Description
The Sunday Times bestseller and Richard & Judy Book Club author of Sleep returns with her most gripping book yet. ‘I was glued from start to finish!’ Shari Lapena
Ursula, Gareth and Alice have never met before. Ursula thinks she killed the love of her life.
Gareth’s been receiving strange postcards. And Alice is being stalked. None of them are used to relying on others – but when the three strangers’ lives unexpectedly collide, there’s only one thing for it: they have to stick together.
Otherwise, one of them will die. Three strangers, two secrets, one terrifying evening. The million-copy bestseller returns with a gripping new novel that will keep you guessing until the end.
Tracey Harriman –
The story starts with a dead body with 3 apparent strangers standing over it. Ursula, Gareth and Alice.
Very quickly we are taken back in time by a week. We learn the individual stories of our three strangers. Each has a unique character, and each has their own unique secrets. Over the course of the book find what makes Ursula, Gareth and Alice, tick. How past events have put them where they are today, their fears, their shames and their secrets. This information is drip fed to the reader, slowly allowing ideas to form as to where the story is going, who the dead man might be, and how they are involved. Of course, as soon as you think you know where the story is going we get a Taylor Twist.
I found I was drawn into the stories of these individual characters much more than I was interested in the dead man. After the intial introduction of the deceased, I pretty much forgot about him. Understanding the motives behind the actions of Ursula, Gareth and Alice, why they behaved as they did and what had influenced the directions their lives took was what made the book hard to put down. There are other characters within the story, and again, it’s their interactions, their secrets and their behaviours that drive the story forward.
It’s when our three main characters are united that the action really happens. What has brought them together? I’m not going to give any spoilers, but we know that, come the end, they are in the company of a dead man. And by this time, they know that, regardless of what may have happened before, they have to stick together now.
I like Taylor’s writing a lot. I’ve read many of her thrillers and they are all compelling, yet easy reads. In this particular book, I most definitely found it was the characters that kept my interest more so than the plot.
Bob Pickett –
This is a first for C.L. Taylor, with all characters written in the Third Person. And for this story it is essential, as all three protagonists share top billing:
Shop Manager Alice
Mall Security Supervisor Gareth
Courier Ursula
The book starts with the three of them together. They’ve been involved in the same incident. But what was the common link that drew three people – whose lives had barely touched one another’s previously – into this situation?
So you know they’re going to come together, the questions are how and why?
Each one of them is dealing with a situation in their lives that they could do without. You learn about these early on, but the backstory of each character is fleshed out as the story builds, which explains why and how they got into their current predicaments.
It wouldn’t be a C.L. Taylor novel without those chapters; the ones that drop in amongst the narrative, giving little clues without giving anything away. In this case, they are conversations on Twitter by a group of (fittingly) strangers [1], about a killer that is pushing their victims into the Avon. In this case, they provide light relief, break up the major sections of the book and hint towards later action.
But back with the main stories, it’s a good 70% into the story before the main character’s narratives draw together. And when they do, all those little clues that have been cunningly dotted throughout the story make perfect sense.
The finale is dramatic, and just when you think you can relax there is a final, very neat last twist that perhaps shouldn’t have made me smile, but it was so nicely done I couldn’t help myself.
I finished Strangers in a few days. I wanted to see what happened to each of the protagonists as their story built, plus [1] I’d given the OK for my own Twitter handle to be used, so I wanted to see what “I” said (and having read it, I plead the ‘not a real person’ disclaimer! Though it did have me in fits of laughter).
Cally’s style is developing in interesting directions; she is now able to deftly handle multiple leads as well as storylines with equal skill. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next.