Gabe Forman worked for an advertising agency until three years ago, when his wife Jenny and five-year-old daughter Isabella (Izzy) were killed during a home invasion. Or were they?
On the day his family is slaughtered, Gabe is driving home on England's M1 motorway during rush hour.
In the bumper to bumper traffic, Gabe's eye is drawn to an ancient car that sports peeling stickers like "Honk if you're horny"; "Don't follow me, I'm lost"; and "Horn broken, watch for finger." Gabe is idly gazing at the rusty auto when the face of his five-year-old daughter Izzy appears in the back window, and the girl mouths the word "Daddy!" A hand pulls the child away, and Gabe gives chase.
Gabe tries to follow the old vehicle, but loses it on the congested highway. When Gabe finally gets home, the police tell him his wife and daughter are dead.....shot!
Gabe insists he's seen Izzy on the M1, but no one believes him and - following identification by Gabe's father-in-law Harry - the bodies of Jenny and a little girl (presumably Izzy) are cremated.
Gabe is certain his daughter is alive, and quits his job to drive up and down the M1 in a camper van, searching for Izzy.
Gabe has been roaming the M1 for three years, stopping for the occasional cup of coffee and bite to eat at service stations, and sleeping in the vehicle.
A service station waitress named Katie, who works the night shift so her sister can watch her two children, notices Gabe - a tall thin haggard man who stops by once a week or so.
Katie thinks the man must have a sad story, but she has problems of her own: the tragic death of her father; making ends meet; and dealing with an alcoholic mother.
As Gabe is wandering the motorway, another pair of travelers is doing much the same thing. A woman called Fran and an eight-year-old girl named Alice are on the run from 'a bad man' who's trying to hurt Alice.
Fran is determined to protect the child, but her mission is complicated by Alice's narcolepsy - sudden bouts of sleep from which Alice awakens clutching a pebble.
Alice's pebbles are related to a supernatural part of the story, which is a bit too obscure and forced (IMO).
One fateful day Gabe's road acquaintance, a man called 'The Samaritan' - who knows Gabe is looking for an old stickered-up car - finds the auto in a lake.
The Samaritan takes Gabe to the car, where Gabe finds a pocket bible, a folded map, a notebook, and something else (not Izzy). With a hint from The Samaritan, Gabe proceeds down a road that leads to the Dark Web and a vigilante group called 'The Other People.'
The three plotlines - Gabe's search for Izzy; Katie's troubles; and Fran and Alice's flight - are interspersed with scenes of a girl in coma. The girl is the nucleus of the paranormal incidents in the book.
All the narratives come together as the book approaches its climax, and Gabe learns the truth about what happened to his family and why. The book is engaging but there are so many tragedies, and so many aftermaths, that things get confusing. To me, it feels like unnecessary piling on.
Still, this is a good book that would appeal to fans of psychological suspense.
Thanks to Netgalley, the author (C.J. Tudor) and the publisher (Random House Publishing Group -
Ballantine Books) for a copy of the book.
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