Book Review: I Let You Go By Clare Mackintosh

I LET YOU GO
A Novel

By: Clare Mackintosh

Published: May 3, 2016

Publisher: Berkley

Fiction/Mystery/Suspense

This is the newest in the list of thrillers with an “unreliable narrator” and a gripping story that will keep you turning the pages to find out what REALLY happened.

Jenna Gray is walking home with her son when she lets go of his hand for one second. In that second he darts in front of a car and is killed while the driver speeds away, never to return. Jenna can’t believe what just happened and is overcome with grief. In the dark of night, she leaves her life behind to start over in a tiny Welsh Village. In the meantime, two detectives are trying to find the hit-and-run driver. All leads seem to be coming to a dead end and Ray has to close the case, even though he and his partner Kate, can’t seem to get the case out of their mind. The twists and turns of the case baffle them until a lead takes them to someone they never expected to find.

This thriller is fast-paced and tells you the story from Jenna’s perspective and then flips over to Ray and Kate’s story so that you always know what is going on in Jenna’s life and the investigation. Jenna’s grief over losing her son and the blame she places on herself seeps off the pages. You can imagine how she wants to disappear and start life over knowing that she will never be able to truly start over. Mackintosh’s descriptions of Jenna’s nightmares, the way she is “walking through molasses” and how everything is the same and yet different…forever changed, give you a visual and painful understanding of her desperation.

Once she leaves, you start to have hope for her as she begins a new life in Wales and meets some people she can consider friends. As an artist, she finds a way to work art back into her life in a way that is different from what she did before. She finds a new energy and starts to think that this can be her new life. Then, you are suddenly slapped across the face with a twist so shocking, you will want to scream at the author while knowing that you have to keep reading to find out what is going to happen next. This is what really made the book for me. I didn’t see it coming for one second and then when it did, I became so absorbed in the rest of the novel that I forgave the author for giving me that jolt.

There are definitely some disturbing parts to this story and it touches on topics that can be difficult for some to read about. I don’t want to give anything away because I want every reader to have the same reaction I did. Even knowing that there was a twist to come, didn’t make it any less shocking for me.

Mackintosh has found her way into the novelist world after working twelve years for the police force. I’m sure she has a wealth of information at her fingertips to continue surprising readers with thrillers for years to come. I LET YOU GO is her debut novel and I SEE YOU, her second thriller, will debut in July.

Clare Mackintosh – source

Clare Mackintosh is an author, feature writer, and columnist. She has written for The Guardian, Sainsbury’s Magazine, The Green Parent, and many other national publications, and is a columnist for Cotswold Life and Writing Magazine.

Clare spent twelve years in the police force, working on CID, in custody, and as a public order commander, and has drawn on her experiences for her début psychological thriller I LET YOU GO. Her second novel, I SEE YOU comes in this July. For more on Mackintosh, check out her website, HERE. 

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Thanks to the publisher for sending a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. This review is my honest opinion. I was not compensated in any way for this review. If you choose to purchase the book through the above link, I may receive a small commission without you having to pay a cent more for your purchase. Thanks for supporting SincerelyStacie.com.