Caller Unknown by Gillian McAllister

Caller Unknown by Gillian McAllister
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 352

Publisher - MichaelJoseph

Source - Arc Netgalley

Blurb from Goodreads

How far would you go to rescue your child? A mother races against the clock—and finds herself on the wrong side of the law—in a desperate fight to save her teenage daughter in this pulse-pounding thriller from the author of Reese’s Book Club Pick and New York Times bestseller Wrong Place Wrong Time.

There is nothing that Simone won’t do for her daughter, Lucy. The two have always been close, and with Lucy about to leave home for university, they depart the UK for a vacation to Texas to spend some quality time together. But when Simone awakens on their first morning in the desert, Lucy is gone, missing from their rental cabin. In her place is a cell phone, and a voice on the other line issues a shocking ransom demand. Don’t tell the police. Come to this location. And be prepared to do a deal…

Though Simone’s husband urges her to bring in the authorities for help, she knows she can’t take any chances. The kidnappers might kill Lucy if she tells anyone. No mother would take that risk. Instead, that night, she drives to the isolated meet-up.

What she finds there changes everything. The mysterious kidnapper doesn’t want money. They want Simone to do something. The unthinkable.

A catastrophic chain of events is set in motion, with chilling consequences that extend beyond Simone and her family. What follows is a heart-pounding journey through the small towns and punishing deserts of remote Texas, in which Simone’s courage—and morality—is pushed to the brink as she discovers what it truly means to be a mother.



My Review


Mother and daughter are back together after Lucy (daughter) has been away to a wee retreat style and now mum and daughter are doing a cabin/camping trip together before she heads to university. The trip is in USA, Texas and they are from the UK, after travel they finally meet and get to the cabin have a snack and go to bed. When Simone wakes it doesn't take long to notice Lucy is missing and a phone starts ringing, it isn't hers, it isn't Lucy's and Simone's world falls apart. Someone has kidnapped Lucy and Simone will do whatever it takes to get her back and the kidnapper has indeed offered a way to get her daughter back.

Oooft - it kicks off quite quickly and Simone is just a normal mum, maybe a bit more distrust of authority due to her upbringing with an addict parent and social work involvement. Her husband wants to go to the police, he is a lawyer and fixer but Simone will take no chances with her daughters life and is going to do exactly what she is told.

The book is kinda in two halves, the kidnap and Simone trying to follow the kidnappers instructions and what happens when she gets to the "end game" and everything that follows thereafter. There are a few scenes that are really tense and you totally feel for Simone. Some of her behaviours/attitudes and Lucy's did irritate and or annoy me but it is a highly charged sleep deprived state and trauma responses so you need to give a bit of leeway but still.

It has tense moments, some moments you are like oh no why why why and others I was like really?!?!?!? It absolutely kept me engaged and I wanted to know how it was all going to play out, I read it in one day which considering how my readers block has been is no mean feat, 4/5.

View all my reviews

Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister

Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 336

Publisher - Michael Joseph Books

Source - Netgalley & bought one from Amazon

Blurb from Goodreads

From the author of Reese’s Book Club Pick and New York Times bestseller Wrong Place Wrong Time comes an addictive thriller about a new mother’s world upended when her husband commits a terrifying crime. How well does she truly know the man she loves? And what danger does she face if her entire life has been built on a lie?

It is June 21st, the longest day of the year, and new mother Camilla’s life is about to change forever. After months of maternity leave, she will drop her infant daughter off at daycare for the first time and return to her job as a literary agent. Finally. But, when she wakes, her husband Luke isn’t there, and in his place is a cryptic note.

Then it starts. Breaking news: there's a hostage situation developing in London. The police arrive, and tell her Luke is involved. But he isn't a hostage. Her husband—doting father, eternal optimist—is the gunman.

What she does next is crucial. Because only she knows what the note he left behind that morning says...


My Review

New baby, finally heading back to work all is great except your husband isn't here for day one of your return and babies first day in daycare, where is he? Heading through the day getting increasingly more nervous, no response to calls, no contact and then news of a hostage situation and then the police arrives at Camilla's (Cam's) work place and life as Cam knows it is gone!

Oooft dun dun dun, what a sweeping start eh. Cam goes through all the emotions, there is no way he could do this, she knows him, she loves him but the police show her, it is indeed her husband. Talk about the rug being pulled out from under you, I think the reason these type of stories grip you so much is the main character is normal, just a worker, a mum a normal person who finds themselves thrown into your worst nightmare.

The book takes us across X span of time, the day of the siege, after the siege and then seven years later, all clearly marked. Different time periods, Cam trying to sort her life, processing, recovering and I think, as the reader, you can't help but put yourself in her shoes. Would you react like that, would you do/think x,y,z way? How do you recover from that, what changed, what did you miss, how could that be your husband, how could he do that?

