Two quick shots. One for him. One for you.
After the death of her three-year-old daughter, Jodie has nothing left to live for – or almost nothing.
She has one task to fulfil before she takes her own life. And that’s to kill the man she holds responsible for her daughter’s death – her seemingly perfect husband, Ethan.
But Ethan is hiding more than just his true nature. And as more horrifying secrets from his past emerge, Jodie’s strength will be pushed to the limit…
In Part 1 of this book Jodie has lost everything that ever mattered to her, her daughter, her will to go on, and her love for her husband. Now she plans to break free from it all, she’s loaded a gun and plans to shoot her husband Ethan and then herself.
To the casual observer, Ethan is a suave, sophisticated lawyer, but to those that know him like Jodie, he‘s a clever tyrant, a cruel manipulator and will stop at nothing to get what he wants. So when Jodie asks for a divorce and tells him she wants to leave, Ethan tortures Jodie with the ultimate punishment, he takes her daughter away from her by murder.
Part 2 opens with Jodie in prison, her murder/suicide plan failed, she‘s still alive, but Ethan is dead, and her daughter is still dead. Struggling to cope without her daughter, Jodie makes plans to end her sufferance, but fate has other plans, suicide watch and caring cellmates thwart her plans all too often. Then along comes Novak,a reporter, he hounds her for an interview and finally she gives in. The information that he has for her shakes her to her very core, did she really know so little about her husband?!
As always, I don’t want to say much more about the plot and risk ruining anything for readers, but suffice to say, this book will have you turning pages so fast you’ll think it was an exercise in speed reading!
Jodie begins as quite a “wishy washy” character, understandable when you consider the trauma she has gone through, the abuse she has suffered at the hands of her husband, and the fact that her life before him was all about searching for where she came from. She turns into a strong willed, feisty heroine determined to right the wrongs of her situation, a character you feel compelled to cheer on, and hope there’s a happy ending for.
There are themes in this book that some readers might find a little distressing to read, historic abuse of children is a key theme in the plot of this book and it is handled well. Each character that encountered it tells their story from their own pained experiences, but doing so in a way that makes you understand why they became who they are.
This is a well written thriller, the pace was slow at times but when it picked up it really just took off, the physical descriptions of characters and settings were excellent, it was very easy to imagine the haunted look to Jodie from Part 2 onwards in the book, the blizzard settings and the opulent hotel detailed in the book.
Plenty of twists and turns ensure you will struggle to put this book down, some are predictable, but I’m happy to say that the ending is not something you want to guess ahead, it’s almost impossible to have guessed that’s where McCarthy would take it, but they way it’s written is fantastic, I didn’t see it coming and I’m certain most people wouldn’t.
I’d be more than happy to recommend this book to fans of thriller, mystery, suspense genres, but would remind them that if they are likely to be disturbed by the abuse element then this book might not be for them.
