Read April 2019. Published 2nd May 2019.
Rose's life is plagued by severe insomnia. She spends her time these days living in a haze and feeling like a zombie walking through treacle. It is hard to believe that she was once a successful artist.
Rose struggles on, but is finding life increasingly difficult to handle, especially being a proper mother to her 10 year-old twins, Violet and Lily. She cannot help but resent her husband Christian and his ability to sleep through the night - and for his frequent absences in the name of work.
One fateful bank holiday Monday, Christian is yet again absent. Rose must take her girls to a football tournament, even though she is really not in fit state to drive. Rose cannot stand the pitying looks directed at her by the other, judgmental mothers, when they see the unkempt state of her - this is not helped by the fact that she falls asleep when she should be watching the girls play football.
Disoriented and ashamed, Rose bundles the girls into the car and embarks on the journey home. This is a journey that will change to course of Rose's life for ever.
Rose's exhaustion overtakes her and she tragically drives the car off a bridge on the way home. Trapped underwater, she desperately tries to free herself and the girls from the car, but can only manage to untangle one of the twins - Violet is left behind and confined to a watery grave.
Four years later, Rose has been unable to move on from the tragedy. Christian and Lily blame Rose for Violet's death and are living separate lives from her, even though they still live under the same roof. Everyone in the town where they live knows what happened and the whispers follow her whenever she leaves the house.
Rose's insomnia is worse than ever. There seems no way she can ever live a normal life again.
Then, one evening, she bumps into a man running along the pavement. He drops a notebook in the dark, which Rose takes home with her. This notebook contains the diary of a young man called Finn and details his meeting with a stalker, who ruins his life. As Rose becomes obsessed with the need to know what has happened to Finn, she uncovers a conspiracy within the police to cover-up the deaths and disappearances of homosexual men in the town. Her own brother, Jay, committed suicide rather than confess to his family that he was gay, and Rose feels compelled to find out the truth behind the deaths and disappearances.
As Rose begins to see some purpose in her life again, she becomes embroiled in danger and will have to fight for her own survival in her pursuit for the truth.
This book rattles along at a pace, as Rose gets further and further involved in the cases of the missing and murdered men. She has battles to fight against her own family and the police at every turn, but remains stuck to her cause. Her investigations get her into some pretty sticky situations to say the least, but will ultimately lead to her redemption and, hopefully, some justice for the dead and missing - including her own brother.
I have not read any Jack Jordan before, but his previous book Before Her Eyes gets pretty good reviews. I suspect that this one will not do quite as well, judging by the reviews on Goodreads. Personally, I think this book could have done with a bit more editing to make the story run better (and there is a little timeline hitch with Rose's phone, which does not seem to have been picked up at the editing stage either), but it is still worth a read if you enjoy a fast-paced thriller with a twist.
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