Book Review: Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

 

Book: Wrong Place Wrong Time 

Author: Gillian McAllister 

Pages: 395 

Read on: Kindle 

Read in: ~4.5 hours 

Plot Summary: Can you stop a murder after it’s already happened?

Late October. After midnight. You’re waiting up for your seventeen-year-old son. He’s late. As you watch from the window, he emerges, and you realize he isn’t alone: he’s walking toward a man, and he’s armed.

You can’t believe it when you see him do it: your funny, happy teenage son, he kills a stranger, right there on the street outside your house. You don’t know who. You don’t know why. You only know your son is now in custody. His future shattered.

That night you fall asleep in despair. All is lost. Until you wake . . .

. . . and it is yesterday.

And then you wake again . . .

. . . and it is the day before yesterday.

Every morning you wake up a day earlier, another day before the murder. With another chance to stop it. Somewhere in the past lies an answer. The trigger for this crime—and you don’t have a choice but to find it.  

Things I Liked: 

1.  This is such a unique crime thriller! I always love it when crime thriller authors take some risks and try a narrative approach that it is not run of the mill! In this book, a mother finds herself travelling back in time to unravel the series of events leading to an autumn night in 2022 when her nerdy, sweet son kills a total stranger. So, much of the book involves, the protagonist, Jen, travelling back by, sometimes a day or two, sometimes by 4-5 years and so on to connect the dots that lead to that fateful moment. Very, very nicely done! 

2. The events in the past that have led to Todd killing this strange man are interesting and not what I had expected. The author has put in multiple red herrings and, at various points in the book, the reader is lead to suspect one person and then the other in Jen's life! Always love when there are not-so-obvious red herrings! 

3. Jen is a very real, very relatable character. She is not some supermom. She is struggling to make sense of her new reality. She struggles to figure out what events in the past are clues and what are just random life events. She learns to re-live the past slower than she did when she was in the moment and in doing that she finds the clues that help her move back and figure out what led to Todd committing the murder. 

4. This is a fast-paced and well-written book. You don't lose interest or get bored- always a good thing! 

Rating: 4.5/5 

This is a nicely written, fast-paced thriller book with a fairly unique premise and this is a good one to pick up on a nice rainy day!