Safe No Longer by Gayle Curtis
Genre: Psychological thriller, Crime fiction
Read: 20th October 2020
Published: 14th May 2020
★★★★ 3.5 stars (rounded up)
DESCRIPTION:
One child dead. Another missing. The village has seen this before.
On a warm evening in late summer, best friends Raymond and Cara camp out overnight in the garden. By morning, Raymond is dead and Cara is missing.
DI Rita Cannan is called home to the sleepy seaside town of Green-on-the-Sea to investigate Raymond’s murder and try to find Cara—alive. But the case carries eerie echoes of another girl’s death that rocked the close-knit community, decades ago. If there’s a connection, if history is repeating itself, who knows more than they’re letting on? And how far will they go to cover their tracks?
There are only so many lies a small town can hold and when everyone is a suspect, Cannan has nowhere to turn. To discover the truth, she must confront her own past. But can she do so in time to uncover the identity of the murderer and find Cara—before more innocent lives are lost?
MY REVIEW:
As I had hated her last book I wasn't holding out high hopes for this one but I was surprised. SAFE NO LONGER by Gayle Curtis is a well constructed thriller that is somewhat confusing and convoluted in places but on the whole was something a little different, if not intricate. It's no secret that the author likes to tackle the darker type of thrillers and this was most definitely that!
One child dead. Another child missing. A village in shock.
Best friends Raymond and Cara are enjoying a sleepover in a tent in the backyard one summer evening, telling each other ghost stories and playing macabre games. Raymond's mother Kristen keeps a close eye on the children despite popping over to the pub next door for a quick drink to celebrate her birthday. She returns, the children are still telling stories, so she settles on the sofa whilst leaving the patio doors open for them to come back in the middle of the night...as is usually the case.
But when Kristen wakes the following morning there is no sign of the children in the tent or in the house. And then she sees the silent prone figure of her little boy across the green, hands tied behind his back, his body long cold. But where was Cara?
Rachel Fearon is a school teacher at the local high school. Her husband long since gone, missing, presumed dead in a car accident though his body was never found, Rachel has raised her daughter Cara since. In an attempt to promote interest in her daughter with the local talent scout, Rachel organises with disgraced former cop Jason Brunswick to kidnap Cara and keep her safe until the time was right to release her. All the while, Rachel is to set up a fundraising page on social media, where parents of missing children can rake in thousands, and local talent scout Adrian Player's interest in Cara will be peaked once again.
That was the plan.
But something has gone wrong. Jason does not have Cara and has no idea where she is. He tells Rachel he waited half an hour from 3am as they arranged and Cara never showed. So...if Jason didn't have Cara, who did?
Adrian Player is the local talent scout and owner of a vast number of gyms around the county. But it's his private gym that aspiring gymnasts and football players are interested in. There they get one on one training and invitations to exclusive try-outs and competitions. But that's not all they get behind those doors. Long suspected of being a paedophile, Player uses his gyms as a front to scout for "talent" for his own interests and for those of his members of his exclusive club. Cara had been one of his favoured talents...until, at 11, she became too old and his interests them shifted to her best friend Raymond who was 9. Hence the kidnap plot concocted by Rachel and Jason to renew his interest in her.
Jason Brunswick is a former police officer who was disgraced for misconduct involving children. Now he works for Player at one of his many gyms. But Rachel doesn't seem to know of his misconduct nor of Player's real interests. I'm not sure why because most of the other parents in the village are fully aware for most of them are his former victims from their childhood...and now he is abusing the children of those he had abused decades ago. But then Rachel doesn't appear to have the best foresight either, for she herself is involved in an affair with one of her 16 year old students, and now finds herself pregnant.
Jody Brunswick doesn't believe a word that everyone says about her father. Even when the kids at school taunt her with comments that her father is a nonce she stands her ground...going as far being suspended for attacking a classmate. But then she hears that her father's van was seen on the green the morning of Raymond's murder and Cara's disappearance and she vows to do everything to protect him.
So back to Raymond and Cara. Who murdered this 9 year old boy? And what happened to his best friend Cara? Enter DCI Rita Cannan, senior investigating officer and close friend of Raymond's mother Kristen. That in itself should have precluded her from the case but Rita kept a lid on it because she had her own motive behind the investigation. One that was even greater than her friendship with Kristen. She knew Player was involved, she knew what he was and she wanted him behind bars. And she would stop at nothing to put him there. Even when her own parents were found dead in their home across the green, Rita would not be stopped from putting Player behind bars. To discover the truth, Rita must confront her own past...but can she do so and uncover the truth in time before more innocent lives are lost?
WOW! So much going on for a such a small village with everyone having some form of input into something nefarious one way or the other. All these little subplots designed to take the focus of the main story but still Raymond and Cara would not be forgotten. Even in the alternate chapters five years on where Rita was being interviewed about the case, the intricacies in the tangled web were slowly unravelled but the mystery still remained. What had happened to Cara?
An intricate story, SAFE NO LONGER did have rather a lot going on, some of which may have seemed irrelevant, but it was indeed a clever plot. Surrounding a topic that is often taboo, the author deftly drew attention to both that story and the one at hand whilst confusing us with all the others. Yes, there was a lot of drama going on here...but I think that was the point. Added to that, none of the characters were at all likeable and most of them were so selfish it was hard to sympathise with any of them or even care what happened to them. And most of them seemed to be suffering from some kind of personality disorder or mental breakdown.
I really didn't think I would like this book, but I was surprised to find I actually quite enjoyed it. It was different and despite the various subplots, the storyline had me engaged from the start. Whilst the ending was a bit out of left field, I thought it was rather clever...even if there was no real sense of closure.
A heavy intricate read, SAFE NO LONGER is not for everyone. It is not always an easy read with raw topics such as child sexual abuse and some other sensitive issues that others may find hard to read. While the story itself may seem far-fetched, sadly these things do happen and outlines the complexities of abuse and the lifelong effects it has on its many victims.
I have to say my favourite part, surprisingly, was the final page.
I can't say that I would recommend this to everyone, because it is definitely not a read for everyone. But if you like the darker side of thrillers, not afraid to tackle those darker issues...then this is for you.
I would like to thank #GayleCurtis, #NetGalley and #AmazonPublishingUK for an ARC of #SafeNoLonger in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
When Gayle was five years old, she packed her little red suitcase and told her parents she was leaving Norfolk to find her fortune. Unable to reach the door handle, she decided to stay, set up an office under the stairs and started writing books.
Gayle is inspired by the beautiful countryside and coastline. Her novel 'Too Close' was published in 2016. She has also self-published two novels, 'Memory Scents' and 'Shell House', and a humour book about her cat, entitled 'Wilfred, Fanny and Floyd'.
Gayle still lives in Norfolk with her husband and lots of cats.
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