Read April 2019. Published March 2019.
Maddie is a young writer, from Kansas. She has been living in Bulgaria, teaching and writing a travel guide, and has no intention of returning to her hometown of Meadowlark. Kansas holds many bad memories related to her childhood boating accident: an accident which changed her forever.
Maddie's college friend, Jo, is an aid worker in neighbouring Macedonia, and Maddie takes the long and difficult bus journey across the border to visit her as much as possible.
These are dangerous times in this part of eastern Europe. Macedonia is on the brink of war and the country is full of foreigners who are involved in peacekeeping and aid work. On one of her visits to see Jo, Maddie meets Ian, a British soldier who is in the country on a protection mission, and the course of her life takes an unexpected, and not always happy, turn. Ian is a man with a darkness within him, and with a psycho girlfriend to boot, but Maddie cannot help herself - she wants him, even though this will break-up her friendship with Jo.
Maddie and Ian fall in love, but it will be a bumpy ride and take many years before before they actually get together.
Almost two decades later, Maddie and Ian are married and have a young son, Charlie. Ian has made a fortune, working as a bodyguard in dangerous countries, and they are able to afford the kind of beautiful home many would envy. Maddie is able to stay at home with Charlie, but she feels herself trapped and has been manouevred into living back home in Kansas. Maddie has not seen Jo for many years and cannot understand why Jo continues to be unhappy about her marriage to Ian, and the birth of Charlie.
Maddie and Ian's relationship is far from ideal. Ian suffers with black moods, related to his experiences in the past, and this makes him unpredictable. He is often away from home working in far away places and Maddie never knows how he will behave when he returns.
Maddie has recently received a terrible injury to her face, after a mysterious accident on a camping trip, but says she cannot remember what happened. How did Maddie really get injured?
Years of love, fear and suspicion will result in a frantic 911 call. What has happened in this beautiful home and why is Jo there at the scene?
This book was quite a ride!
I liked the way that the story goes backwards and forwards in time - between the events of the night of the 911 call; the days before the call; and the history between the years when Ian and Maddie meet and when they get back together - putting little bits and pieces of the story together and building suspense.
There is a great twist, which works completely, that you only get hints of quite late in the book. The ending is pure Dexter Morgan and I did not see it coming at all. There is scope for a sequel here too. Any chance, Annie Ward?
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