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October 2018, Head of Zeus, 416 pages, Ebook, Review copy
Summary from J S Monroe's website (Technical error on HoZ website)
How do you know who to trust…
…when you don’t even know who you are?
You are outside your front door.
There are strangers in your house.
Then you realise. You can’t remember your name.
She arrived at the train station after a difficult week at work. Her bag had been stolen, and with it, her identity.
Her whole life was in there – passport, wallet, house key. When she
tried to report the theft, she couldn’t remember her own name. All she
knew was her own address.
Now she’s outside Tony and Laura’s front door. She says she lives in their home. They say they have never met her before.
One of them is lying.
Nayu's thoughts
I'm immensely glad I was able to sit down for a few hours and read this without interruption because as with great thrillers there were plenty of plot twists! I tend to love any book related to amnesia - the whole concept fascinates me. Add in remembering a house that has strangers in and you've got an intriguing story. My initial theories about whether Jemma (name given to protagonist at the start) really had lived them were more than a little wild, and they weren't anywhere close to the truth of the matter. It seemed really sweet of Tony and Laura to help Jemma at the start of the tale, I mean she is a total stranger and could easily have been accommodated at the pub. But I guess being unwell made them want to take her in, at least until the rumours started about Jemma's identity.
It was absolutely fascinating watching people's reactions and thoughts when they think they know who Jemma is. Definitely a case of guilty until proven innocent, not that I blame everyone (including the police) because who they thought she was wasn't someone you'd want out of prison at all. Tony is a key player in the mystery, he did give me the creeps early on in the tale, something that increased as the story unfolded. I confess to peeking at the end to see if there was a happy ending (a bad habit of mine), but the little I skim read made zero sense so kept on reading the book normally. There is a happy ending, but it is quite bittersweet.
I felt sorry for Jemma when I discovered the truth because she was treated so poorly by everyone when they mistook her for a nutter. I don't blame them, and Jemma could have cooperated a bit more, because her truth is horrific. I wouldn't have been as brave as her to do what she did, not at all. But then you never know what you're capable of until you're faced with a situation.
The one person who was probably my favourite character is Laura. Okay, I didn't like the assumptions she made about Jemma, and didn't like some of her actions related to that, but she is very much a victim of what goes in the story. When the truth comes out I was horrified, and wondered how on earth she managed to stay where she was. She has very good friends in the village who helped her plus judged Jemma too quick, and I have hope for her future. She goes through an experience almost as horrific as Jemma's, and I was terrified for her safety. Sorry if this is a story spoiler because she does survive, which relieved me so much, but everything about that particular event was hard to read. Overall this is a fun edge of the seat type of thriller, one that's now resting on my reread shelf!
Be sure to check out more on J S Monroe's website.
Suggested read
Another great thriller is The Good Mother by Karen Osman (Crime, Thriller, 10E/10E)
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