"This is my second Clare Mackintosh and I have enjoyed both of her books thus far. She seems to be a solid psychological suspense author with a tone and pace very similar to that of Ruth Ware, and with a penchant for well-thought-out plot twists.
Now, on that same note, if you are hoping for a very fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat thriller, just as with Ware, you will not get that here. Mackintosh writes very character-driven narratives, so in this story, we spend a lot of time getting to know our two main characters, their lives, daily activities, and the primary relationships they have.
As mentioned above, this story is told from two perspectives. The first, is Zoe Walker, a middle-aged mom who takes the commuter tube every day to work and then returns home to her live-in boyfriend as well as her two adult children from a previous marriage. One day, while on the tube, Zoe sees an ad in the local paper under the advertisements in the Classifieds for chatlines, and is astonished to find her picture, or what she thinks to be her picture, next to it.
The other main character is Kelly Swift, a detective who has been demoted after assaulting a rape suspect and is working with Britih Transit Police. She and Zoe connect after Zoe realizes that a woman who was recently pickpocketed on the tube, also had her photo in the same area of the classifieds. And since Kelly was working as part of the transit authority at the time, she had the case and began to listen to Zoe's theories on the connection between the advertisements and these women being victims of crime.
The story progresses from there, as more women become victims and Zoe herself is in danger.
On the one hand, I found the overarching plot to be extremely clever. I had never encountered a story similar to this and so it was interesting to follow the journey. Additionally, the revealed perpetrator was quite good. It was not a person I had previously suspected.
However, at the very end, within the last page or two, a final twist was revealed, and it is actually one I predicted. So while I do appreciate the way it was inserted into the story, having it be almost an afterthought rather than the big climax, I still have to take away points for the predictability.
Even so, I enjoyed my reading experience of this book and will definitely be picking up more from Mackintosh in the futre."
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bdtellefsen88 (4 out of 5 stars)