Rating: ★★★★★
Synopsis
She sleeps, a pale girl in a white room . . .
Three years ago, Gabe saw his daughter taken. In the back of a rusty old car, covered in bumper stickers. He was driving behind the car. He watched her disappear. But no one believes him. Most people believe that his daughter, and wife, are dead. For a while, people believed that Gabe was responsible.
Three years later and Gabe cannot give up hope. Even though he has given up everything else. His home, his job, his old life. He spends his days and nights travelling up and down the motorway, sleeping in his camper van in service stations, searching for the car that took her. Searching for his daughter.
Katie spends a lot of her life in service stations, working as a waitress. She often sees Gabriel, or ‘the thin man’ as she has nicknamed him. She knows his story. She feels for him, because Katie understands what it’s like to lose a loved one. Nine years ago, her father was murdered. It broke her family apart. She hasn’t seen her oldest sister since the day of the funeral; the day she did something terrible.
Fran and her daughter, Alice, put in a lot of miles on the motorway. Not searching. But running. Trying to keep one step ahead of the people that want to hurt them. Because Fran knows the truth. She knows what really happened to Gabe’s daughter. She knows who is responsible. And she knows that if they ever find them, they’re dead.
Review
Thanks to the publisher and author for providing an advance reading copy of The Other People in exchange for an honest review. Receiving this ARC did not influence my thoughts or opinions on the novel.
The Other People continues the trend of making Tudor a household name. Relentlessly creepy, bone-chilling, and altogether gripping, this is one novel that’ll have you turning the pages late into the darkest of nights. This is C.J.’s best novel to date and she is only just getting started. Pre-order this book immediately.
It is blatantly obvious that I am a fan of Tudor’s. I loved her debut novel, The Chalk Man, that went on to win the ITW Thriller Award and Strand Magazine’s Award for Best Debut Novel, not to mention her amazing follow-up novel, The Hiding Place/The Taking of Annie Thorne. She is a wonderful suspense writer who has been likened to Stephen King (even called Britain’s Female Stephen King by the Daily Mail) and it shows through her consistency in writing gripping, thrilling novels that will haunt your dreams for days.
I continue to come back to this sentiment as I finish her novels: what really makes them are her characters. Every single one is flawed; not one is perfect, especially on the inside where it counts. Motivations for their actions are slowly brought to light as the novels progress, giving you a reason to flip to the next page. And the next one. And the next one… You catch my drift. Her settings are always bleak, which adds to the creepiness factor and makes for such intriguing world-building. Her descriptions are always on point, allowing readers to vividly picture all of the details surrounding the characters.
I make it a point in my reviews to never reveal spoilers, or really much information about the novel at all. Books are meant to be explored and secrets revealed by you. All I can say is that, even when you think you have it all figured out and you can open the door to let the light in, Tudor spins you 180° and pushes you back into the darkness.
A perfect mix of Adrian McKinty’s The Chain and Alex North’s The Whisper Man, The Other People is sure to be THE, if not one of the, Top Thrillers of 2020 and is destined for a Netflix Original Series.
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