📖 Book Review ~ Don't Turn Around by Jessica Barry

 

Vintage
15 April 2021

My thanks to the publishers and to Graeme Williams Marketing for my ecopy of this book

Two strangers, Cait and Rebecca, are driving across America.

Cait's job is to transport women to safety. Out of respect, she never asks any questions. Like most of the women, Rebecca is trying to escape something.

But what if Rebecca's secrets put them both in danger? There's a reason Cait chooses to keep on the road, helping strangers. She has a past of her own, and knows what it's like to be followed.

And there is someone right behind them, watching their every move...

 📖 My Thoughts...

Two women, both of them strangers to each other, set off on a hazardous 322 mile journey across America, from Texas to New Mexico. One of them is in danger whilst the other is part of the Sisters of Service a clandestine organisation which helps to remove women from dangerous situations and take them to a place where they won't be found. 

Cait Monaghan never asks questions, she merely waits, and once she has her passenger safely installed in her beloved old Jeep she drives the long and lonely stretches of highway until the feeling of being followed goes away. However, when she picks up Rebecca McCrae, Cait discovers that this journey is going to be like no other, neither women have much in common, and both of them have their own good reasons for being in each other's company at this time.

The journey is filled with tension and the long creepy drive towards a future destination is filled with both danger and trepidation. This adds an altogether different dimension to the story as both Cait and Rebecca guard their secrets well. Cait more than most knows what its like to be looking over your shoulder, and Rebecca, both wary and distrustful, keeps her story locked away inside.

This cleverly put together psychological thriller takes a little bit of adjustment as the story moves between different time frames, and whilst they help us to understand just what has happened to bring Cait and Rebecca together at this particular moment in time, it can make the narrative seem a little disjointed at times. Having said that, the short and snappy chapters work really well and I particularly enjoyed the countdown to each destination which made me feel like I was a back seat passenger in the Jeep as it went on its long, lonely and decidedly, dangerous journey.

Don't Turn Around is a timely piece of writing which has more than a hint towards #MeToo issues.

About the Author

Jessica Barry is a pseudonym for an American author who grew up in a small town in Massachusetts and was raised on a steady diet of library books and PBS.

She attended Boston University, where she majored in English and Art History, before moving to London in 2004 to pursue an MA from University College London.

She lives with her husband, Simon, and their two cats, Roger Livesey and BoJack Horseman

Twitter @jessbarryauthor #DontTurnAround

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