It’s the day her father will be released from jail. Izzy English has every reason to feel conflicted – he’s the man who gave her a childhood filled with happy memories. But he has also just served seventeen years for the murder of her mother.
Now, Izzy’s father sends her a letter. He wants to talk, to defend himself against each piece of evidence from his trial. But should she give him the benefit of the doubt? Or is he guilty as charged an luring her into a trap?
Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin UK – Michael Joseph and Gillian McAllister for the chance to read and review this novel.
Gillian McAllister has written another riveting character-driven story that I couldn’t put down.I was completely hooked and so desperate to know what happened that I forced my eyelids open and stayed up until 4am to finish it.
Izzy English lives on The Isle of Wight with her husband Nick. Tomorrow her father, Gabriel, will be released from prison after serving seventeen years for killing her mother. His release resurfaces her conflicted feelings about him: her memories of a loving father versus the monstrous murderer. His guilt has always been an indisputable fact, something she wasn’t allowed to question at first and then something she avoided looking at and her mind would repel if she tried.
The day he’s released from prison her father turns up at the restaurant her mother used to run, the one she took over after her death. He wants to come in but Izzy is too scared to do it. He puts a letter through the door protesting his innocence and asking her to go and see his best friend to hear him tell her his side instead. More letters arrive over the next few days until Izzy finally relents and agrees.
Gabe has been unwavering in his claims of innocence since her mother was killed but the evidence was against him, he was convicted so he must have done it, right? Izzy decides it’s time to open pandora’s box despite the myriad of problems and unwanted emotions it means she will face. She has to know the truth about that Halloween night eighteen years ago. So she starts to investigate what happened: looking through long sealed boxes in the attic, talking to everyone she can, trying to discern the truth for herself for the first time. Despite her decision Izzy is plagued with uncertainty and worries he’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing, luring her in before going for the kill just like they say he did to her mother.
The story is narrated by Izzy with Gabe also narrating once she agrees to listen to his version of events. They do this very differently: Izzy’s narration involves a lot of her private thoughts and memories that she doesn’t speak aloud while Gabriel speaks directly to Izzy. Not giving us a glimpse inside his head means the reader can only take him on face value and judge him on what he claims to be true and the way he acts, just like Izzy. I found that like Izzy I doubted his integrity as not only did she uncover suspicious things in her investigations, but when he told her a part of his story we would immediately get Izzy’s memories of the same events, revealing that Gabe had changed what happened or what was said to paint himself in a better light. How can you believe what someone tells you when you know they speak so many lies? And how can you comprehend loving the man who was convicted of taking one of the most important people in the world away from you? These questions, and Izzy’s attempts to answer them, are woven through the entire book. As a reader I rarely had any doubts of his guilt but understandably Izzy wavered. Her doubts of his guilt a constant whisper in her ear, an inviting chance to have one of her parents back and rebuild some of what she lost.
The Evidence Against you is a complex, multi layered story about love, grief, family, truth, lies, secrecy, pain and betrayal. It is also a story about living life in a prison, though not necessarily one made of bars with guards at the doors, institutionalisation and what happens to the family of victims of a crime and those who are convicted of a crime. It is intelligently written and thought provoking with flawed characters who are the key to the story being so compelling. It is steadily paced and pulls you in so you’re completely immersed in Izzy’s search for the truth. This book has cemented my love for this author’s writing style and I can’t wait to read more of her work.
Out today.
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