Genre: Psychological Thriller
Publisher: Sphere
Pub Date: 22nd June 2021
Review Date: 29th May 2021
Blurb
You can save hundreds of lives.
Or the one that matters most . . .
The atmosphere on board the first non-stop flight from London to Sydney is electric. Celebrities are rumoured to be among the passengers in business class, and the world is watching the landmark journey.
Flight attendant Mina is trying to focus on the passengers, instead of her troubled five-year-old daughter back at home - or the cataclysmic problems in her marriage.
But soon after the plane takes off, Mina receives a chilling anonymous note. Someone wants to make sure the plane never reaches its destination. They're demanding her cooperation . . . and they know exactly how to get it.
It's twenty hours to landing.
A lot can happen in twenty hours . . .
My Review
Nothing is what it seems in this compulsive thriller. And nobody is above suspicion! The story centres around air hostess, Mina; her husband, Adam; and their five-year-old adopted daughter, Sophia. When Katya, the live-in nanny walks out because of something Adam has done, Mina assumes it’s because Adam and Katya have been having an affair and Mina throws him out. But as the dual narrative delves into Adam’s perspective we soon learn things are much more complicated.
I don’t want to give any spoilers, but something goes missing really early on that made me wonder whether it was integral to plot, or if it was a red-herring. It turned out to be a huge part of the jigsaw and was the first in a string of strange events as Mina becomes embroiled in an elaborate hijack plot. What pushed the story forward, in a compulsive heart-pounding way, was how the dual narrative showed what was happening on the plane and then switching to the shocking events at home. Mina knows her daughter may be in danger, but she has no idea who is behind it, and things are even worse than she could possibly imagine.
The twists and turns don’t stop there, and towards the end they come thick and fast. And oh what clever twists they are! Clare Mackintosh has written some fantastic novels, but the small but clever snippets of information scattered throughout make this my favourite yet.
I recommend this book for fans of Jane Shemilt, Jane Corry, and Jo Ullah.
About the Author
With over 2 million copies of her books sold worldwide, number one bestseller Clare Mackintosh is the multi-award-winning author of I Let You Go, which was a Sunday Times bestseller and the fastest-selling title by a new crime writer in 2015. It also won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year in 2016. Both Clare's second and third novels, I See You and Let Me Lie, were number one Sunday Times bestsellers. All three of her thrillers were selected for the Richard & Judy Book Club, and together have been translated into over thirty-five languages. After the End was published in 2019 and became an instant Sunday Times bestseller.
Clare is patron of the Silver Star Society, a charity based at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, which supports parents experiencing high-risk or difficult pregnancies. She lives in North Wales with her husband and their three children.
Thank you to the publisher, for an Advance Review Copy of this book.