My review

A long uphill road that leads to almost nothing….

This is the best I can describe about this book. The story is simple Billy meets ex-girlfriend, Aimi after 11 years, she wants his help to disappear, away from an abusive husband. He helps and then discovers nothing is as it seems. 

The plot line by G. J. Minett was excellent, the barebones of the story sounded so exciting. But unfortunately the delivery fails. This is my first book by the author, and I was left wondering if I should read his previous books, if this was his best work. 

I started reading a few pages and I found myself struggling to connect to the story. I stopped, life is too short for books where the words are too long. But I picked this book up again, as everyone started gushing about it. And I still struggled. But I found an easy way to read this time, I skipped and skimmed and I reached the end. It was like playing hopscotch… 

The characters were all very one dimensional. The author has tried to make Billy complex with flashbacks of childhood and with him not taking his meds in the present for some psychiatric issues, which I never understood fully, but he still came across as weird. I was more creeped out by Billy than the real culprits. 

The story is written in 3 different time lines 2002, 2015, and 2016. It was so confusing to go back and forth and I lost the flow of story. 

The sister, Mia was a ray of sunshine and hope in the book which went nowhere, but she had a small part to play. I liked the ex girlfriend, Aimi only for a fact that she was cunning enough to see the opportunity to use Billy. Billy’s brother-in-law had an explanation for everything which was flimsy and didn’t make a good reason at the end. The rest of the characters are just there, standing and waiting for the author to say ‘Action‘ and unfortunately, he never does. 

G. J Minett has made a good effort to bring suspense to the story. And don’t get me wrong, it worked, but it was not maintained in the entire story. Whenever, there was curiosity rising, the author wrote long-winded explanation behind that one line of suspense. Luckily, I learnt to skip entire paragraphs and get to to the following suspense. This felt like the time, the battery of my car had to be jumpstarted to make it run. This made the book a staccato read. 

At the end of story, I realized that the suspense formula is based on love and money, and the writers employ this formula using different chemicals.  But I wish they understood not all chemicals react with a bang, some don’t react at all…

I received an ARC from NetGalley and publisher Zaffre and this is my honest and unbiased opinion. 

My rating : 2.5 stars
About the Author 

G.J. Minett studied at Cambridge and then spent many years as a teacher of foreign languages. He studied for an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Chichester, and won the 2010 Chapter One Prize for unpublished novels with the opening chapter of The Hidden Legacy.

Book blurb 

When Billy Orr returns home to spend time with his dying sister, he bumps into his ex-girlfriend Aimi, the love of his life. He might not have seen her in eleven years, but Billy’s never forgotten her. He’d do anything for her then, and he’d do anything for her now. When Aimi tells him that she wants to escape her abusive husband, Billy agrees to help her fake her own death. But is she still the Aimi that Billy remembers from all those years ago?  

Once Aimi disappears, Billy has to face the possibility that perhaps she had different reasons for disappearing – reasons that might be more dangerous than she’s led him to believe . . .

Product Details 

Publication date : 30th November 2017 

Publisher : Zaffre

Language : English

Available on Amazon

   A not–so suspenseful read