The Suspect by Kathryn Croft
Genre: Psychological thriller, Domestic thriller, Suspense
Read: 10th February 2023
Published: 8th February 2023
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
My family said he killed my mother. They lied…
I was just a little girl, fast asleep in my stroller, the day my mother was killed. I don’t remember anything about the sunny day that turned so dark.
She’d be so happy for me now, twenty years later, with my dream job as a photographer, and I’m sure she’d love my new boyfriend, Gabriel. But all my happiness vanishes in a heartbeat when the man from our past walks towards me, his eyes on me for just a fraction too long.
I recognise his face from the picture in the papers. He killed my mother.
I try to run but he wants me to listen. He says that he is innocent, and that my family have been lying to me for years.
My father and sister tell me to stay away. They remind me that because of him my mother never got to tuck me in at night or ease me through my first heartbreak. Gabriel says he could be dangerous. But when he is found dead, I am shaken to my core. Who needed to keep him quiet?
I won’t feel safe until I find out what he wanted to tell me. But when I find that my father has lied about the past and Gabriel has hidden photos of my mother under his bed, I realise I can’t trust anyone. I want the truth. But if I find it, will my life be in danger?
An absolutely addictive read that will have you racing through the pages and questioning everything you thought you knew about your family. Perfect for fans of The Girl on the Train, Lisa Jewell and Shari Lapena
MY THOUGHTS:
My family said he killed my mother...they lied...
Jess was just two years old when her mother was killed on Clapham Common as she sat in her stroller, screaming with tears streaming down her face. She didn't know the person who struck her mother but her mother did as she begged for her daughter's safety.
Now twenty eight years later, Jess lives a secluded life, works from her home studio as a photographer and is afraid of parks. After what happened to her mother, Jess can never set foot in them without thinking of what she lost that day. And the man who took it away from her...and got away with it. Then one day, she sees his face in a crowd watching her...recognises his face from the papers. He killed her mother but the police couldn't gather enough evidence to charge him...and so he walks free. But is he really?
Nathaniel French approaches Jess one day with the sole intent on telling her what he knows; what he has discovered. But understandably she doesn't believe him. Why should she? All her life she has been told that he is the man who killed her mother. It's what everyone thinks, despite no charges ever being laid.
Jess has always wanted to know the truth about what happened to her mother but thought that would never happen. When Nathaniel approached her in the street she was quick to dismiss him but reluctantly hears him out. Before they part he presses a business card into her hand with his phone number on. At first she doesn't entertain anything he has to say but the more she thinks about it, the more it starts to make sense. Maybe he is innocent after all. He drip-feeds her bits of information but is reluctant to discuss it over the phone and they arrange to meet. But he never arrives. A few days later, he is found dead. And everything he had to tell her died with him.
Now Jess is suspicious. If Nathaniel really was innocent then someone had a very good reason to silence him before he revealed the truth to Jess. But the question was, who? Jess decides to do a little digging and in doing so makes some startling discoveries along the way. Someone had been following Nathaniel and he expressed fear for his safety. Now Jess fears that someone is following her too. But why? What do they think she knows?
In her quest to delve into her mother's murder, Jess finds herself up against a lot of resistance from her family. Her mother's family, her father - they all claim they are a private family and have no wish for everything to be dragged back up all over again. But doesn't Jess deserve to know the truth? Doesn't her mother deserve justice?
Meanwhile, her sister Zara is intent on hooking her up with a friend of her boyfriend's, Gabriel, insisting that he is just an all round nice guy. And he is, when they inadvertently meet. Jess is reluctant to admit that she likes him but she is still nursing her wounds over the end of her previous relationship with longtime boyfriend Harrison, with whom she has remained friends. In fact, it is Harrison who proves to be the most trustworthy and the one Jess can count on throughout all that's to come.
This is my first foray into Kathryn Croft (from memory) and I enjoyed the journey very much. Throughout the story I had so many questions about things that didn't add up, didn't make sense which had me investigating the mystery alongside Jess. But unlike Jess, as the reader I was privy to her mother's narrative in the past timeline which gave me the building blocks to begin theorising what I think happened. I was scratching my head for much of the book until a "big secret" (that I didn't think was so huge) was revealed and slowly the pieces began to fall into place. I had longed pieced it all together before the final reveal but it didn't ruin the mystery for me. In fact I love it when I am able to work it out before the book's conclusion.
In story unfolds through Jess in the present day and Lori, her mother, in the past in 1992 and 1993. I have to say some of what Lori did was questionable to say the least. None of her behaviour made a whole lot of sense, even when she confessed to it, except when it came to Jess. I loathed her mother and sister and didn't see why Lori couldn't be honest with them about her situation. Maybe then she wouldn't have died needlessly...who knows? But then if she didn't die, there wouldn't be a story, would there? And everyone's behaviour was suspect to say the least. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. I really felt for Lori. All she wanted was the best life for Jess...and she so nearly had it.
Overall, THE SUSPECT is a compelling mystery filled with secrets, lies and deceptions spanning three decades. I thoroughly enjoyed it. My one complaint would be with the epilogue. I felt it only needed Jess' narrative; the second narrative following hers spoilt it.
I would like to thank #KathrynCroft, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheSuspect in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Kathryn writes full time and is now hard at work on her next book.
After twelve years living in London, she now lives in Guildford, Surrey, the place she grew up, with her husband, two children and two crazy cats.
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