I Let You Go

A child is hit by a car which then drives off. We follow the after effects on all the involved parties, albeit with a massive piece of mis-direction in the first part.

We largely follow Jenna, traumatised by the incident in her blind flight to a small coastal village in Wales. Her past, under the malignant influence of her abusive husband Ian, is gradually revealed, perhaps with rather too much unpleasant detail but arguably necessary for the shock value (it certainly made me uncomfortable listening to it).

We also follow the cops unravelling the twisted story, and their domestic lives, including the family troubles of the lead detective and his delinquent son, so there is quite a lot going on.

Fortunately Clare is a skilled tale teller and it all hangs together well and doesn’t lose the reader apart from that misdirection noted above, and always holds our attention.

As we hope everything is eventually brought into the light, although there are hints at the end that Ian might still be around, although he would have to be near-indestructible and have Bruce Wayne-like resourcefulness.

Despite those few misgivings I did enjoy this and I’m glad that Clare changed careers and put her knowledge of police work to use in entertaining (and educating) us.