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Would you try another book written by Cath Staincliffe or narrated by David Thorpe?

Probably not

Any additional comments?

You'd need a spreadsheet to keep up with who's who I gave up 2.5hours in

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Poignant modern day drama

Hmmmm ... I’m at a bit of a loss as to how to review this. For me, the book consisted of a few quite distinctive parts, of which I enjoyed some a lot more than others. I don’t want to give spoilers, so I cannot go into details, but will try to explain what I mean without touching too much on the plot:

For me, the book started off with a strong sense of intrigue as the author offers up multiple POVs of different passengers on a train bound from Manchester to Euston. I love glimpses into people’s lives, and thought that Staincliffe did a great job in giving the vital snapshots of the backgrounds of her characters that led to them all being in the same place, at the same time. Despite the short timeframe in which to establish her characters, Staincliffe managed to conjure them all up very vividly for me, and I felt invested in just about every one of them – not an easy task! The confined space of the train made for a brilliant claustrophobic setting, and anyone who has ever been on a train or a plane before will be able to imagine the entrapment experienced if a dangerous situation is added to this mix. At one point the tension mounted to such an extent that I literally held my breath, thinking how brilliant this books was, and how I admired this author’s writing style!

Just as the tension and suspense peaked, an event occurred that dispelled this build-up in an instant and totally changed the story. Without the suspense, the following chapters became more a study of human behaviour, at times brutal, graphic and quite disturbing. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t mind that, seeing how Staincliffe’s writing fully captured the stark emotional impact of events occurring, and she writes exceptionally well. Here we had tension of a different kind, the sort that leaves a bit of a bitter taste in your mouth as your emotional attachment to some characters is being tested – this is so hard to write without spoilers!!!!!

Now to the third part of the book, in which the tension is now gone completely, and the story focuses on characters’ emotions rather than events. I enjoyed it, but missed the hair-raising tension that had made the earlier part of the book great for me. After such a strong build-up, I felt somehow deflated, with the different POVs now serving more to fragment as earlier they had held the threads together. Perhaps that makes no sense, but picture a map of paths all intersecting in one huge roundabout, only to separate again into different meandering ways, some petering out into nothing and some not exiting at all. Get the picture?

Ok, I’ve given enough obscure hints now. I think that the author has written a great contemporary novel that is very poignant for our tumultuous times. There is an element of suspense, but most of the story focuses on people and their emotional responses to the events occurring. I thought Staincliffe delivered an excellent drama with true to life characters that made me wonder how I would react in their place. Warning – some scenes may be very graphic for some readers.

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