is marked as a thriller/psychological thriller but for some reason that doesn’t seem to mesh with what I just read. When I think thriller, I think of edge of your seat, nail biting, and a really fast moving story. I don’t want to say it’s slow, but it did feel a little on the relaxed side. Maybe if I had different expectations going in, this wouldn’t have been an issue.

I’m not saying I thought it was full on cozy. Maybe...cozyish-psychological thriller-lite? If that’s not already a genre, it should be. If you’ve read this, comment on what you think the genre should be on this book. I would be interested to hear!

Suspenseful, keep you guessing

Wow, what a ride. At first I thought this was going to be a tale of a person gone crazy. And it was but not the one I thought.. This is Fatal Attraction on a higher level.. Psychological thriller will keep you guessing and wondering..
The narrator was great.
I received this free from the narrator or author for an honest review.

Interesting premise but...

I received a free copy of the book in exchanged for an honest review.

I really enjoy reading mind twist books -- where you don't know which character to believe or you don't know what is reality within the story or what is manipulation. This book started with a great premise -- a woman states she is Rowena Shaw but is told that she is Sarah Lawson. So who is she? Is there any merit to the claim?

I was really interested in the story premise. But the story really fell short for me was in some of the actions of the characters just did not seem to be credible or were inconsistent with what you were told by the author that these characters were thinking or believed. For example, at one point in the story, Owen, Rowena's fiance, believes he is being stalked which is causing chaos to his world. When he is notified by law enforcement that his possible stalker is injured in the hospital, his first thought is to go to the hospital to assure the wellbeing of his possible stalker. OK, what?? Several times characters were given the opportunity to discuss events or pecularities in another character's behaviour but each time they declined to do so -- I guess if they did, other characters would not falsely jump to conclusions about events or characters. The dialogue was sometimes odd or wooden.

The private investigator and his PA were interesting characters and very likeable. I can understand why the author is pursuing additional books with them.

It is a very interesting premise for a story and had some interesting twists but I just wish it had been executed better.

Great Book

Who is Sarah Lawson by K.J. Rabane was a great psychological thriller. This is a book that confused me at times but kept me guessing the entire time. Rowena Shaw finds herself waking up in her house being called Sarah Lawson. Her "brother" Andy insists that she's Sarah. I absolutely loved reading this book and all the twists and turns.

This book will blow your mind!

Holy moly! This psychological thriller will leave you sputtering and saying 'did not see that coming'!
Rowena Shaw walks into her house and finds that a family has moved in...what's worse? They call her Sarah, and apparently the man is her/Sarah's brother, Andy. Strangers act as if they know her and call her Sarah...who is this Sarah and why will no one believe that Rowen's not Sarah? Rowena hires a private detective to find out who is Sarah Lawson and why everyone believes that she is Sarah. The investigation will blow your mind! Think Fatal Attraction on steroids! You will not want to put this down until THE END. The ending was a little bit heartbreaking...I wanted Rowena to have an HEA. I must stop here because too much info will spoil it for you..just trust me. Fanfreakingtastic book and narration!
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Keeps you guessing

Every time I thought I had it figured out, there was a new clue to make me sure I was wrong. That's what I enjoyed the most about this book. I was happy to hear the back-story, and loved how it made me second-guess all of my previous theories as to what had happened, how and why. The ending was satisfying, though not as dramatic as I had hoped.

Very interesting

Wasn't expecting the ending great listen was interesting with its twists and turns great job by narrator

Interesting and keeps you quessing

I was given the audiobook free in exchange for an honest review.

Rowena Shaw opens the door to her house and finds an unfamiliar scene. There's a family living there. A family who says they are her family. Who is Sarah Lawson and why are these people insisting she is Sarah Lawson? Rowena hires private investigator Rick Stevens to discover the truth.

The story slowly unfolds. The first 20 odd chapters are of Rowena attempting to find out why everyone thought she was someone else, and Rick's investigation in the same. Then the author takes us back in time to start unraveling the mystery. We are introduced to Owen Maddock, Rowena's fiancee, who refuses to talk to her, refuses to even pick up the phone when she tries to contact her. We find out who Sarah Lawson is, a woman who looks similar to Rowena, and as the book progresses, more and more like her. We find out that she is entrenching herself into Owen's life and trying to make Rowena's life her own.

I quite enjoyed this book. There was a glitch with my copy of the audiobook where one chapter seems to have been placed out of sequence, then repeated in the correct place, which confused me. However, the narrator Megan Green helped me to figure out that was the problem and it wasn't a problem with the time line/writing.

The story was suspenseful and intriguing. It kept you guessing until the very end, and even then it leaves you with an "oh, no" feeling.

Megan's narration was good, I enjoyed her voice. She brought the book and the characters to life quite nicely.

How Well do People Know Each Other?

The book itself was very well written in that it had you second, third, and fourth, guessing about the truth of the story, and just when you think you have all the webs untangled, the author throws in a new wrinkle. It is a psychological rollercoaster that depends mor on true mystery and bafflement more than suspense or violence. Even the ending did not turn out like I thought it would.

The narrator does well although her voice is a bit suprising to the unworldly like me. Where I was expecting a stereotypical high british accent, the nerator's is more commonplace, although that faded to insignificance as I begin to puzzle over the story.

A few things that made this book less enjoyable for me were the fact that if you are not familiar with the current modern jargon and slang of England you might have to look a few things up like I did. Also most glaringly, there was a large section of the audiobook which repeated itself word for word. At first I thought this might be an error in the download, but the story flow afterward seemed unaffected (like I hadn't missed anything by a section being overwritten) so I began to believe that the repeat section was a different character viewing the same events...however if this was true, I must have missed the listener's que that this was a different character. Overall if you like stories that will keep you guessing, this book does that extremely well.