Pages: 336
Published: 30th May 2019
Genre: Domestic Thriller
Content warnings: Bullying, suicide, sexual content, injury detail, grief
It’s six in the morning during the hottest summer on record when Elizabeth O’Loughlin, out walking her dog, comes across Clare, a victim of a horrific knife attack, clinging onto life at the side of the road.
Clare dies minutes later, but not before whispering her haunting last words to Elizabeth.
When it becomes clear that Clare’s killer has more than one murder on his mind, Elizabeth has to take drastic action or face losing everything.
But what if she can’t stop a killer determined never to be forgotten?
This is a thriller that showcases impressive writing and adept use of dual perspectives, yet contains a storyline lacking more or less any kind of originality. What begins as a tantalising premise falls deeply into the arena of cliché and does not offer the kind of unputdownable mystery one might have hoped for, even though the high stakes do add considerable tension to the mix.
Through the eyes of the characters arise exploration of powerful topics such as grief, bullying, and exclusion from friendship cliques. Some were handled much better than the others, as despite the latter eventually forming such a key part of the plot, it was not developed to the fullest extent. In terms of it being an exciting reading experience, that rather fluctuates too.
Elizabeth, a widowed woman in her sixties, is walking her dog along a country road near Londonderry when she makes a harrowing discovery. A woman lies bleeding to death and despite Elizabeth’s best efforts, she cannot be revived. Later named as Clare Taylor, her last words are ‘warn them’, a fact that is treated with great importance by the investigating police officers.
Teacher Rachel had been one of Clare’s closest friends since their school days and is aghast at hearing the news. She knows that Clare had recently been in a relationship with an unnamed boyfriend, but otherwise there are no obvious suspects. Failing to receive much emotional sympathy from her husband Paul, she continues seeing a man called Michael, with whom she is conducting an extra-marital affair.
In the days that follow, all of the people connected to the murder are sent a bunch of forget me nots with cryptic notes attached that refer to Elizabeth’s daughter Laura, who committed suicide two years earlier. The police are at a loss to understand how the two cases are connected, and it seems like Clare’s killer is far from finished.
It starts off very strongly indeed with the prologue and Elizabeth’s unsuccessful attempts to save Clare, but the introduction of Rachel reduces the story to somewhat mundane, seen-it-all-before thriller territory that becomes predictable extremely quickly. In fact, it is so predictable that I knew exactly who the murderer was only about 40 pages in, albeit there is a minor twist towards the end that does improve things slightly.
The book is written entirely in the first person, narrated by both Elizabeth and Rachel. Of the two, it was much easier to connect with Elizabeth as she was the one who brought a degree of depth and authenticity, coming across as a wise and caring lady, yet also damaged by the growing number of tragic events that have happened in her life. She is flawed but likeable, and the author conceives her voice brilliantly.
However, at no point did I warm to Rachel. She is weak-minded and makes some really careless decisions, while the fact she is cheating on her husband and acting like a total hypocrite does not inspire much sympathy. Paul does actually turn out to be a frustrating character in almost equal measure, and seeing their relationship play out in this way made me feel less connected to the story.
It was infinitely better when the attention focused on the central mystery, even when the list of suspects was not especially long. The police officers were an engaging presence, and in contrast we had the journalist Ingrid Devlin, whose encounter with Elizabeth was a real highlight as they are two such different personalities squaring up to each other.
As ever with Claire Allan, the book is set in Northern Ireland and has the abundant sense of place to go with it, whether it is just in the shape of subtle features within the dialogue or just the general atmosphere and cultural references. Elizabeth’s rural home was made to feel remote, adding to her vulnerability, while there was a creepy atmosphere of dereliction about Rachel’s old school.
The writing is articulate and very matter-of-fact, but in a way that still conjures emotion as well as the tension which builds in the final part of the story when both main characters find themselves in desperate situations. When that particular dust has settled, the ending does have merit, although there is still a shortage of clarity on what really happened to Laura.
Overall, there are definitely some aspects where this thriller clearly succeeds, but it never elevates itself into something that can be described as above average. The dual narratives were a mixed bag as Elizabeth’s interesting nuances were offset by Rachel’s frankly tiresome existence, and then we have a mystery that was all too easy to predict. Not outstanding, and not terrible either. Just…okay.
Elizabeth may be an excellent narrator and the writing may be sophisticated, but the negative points combine to make it a thriller that is decidedly middle of the road.
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Stephen Reads Books 