Author: Gillian McAllister
Narrators: Joanne Froggatt, Justin Avoth, Kerry Wotton
Publication: Harper, audiobook, 2023
Genre: Suspense
Setting: Portishead, near Bristol, UK
My Impression: I recently enjoyed another book by the author, Wrong Place Wrong Time, a time travel mystery, which was very creative. This is a more straightforward police procedural in which Julia, usually obsessed with her job, has been distracted for months by family crises – one involving her beloved daughter Genevieve, a previously confident teen, fascinated by her mother’s cases, and the other caused by her husband, Art, who, resentful of Julia’s preoccupation with work, slept with someone else. Julia desperately misses his quiet support but has avoided speaking to him since he told her. Perhaps it’s the stress she still feels for failing to find Sadie but Julia is not on her game and is also tired when she gets into her car:
As soon as her phone stops, she feels it. A presence. Or rather, a lack of absence. A notion that she isn’t alone.When you live or work in an urban area, you are constantly reminded to check the back seat of your car before you get in, and you’d think it would be second nature for a female police detective – I think I do it automatically, although my Toyota wouldn’t provide much space to hide. Regardless, it is terrifying to imagine discovering a dangerous stranger in one’s car, and McAllister does a great job at showing Julia’s fear and anguish: she is so proud of her integrity and commitment to her work but she will do anything to protect Genevieve.
She tells herself she always gets like this when working on missing person cases, that it is because a young, attractive woman has disappeared, that it’s because it’s late, unseasonably cold, it’s because Art both is and isn’t at home waiting for her.
But then the back of her neck shivers with something more than just anxiety: instead, a deep limbic part of her brain fires up a warning flare into the night. There is someone in the car. She counts to three, then raises her eyes to the rear-view mirror.
In the back is a man wearing a balaclava. He says only one word: “Drive.”
The story is told in flashbacks (aren’t they all, these days) from Julia’s point of view and from that of the victim’s father, who feels the police aren’t doing enough to find his daughter. Both are vivid, well-drawn characters, as are Genevieve and Art, Julia’s coworkers, and her favorite informant, Price, an odd fellow with a Glasgow accent. The story is suspenseful and unpredictable, with intricate plotting that kept me guessing. Julia’s desperation to protect her daughter yet to also save the missing person is convincing and relatable; she resents being put into the position of being corrupted and possibly has made everything worse through her own actions. The closer she gets to finding Olivia the more complex the situation becomes, and it worries Julia that her daughter seems as obsessed with her missing person case as she is. Julia is a sympathetic but imperfect protagonist.
Joanne Froggatt, best known as Anna Bates from Downtown Abbey, narrates Julia and while it is a pleasure to listen to her, I forget after a while that it is she because the story is so compelling. I do think I might have picked up on one or two things if I had been reading instead of listening but I definitely enjoyed the audiobook.
Quote I Like: There is nothing Julia does better than obsess in the middle of the night. And, in fact, in the middle of the day, too.
Oh, oh. I think I'd be looking for a new job...but then there'd be no book. This one sounds like it could be fun.
ReplyDeleteYou know, the number of times I have come across movie/ show scenes where someone in the backseat puts a gun to the driver's head? Countless. Clearly, none of them check their backseats either!
ReplyDeleteI was reading your other recent reviews and I came across The Nonesuch and Witch of the Glens - both of which I have enjoyed so much. Nonesuch, in particular, has grown on me as a mature romance with some really witty banter (though I never really liked the Tiffany stuff).
Yes, Lex, but you know the one time you are too tired to look is the time he'd be there waiting for you!
ReplyDeleteSam, it is clear if she allowed the case to be assigned to someone else or quit, her daughter's mistake would be exposed. I thought one of the aspects that set this apart is that she cannot confide in her daughter (whom she has been trying to protect) or her husband (because they are estranged) or her brother (who is a criminal defense lawyer). She is completely alone and perhaps does not make good choices but that seems realistic.