Lock Me In by Kate Simants
Genre: Psychological thriller
Read: 11th October 2019
Purchase: Amazon
(publication date: 3rd October 2019)
★★★★★ 5 stars
LOCK ME IN is a compelling and tense psychological thriller debut from Kate Simants. I really didn't know what to expect but that haunting cover drew me in straight away! And it is so good it is hard to believe it is a debut.
Chilling in its complicit manipulation, this thriller throws us twist after twist...just as soon as we think we have it all figured out...that just keeps adding to the puzzling plot. But one thing is for sure - nothing is as it seems.
Ellie Power is a normal 19 year old girl by day, but by night her mother Christine has to lock her in her bedroom to keep them - and everyone else - safe. Ellie has Dissociate Identity Disorder (DID), formerly known as multiple personality disorder or split personality - an illness that put her and everyone around at risk. You see, at night after Ellie and her mother have gone to sleep, Ellie becomes a different person. At night, her alter named Siggy, comes to life. And Siggy is angry. Siggy is violent. Siggy is unpredictable...but most of all, Siggy is dangerous.
One morning, Ellie wakes to find the lock on her bedroom door broken, she's covered in bruises, her hand is badly cut and her clothes are caked in mud. But even more so, Ellie has no memory of what happened during the night.
Later that day, she discovers her boyfriend Matt is missing and her cuts tally with the barbed wire fence near the narrow-boat he's been living on. Then she finds his car parked just behind their flat. At first she thought Matt had driven her home...but then she realises that all the adjustments - mirrors, seat etc. - match her build and not Matt, who is over six feet tall. It is then she realises...Siggy can drive. What has she done?
Both Ellie and her mother are horrified. This has happened before and it cost her best friend her life. They thought they could control Siggy, but it appears they cannot, as she seems to be getting worse. With Christine always in the firing line, coming out second best with black eyes and bruises as a result of Siggy's anger.
What then unfolds is a frightening journey into the mind of someone with Dissociate Identity Disorder, a missing person, a questionable psychotherapist, the discovery of child exploitative material, stolen drugs with severe side effects and so much more. LOCK ME IN is filled with secrets, lies, deception, manipulation and murder...but above all, NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS!
With short snappy chapters, the alternating perspectives between Ellie's first person narrative and Detective Sergeant Ben Kwon Mae's third person POV is both compelling and clever. Through Ellie's eyes we get that personal insight into the inner turmoil she suffers mentally and emotionally as a result of her DID. And yet, in Mae's third person narrative we are privy to the unfolding investigation into what began as a missing person but ended up so much more.
I had my own suspicions throughout and while I was correct in my assumptions in part, nothing could prepare me for the unabated truth of the bigger picture. The plot developments towards the end were brilliant and fascinating all at once, bringing what was essentially an incredibly sad tale to a satisfying and happy end.
An absolute page turner I could not devour quick enough, LOCK ME IN is a psychological thriller of the highest calibre that is fast paced and will keep you guessing to the end.
I would like to thank #KateSimants, #NetGalley and #HarperImpulseAndKillerReads, #OneMoreChapter for an ARC of #LockMeIn in exchange for an honest review.
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