Thank you to the author, publisher St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for granting me access to this prior to publication in exchange for my review. Having just finished, I feel emotionally wrecked – and though the subject for this book will be a trigger for some readers, it’s a must-read in my view.
The first thing I have to make clear is that fans of The Escape Room, or anyone who’s picked this up because it’s marketed as a tense thriller could well be disappointed. It’s tense on occasion, but this struck me as a more complicated mystery and it would be such a shame for readers to feel put-off as they expected something different.
Something I have to state early on is that I loved the narrative of this. Our main character, Rachel, is producing her third series of a popular crime podcast. She has attracted many fans, so for this series opts to head to a small town to cover a live case…that of a potential Olympic swimmer accused of raping a sixteen year old girl known only as K. It poses risks – and as the book begins we sense there’ll be more to it, but I was quite taken aback by the links between this case and one from twenty-five years earlier.
I really don’t want to say too much about either case, as I think the success of this novel depends on us establishing the facts of each case as they’re revealed and – like Rachel – slowly piecing together the links.
I hurt reading this, and that’s no bad thing. Reading the details of the events described, and the behaviour of those in court was tough. Necessary, but draining. I cannot emphasise enough how much I think this book – awful though the subject is – should be read by everyone.