Every morning and evening, Zoe Walker takes the same route to the train station, waits at a certain place on the platform, finds her favorite spot in the car, never suspecting that someone is watching her...
It all starts with a classified ad. During her commute home one night, while glancing through her local paper, Zoe sees her own face staring back at her, a grainy photo along with a phone number and listing for a website called findtheone.com.
I am going to start this review by saying that the blurb of this book isn't nearly as exciting as the content. This book is about stalkers, murders, rapes and altogether things that make you scared to walk alone at night, by the time I'd finished this book it was past midnight and I needed a drink of water. I have never ran so fast or been so scared about going downstairs to my own kitchen, though by the time I woke up this morning I was fine. I am thankful that I didn't start reading this book until I was on the train leaving from London, this book is not only based in London but in the South of London where I've been staying for the past two weeks, I'd never have been able to leave the house.
The two main characters in the book is Zoe Walker a mother with two children over 18 and a PC Kelly Swift, and although both these characters were quite something and developed a lot throughout the book neither was my favourite. My favourite character was actually Katie Walker, Zoe's 19 year old daughter, the reason she was my favourite character in this book was that I can relate to her at this point in my life, her a wannabe actor and me a wannabe technician. But this isn't about me. Both Zoe and Kelly have back stories that are necessary to the plot but seem slightly unrealistic in some of the ways Mackintosh linked the past to the present. However the characters themselves felt real, and during the climax of the story (the last few chapters where shit goes down) I felt like I was each character in turn, feeling the fear and betrayal that came with the story.
Side Note: I feel there is a certain art to making the reader feel exactly what the characters feel.
I am the type of person that enjoys working out a problem so the favourite part would have to be the conclusion, the catching of the bad guy (I'm using the word 'guy' in a gender neutral manner) but because it is the conclusion and the catching I can reveal very little. Though I can tell you that a was shaking, inches away from tears and frankly I was so caught up that my house could have burnt down and their is a very high chance that I would not have noticed, the story had twists and turns and I spent the whole time accusing every person that was mentioned.
I will admit, it was a very slow start but once it picked up it didn't stop. And as I mentioned earlier I had some issues with how the past of the characters fitted perfectly with the events that were happening now, it just felt unrealistic. But of course I have never been a policeman or a victim of stalking, rape or murder so for all I know links between the past and the present happen all the time.
One last thing that I will mention before I finish is that I like how the chapters were set up, it would start with Zoe in first person then for the next chapter it was switch to Kelly's story but in third person, then ever five or so chapter you'd get narrative from the bad guys (again gender neutral) perspective. I will tell you know that narrative chilled me to the bone. If you are reading a book in the middle of the night and you turn the page to find the first line saying "I see you. But you don't see me. You're engrossed in your book..." Then believe me you will be chilled.
I would and will recommend this to anyone who will listen.
9/10
xo
Book published April 2017
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