Sarah lives in her pristine apartment rarely venturing beyond the safety of the front door. Why? Well ten years before the story begins she was one of four girls who were kept and tortured by Jack Derber in the cellar of his house. Having escaped from three years of hell Sarah now has a problem, Jack Derber is up for parole and together with the two other survivors from the time in the cellar, Sarah needs to engage with the board to keep him in prison where he belongs. Do the letters that Jack has been sending from prison hold clues as to what his motive for keeping them really were?
This book has a fantastic opening, Sarah and her best friend Jennifer devise The Never List as children, a way to keep them safe from the vagaries of the world but by the time the two go to college it has become something of an obsession. What is shocking after all the edicts on how to keep them safe is that they are captured by the Psychology Professor at their college.
This is a book full of suspense but what I enjoyed most was the psychological effects, not only after the girls are released, but how they behaved towards each other in captivity. This is one dark book that illustrates the survivor mechanism in action. As Sarah investigates she seeks out those who knew Jack and her trail leads her into a wide variety of characters, none of whom seem to be particularly pleasant. Some of these secondary characters seemed a little clichéd and two-dimensional but all had something to add to Sarah’s determined investigation.
I found the story slowed somewhat in the middle section, but the ending gets top marks from me as Sarah is determined to find out what happened to her friend Jennifer who has not been since she was captured….
A thrilling book with loads of action which has had the honour of being on Richard & Judy Book Club spring list. I received this book from the publisher Random House UK in return for this honest review.
Sounds like my kind of book!
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If you like your psychological thrillers with a big dollop of action this book is for you!
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Great review. I can’t wait to get my paws on this one.
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Thank you Nish, it was a great read 🙂
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I really want to read this now!
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Thank you Lipsyy, it goes at quite a pace and there is loads to think about regarding the how their captivity changes the girls in different ways. Some shocking (really shocking) twists in the last third!
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Great review and – another book on my TBR list.
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Glad you liked the review, it is well-worth a read… Be careful of the TBR though 😉
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The list is ever-growing. Therefore, I read on two eReaders, on paper, on my smart phone, on my tablet, on my laptop. As you can see: I am a coffee-addicted book-crazy computer nerd. 😀
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I’m a coffee addict too but I can usually only manage one book (either real or on kindle) at a time… my TBR has mushroomed in January so perhaps I was projecting my fears 🙂
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Glad you enjoyed it, though not quite as much as I did, I think. It’ll be interesting to see what she comes up with next…
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It was a good read but I enjoyed The Last Winter of Dani Lancing more (so opposite way round to you) We’ll have to keep the comparisons going 🙂
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Can’t wait to read this one! 🙂
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I think you’ll enjoy it… Lots of action and a great debut.
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Wow – crazy topic. But sounds like a really interesting read! (But as a mom anything with abduction usually stays away from my reading.)
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It is really good and of course I couldn’t help but compare it to the real life story of the girls abducted by Ariel Castro. I liked the way their story was told but probably not a good idea if you have a nervous disposition…. 🙂
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This one is on my list. Psychological Thrillers are my favourite, sounds so good.
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It is a great read so I hope you enjoy it 🙂
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