This review is written with thanks to Penguin for my copy of Caller Unknown.

Blurb;

A road trip across America with her teenage daughter was meant to be much-needed bonding time for Simone before Lucy leaves home for university.

But on the first night of their stay, in a cabin deep in the Texan desert, Simone wakes to find Lucy missing and a mobile phone in her place. The phone rings and the voice on the other end issues instructions: Don’t tell the police. Come to this location. Be prepared to do a deal…

There is nothing Simone wouldn’t do to save her daughter. Hide the truth. Commit a terrible crime. Become a wanted woman.

But this is no ordinary kidnap and ransom. Getting Lucy back is just the beginning.

Review:

Gillian McAllister is a wonderfully talented writer and her writing only gets better with each novel she writes. Caller Unknown has a brilliant premise, and from the outset I was invested in the characters and desperate to know what would happen next. 

Caller Unknown is narrated mostly by Simone, although there are occasional chapters from the perspective of someone known only as “the kidnapper. “ I loved this approach is it helped me to gain deeper insight into not only Simone’s personality, but also her relationship with Damien, her husband, and Lucy, her daughter. Gillian McAllister is amazing at delving into the relationships between her characters, and this adds an emotional layer to the story, which allowed me to connect with the characters more strongly. 

Gillian McAllister can also write a tense and suspenseful scene with great aplomb. I love how, although Caller Unknown as a whole is a fast paced novel, she is able to really slow down the pace to build tension and keep the reader on tenterhooks throughout the most suspenseful moments. I often found it difficult to turn away from this novel.

The plotting in Caller Unknown is ridiculously intricate, and I only realised how much towards the end as the story starts to come together. There are smaller details at the beginning of the novel that you need to remember and I love how all the smaller pieces make a much bigger picture. The ending of the novel is also incredibly clever and I really enjoyed reading as all the reveals took place. 

Gillian McAllister is a author I always look out for and Caller Unknown has further cemented her place as one of my favourites. 

Caller Unknown is available from Amazon.