Stevie‘s review of I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh
Women’s Crime Fiction published by Berkley 03 May 16
I’m fond of well-written unreliable narrators – the type where just enough of their story is inconsistent that the surprise, when the author pulls the rug from under our feet, is shocking but not entirely unanticipated. I like being forced to think back over what I’ve read and realise that no out-and-out untruths have been told, but that the red herrings are obvious once we know how to spot them. This stunning debut does all of that, but the story is just as powerful after the trick is revealed.
A mother is walking her child home from school on a rainy winter afternoon, when she lets go of his hand, and he is killed by a hit-and-run driver. DI Ray Stevens, his new DC – Kate Evans – and the rest of Ray’s team on Bristol CID are determined to bring the killer to justice, even though they have few clues to go on. Jenna Gray keeps replaying the accident in her head, and leaves Bristol and her old life behind – discarding her mobile phone in a ditch as she trudges away from a bus station – and eventually finds herself in a small coastal tourist town where a local farmer rents her a ramshackle empty cottage.
Ray’s home-life seems close to perfect on the surface, but cracks are beginning to appear in his relationship with his wife – who left the police when their children were born and who now wants to retrain as a teacher – as well as with his children – the elder of whom is having difficulties settling into his new school. He and Kate see more of each other than they do of their partners, and an attraction is beginning to grow, even if neither is prepared to act on it. With no witnesses prepared to come forward in the hit-and-run case, and with the boy’s mother having left Bristol, it seems that they’ll have to give up and concentrate on other crimes.
Jenna settles down in her new home. A former sculptor, she injured her hand the day of the accident, but finds a new outlet for her creativity – as well as an income – as a photographer. She rescues an abandoned puppy, and is befriended by Patrick – the local vet, but all the while she fears that someone from her past will track her down.
Ray and Kate have been investigating the hit and run in their spare time and finally make a breakthrough. They arrest the owner of the vehicle that hit the boy and receive a confession, but something seems wrong. Meanwhile, Jenna’s abusive ex is looking for her…
I love the way the different plot threads are told in different styles – third person for Ray and Kate, first person for Jenna, and a chilling mixture of first and second person for Jenna’s ex, who narrates the (grossly distorted) story of their relationship and tries to hunt her down. The twists and turns of the plot kept catching me out, even after the first big reveal, and the reactions of the secondary characters both to that revelation and to those that followed felt very realistic. I had two issues with the story, however, that stopped me from giving the book top marks. First was a basic research error – Patrick says he studied at Leeds, which has a university, but not a veterinary school – along with a few other niggles over the backstory he gives for himself and his parents in that same conversation. Secondly, the epilogue felt very tacked on – I would have loved the story enough to forgive the first niggles, if it had ended at the final chapter.
Those issues notwithstanding, I’m very keen to see what this author gives us next.
Grade: B
Summary:
On a rainy afternoon, a mother’s life is shattered as her son slips from her grip and runs into the street…
I Let You Go follows Jenna Gray as she moves to a ramshackle cottage on the remote Welsh coast, trying to escape the memory of the car accident that plays again and again in her mind and desperate to heal from the loss of her child and the rest of her painful past.
At the same time, the novel tracks the pair of Bristol police investigators trying to get to the bottom of this hit-and-run. As they chase down one hopeless lead after another, they find themselves as drawn to each other as they are to the frustrating, twist-filled case before them.
Read an excerpt.
