Clare Mackintosh (Hachette Australia) 2016, 372pp, RRP $29.99
Mackintosh’s follow-up to I Let You Go paints a disturbing view of life in overcrowded contemporary London and expertly uses fears of the Underground transport system and technology generally to uncomfortable effect.
Zoe Walker, a mother of two late-teen kids living happily with her journo partner Simon, finds her world turned upside down when she sees what must be her photo in an advert in the Gazette, and when she contacts the police, Mackintosh starts shifting back and forth between her plight and that of troubled PC Kelly Swift, who has a few issues of her own. Kelly knows that Zoe is in danger, and Zoe becomes increasingly aware of it herself, especially as just about everyone around her has something to hide.
Mackintosh’s 12 years in the police force help considerably in making the investigators’ actions (and inactions) seem genuine, and her characterisations are also pleasing, even if a few of the twists towards the end feel a little forced (and perhaps try too hard to seem movie-like in the hope that someone will soon be filming this).
Nevertheless, there’s much here to entertain, and you might just look twice as you walk past the next surveillance camera (that is, if you can actually see the damn thing).
I Wake Up Screening 