The Other People

This is my third book by C.J. Tudor and I have loved them all. She has become a must read author for me now.

I really do not want to say too much about this book and spoil anything. If you have read her other books, you will definitely enjoy this book. And if you haven’t then read this one anyway and you will want to read her others as well. In other words, Just read it! lol

The story is told from 3 different POV’s

Gabe: His wife and daughter were murdered 3 years ago. But he does not believe that his daughter Izzy is dead. The night they were murdered he was on his way home stuck in traffic on the highway. Gabe knows he saw Izzy in a car that had all kinds of bumper stickers in front of him on the highway that night. No one believes him, so for the last 3 years he has been traveling up and down the highway hoping to see the car again and find his daughter.

Kate: She is a waitress that works in a rest stop diner that Gabe frequents. She is a single mother to two small children (Sam and Grace).

Fran: She is on the run with her daughter Alice. Someone is after them, because Fran knows what happened to Gabe’s daughter.

This book flowed so well. Everything just meshed well together. And I liked all of the characters. My heart broke a little for each of them.

Our conversation about C.J. Tudors The Other People:

Me: What are you guys doing today?
You: *answers the question*
Me: *summons my best hypnotist voice* Not anymore. Youre going to immediately stop doing what youre doing and go grab this book.
You: Whats it about?
Me: I cant tell you.
You: Ill read the synopsis.
Me: NO, YOU WILL NOT! Go in blind. Trust me.
You: *Grudgingly obeys the order*
Me: *Smiles at my success and your future happiness*

Yall, this book is crazy good. Its sort of about a man who sees his 5-yr-old daughter in the back of a strangers car, and then, POOF, shes gone. There are some other people in it, and then there are THE OTHER PEOPLE who are in it. Yep, that pretty much covers it.

Whatever words personally attract you to books, pretend Im saying those words right now: Fast-paced, page-turner, thrilling, mysterious, etc. All that stuff.

Seriously, read the book. Youre welcome.

Driving on the motorway towards home one night on Gabe sees his five year old daughter Izzy looking out of the back of a rusty old car. However, when he arrives home he is told his wife and daughter have been murdered. Unable to get the vision of his daughter on the motorway out of his mind, he spends the next three years living in an old camper van and driving up and down the motorway, stopping only at roadside services for food. A man only as the Samaritan helps him in his search and it is eventually through finding the car that Gabe learns of ‘the other people’.

This was a slow burn of a book for me and I struggled to become engaged in the first half of the book while Gabe was endlessly driving the motorway searching for the car. Perhaps it was just the bleakness of Gabe’s predicament with no end in sight that made for a slightly depressing read. However, in retrospect I can see that other side plots and characters were introduced during this time that later became important to the overall plot, although they were somewhat vague and disjointed initially until their importance emerged. Once the car was found and Gabe discovered ‘the other people’ at around the half way mark, the book picked up a lot of momentum and I had no trouble wanting to find out the answer to the mystery.

While this book didn’t grab me as much as many other readers, I did enjoy the innovative plot, Gabe’s despair and grief and his desperate search for his daughter. As with her other thrillers, Ms Tudor’s writing is atmospheric and unsettling with a hint of something disturbingly paranormal. For me the paranormal aspect felt a bit underdone and lacked the punch seen in some of her other books and I felt it could almost have been left out without any effect on the overall story.

This was not what I was expecting and I liked it kind of, maybe. I mean I read it in 6 hours because I needed to know what happened next but I dont enjoy supernatural elements in psychological mysteries. The characters all felt very shallow but the plot was engaging, Gabe felt almost like half a person but it could be his circumstances. I dont know, it wasnt the best thing Id ever read but I didnt hate it and thats all I can really say.

I thought CJ Tudor’s previous two books, The Chalk Man and The Taking of Annie Thorne, were terrific. I expected this one would be just the same, but I was disappointed.
Gabe is driving down the motorway, supposedly on his way home from work when he spots his daughter in the back of a car driving in front of him. Absolutely convinced it is his five year old daughter, Izzy, he gives chase, only to lose them. Pulling over to call his wife at home, where Izzy should be, a detective answers the phone to tell him his family are dead. Gabe refuses to believe he was mistaken and begins his four year search to prove his daughter is alive.
There are elements of creepiness and eeriness, but the story involving three sisters, and estranged family and a secret Gabe has kept from his teenage years is complicated to the point it is hard to follow at times.
I wouldn’t not recommend the book, as CJ Tudor is a brilliant writer and I still look forward to her next publication, but in comparison to her previous works, it doesn’t have the same gripping factor.