Thanks to Avon Books and Netgalley for a copy of Strangers by C.L. Taylor in exchange for an honest review.
Strangers by C.L. Taylor
Genre: Thriller/Suspense
Publisher: Avon Books
Publication Date: April 2, 2020
From the blurb:
The Sunday Times bestseller and Richard & Judy Book Club author of Sleep returns with her most gripping book yet.
Ursula, Gareth and Alice have never met before.
Ursula thinks she killed the love of her life.
Gareth’s been receiving strange postcards.
And Alice is being stalked.
None of them are used to relying on others – but when the three strangers’ lives unexpectedly collide, there’s only one thing for it: they have to stick together. Otherwise, one of them will die.
Three strangers, two secrets, one terrifying evening.
The million-copy bestseller returns with a gripping new novel that will keep you guessing until the end.
Buy on Strangers on Amazon here.
My thoughts:
I’d never read any of C.L. Taylor’s work before, so I was unsure what to expect beyond what the blurb told me. Here’s what I found: suspense. Lots of it.
Oh, and questions. Lots of those, too, most of which aren’t answered until the end. From page one, the book grabbed my attention.
Plot/story
C.L. Taylor excelled at keeping the reader off-balance as the multiple moving parts come together. I pictured the people and events as gears fitted together, one turning another, which turned another, and another. But I didn’t know how or what or (most importantly) why these things were happening. Just when I thought I knew something definite, Taylor threw a monkey wrench into the works and I saw that I’d fallen for a red herring. Even when I was on the lookout for red herrings (as I usually am), I still didn’t guess the truth.
I almost always read the last few pages of a book first. Even knowing the ending, though, didn’t help me guess the full truth, nor did it diminish the story’s suspense. C.L. Taylor skillfully created a creepy vibe that reverberated even beyond the last pages.
Twitter conversations were interspersed throughout the book. The dialogue felt authentically Twitter-ish and gave me a bit of background about events beyond the characters’ immediate world. Plus it related the urban legend/rumor of a serial killer called the Harbourside Murderer, who might or might not exist.
Characterization
The main characters were mostly well-developed. I enjoyed watching Alice, Ursula, and Gareth grow as people as the book goes along. But somehow I felt a lack of depth to them. I couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong, though.
There were a lot of other characters. Whenever I put the book down–realistically, most readers have to do this!–I had to refresh my memory of what had happened in the previous few pages and who the minor characters were. Somehow the plot didn’t stick in my mind quite as well as usual. This tends to be a problem for me in the psychological suspense category, though.
Issue #1: Flashbacks
The other issue was the number of flashbacks. A chapter would open from one character’s point of view in present tense. Then it would immediately switch to past tense and recount what had happened recently. For example, one character was in a pub. (No spoiler here as this happened multiple times.) As he/she sat drinking, she/he remembered the events that led him/her to make the decision to go to the pub. Most of it was significant. But the switch from present to past to present again confused the order of events and felt unnecessary. Why not simply tell the story as the events unfold?
Issue #2: Location & time jumps
There were multiple places where the location and time jumped to a different place and time. But other than a blank line, I didn’t know that the location/time had changed. I didn’t grasp the change until a few sentences into that section. Again, unnecessarily confusing.
Sometimes the author used an asterisk to signal the change, which I appreciated. But other times, there was only a blank line. My Kindle app sometimes throws in blank lines randomly; if these blank lines are intentional, the intention is lost in the reading. I hope that makes sense! I also hope that this issue is only a quirk in the ARC and will be corrected in the final version.
Verdict
Overall, Strangers is a good book. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys psychological suspense.
Like this? Read these next!
If you love psychological suspense, you may enjoy these books, all released in the past year or so. The Victim by Max Manning
Rewind by Catherine Ryan Howard
The Killer You Know, by S. R. Masters
Are there other psychological suspense novels that you would recommend? Share in the comments!
I have read four C.L. Taylor books, and she is great at building the psychological suspense, and creating unreliable narrators. I’m glad you enjoyed this one, Meredith, and nice review.
I’ll have to check out some more of Taylor’s work. I think I could learn a lot from her. Thanks for reading!
You’re welcome! I recently read The Escape by her, which is a full on exciting and keeps you guessing. 🙂
Interesting! I want to read this at some point.
Let me know what you think when you read it. Thanks for sharing this on Twitter, too!
You’re welcome and I will! :)