I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

Tragedy befalls a single mother. We are then in the perspective of Jenna Gray, who is so devastated, that she decides to leave her home and try to start new somewhere a lot further away to help move on. The other perspective we’re in for part one of this book is of Detective Ray Stevens, who struggles with trying to maintain his family life while trying to promote up, all while feeling an undeniable connection to his new trainee. In these particular scenes, I am not familiar to the correct UK terminology for the police department, so I get quite confused and don’t remember what those acronyms mean. Not that that’s an issue with the book, it just pulls me out because I really should remember these things!

Quick note here: There is domestic violence in this novel. If that’s not something you can stomach–don’t pick it up.

Part one was honestly pretty slow. I understood why the pacing was that way and how it related to the story. The slowness was a parallel to the lull in the case for the detectives, and the recovery process Jenna was going through.

Part two, though…that’s where things really started picking up and I virtually could not put it down. A third perspective is introduced in this part and it is… quite chilling. There may be something sick and demented about enjoying the writing in this perspective, but it’s written very well, so it’s difficult not to appreciate it.

I didn’t really care too much about the relationship between Stevens and Kate, the trainee. It made sense with the book though, showing how tough the job can be while trying to stay happy with the home life you almost never see. He starts growing an attachment to the person he’s with for several hours, so it makes sense, I just feel like that was a subplot that didn’t pull me into the mystery of the book.

I really liked seeing the beginning of Jenna’s relationship with Ian, and how the manipulation process started. Again, I know it sounds creepy with me saying that, but to be inside of a man that…manipulative. Good stuff. I think this one is definitely worth the read. I know everyone and their mom has talked about the twist, but I liked that twist too. 😉