I was sucked in pretty much from the get go, I could not gage where it was going next, like all this has happened in the first X pages/chapter, where can it go next. I love when a book does that, I am the first to admit I never or rarely ever know the how or why but I think even those who do wouldn't be able to figure out where it is going. An author who keeps you guessing has a talent indeed. The first quarter of the book was intense and packing a punch, it then takes a slower turn but continues to be pacey, engaging and for me anyway invested in the character(s), 4/5. This isn't our first McAllister, it won't be our last, I need to bump the others up the tbrm.

View all my reviews

Just Another Missing Person by Gillian McAllister

Just Another Missing Person by Gillian McAllister
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 377

Publisher - Michael Joseph Books

Source - Bought/Netgalley review

Blurb from Goodreads

22-year-old Olivia has been missing for one day…and counting. She was last seen on CCTV, entering a dead-end alley. And not coming back out again.

Julia, the detective heading up the search for Olivia, thinks she knows what to expect. A desperate family, a ticking clock, and long hours away from her husband and daughter. But she has no idea just how close to home this case is going to get.

Because the criminal at the heart of the disappearance has something she never expected. His weapon isn’t a gun, or a knife: it’s a secret. Her worst one. And her family's safety depends on one thing: Julia must NOT find out what happened to Olivia - and must frame somebody else for her murder.

If you find her, you will lose everything. What would you do?

This clever and endlessly surprising thriller is laced with a smart look at family and motherhood, and cements Gillian McAllister as a major talent in the world of suspense and a master of creating ethical dilemmas that show just how murky the distinction between right and wrong can be.



My Review

Ooooh get strapped in for a wild ride. Olivia is 22, gone missing and when the cops (Julia and co) investigate they find CCTV when Olivia goes down and alley and never comes out. Where did she go, her family is distraught and Julia is a straight laced cop who will stop at nothing to find her. HOWEVER when Julia is threatened with the thing most important to her and told she mustn't find Olivia she is between a rock and a hard place. Does she protect that which is most important to her whilst compromising Olivia and her own integrity or does she stay true to who she is, give Olivia her best chance/investigate whilst ruining her own life? Decisions decisions.

So basically we have a missing person, a cop being threatened/compromised plus the side line of her family life, issues with husband and teen daughter. Some shady and skulduggery behaviours and people, *gasp* and oh your are kidding WHY WHY would you do that. It is a perfect example of how you are just one decision/action away from spiralling your whole life.

Decent pace, page turning to see ooh where is this going to go, what is X person going to do now. This is maybe the 2nd or 3rd book I have read by this author and got another on my tbrm.

Crime, police investigation, family issues, morality, criminal activities, family ties and more, 4/5 for me this time. She is quite different to a lot of the crime/thriller offers we have so if you haven't read her before it is absolutely worth picking up and giving her a whirl.

View all my reviews

Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 4 days

Pages - 374

Publisher - Michael Joseph

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

Can you stop a murder after it's already happened?


It's every parent's nightmare.

Your happy, funny, innocent son commits a terrible crime: murdering a complete stranger.

You don't know who. You don't know why. You only know your teenage boy is in custody and his future lost.

That night you fall asleep in despair. Until you wake . . .

. . . and it is yesterday.

Every morning you wake up a day earlier, another day before the murder. Another chance to stop it.

Somewhere in the past lie the answers, and you don't have a choice but to find them . . .

My Review

Imagine watching your loved one involved in an incident that will ruin all of your lives, your child, a murder, the police, arrest and everything you have dreamed of for your child, young adult, now gone. Imagine waking up and the day has been resent, you know what is coming, what do you do to change things?

Thing Groundhog day with Bill Murray but sinister, welcome to Jen's world. Not only do you try to comprehend what is happening but when you go to sleep you reset and not to the day before, you go back another day, then another. How can Jen figure out what is happening, the relevance and most importantly, why and what can she do to save her family.

So there are so many things I quite like about this. A crime has happened, a murder no less but it isn't just about that, that is the event that kicks everything off. Jen ends up going back in time and each time she finds out more and more about her loved ones that she couldn't have forseen. Imagine reliving your time over, you can ignore your work or normal responsibilities because everything scrubs when the day is over. She never knows where she will wake, what she is meant to do or see. One thing for me was waking up in one of her old houses, things she had forgotten like the bed she slept in. For me, nostalgia and details like that add a truth or realistic vein to a story. You do forget things about your past as years go by, houses that have changed and it would be a big thing to wake up in an older poorer home back before you had X career or child or partner. It isn't a huge thing at all in relation to the storyline but for me it gave great weight to the feel of realism.

I felt for Jen because as she goes further back and relives days and events it is like the rug being pulled out from under her. It is really clever writing, the days going back took me a wee bit to settle to as I thought it would be the same day over and over but it isn't so keeps you interested as different things are revealed/lived through.

Time travel but not overly geeky/sci fi type it just helps to assist the story & we meet other characters, not just Jen although she is the main. There is always something happening and you can't help but think what would I do, who would I reach out to, would you be tempted to do XYZ. I think this is my first by McAllister but I have others on my tbrm. A crime/investigation style with a difference, certainly unique which isn't easy with the plethora of books in the crime genre, 4/5 for me this time.

View all my reviews