Good afternoon! While I have a long list of things to talk about, let’s start with the book of the month! February started with Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister ( May 12, 2022). A Goodreads nominee for Best Mystery & Thriller (2022).

My first by Gillian McAllister and I must say it was quite a fascinating read. Truth be told, most of my listens in the last two years have been my first time read of that particular author. I am not complaining , I loved most of them !

If I think about it, most of what have I enjoyed in recent past in thriller genre have been by female authors 😍.

I keep stumbling upon a gem after a gem what can I say ? . After The House in the Pines a eerie, hypnotic thriller that kept me up way past my bed time , I was looking out for something exciting but a bit less intense at the same time ? Am I making any sense 😂🤪.

And that is when I found Wrong Place Wrong Time, a time travel thriller.

Among all the accents that I have heard so far, mostly on the television or in recent years over audiobooks, I most enjoy a character with pronounced Irish accent, with British accent coming in second. Weird, I know!

Now why am I sharing this absolute random information ? Because Gillian McAllister is a British author 😀 and the audiobook has been read by Lesley Sharp, whose British accent is quite lovely and pleasant to listen to!

So yes It was an absolutely delightful audiobook listen for me.

Synopsis

Jen, the protagonist, is anxiously waiting for her son Todd to come home. She spots him in the dark as he about to cross the road and shortly thereafter her world stops turning. She witnesses her son Todd murder a complete stranger. Jen can’t come to terms with the fact that her only son is a murder and that is promising future is over before it even begun!

”How sinister it is to relive your life backward. To see things you hadn’t at the time. To realize the horrible significance of events you had no idea were playing out around you.”

Jen is completely devastated and does not know how she can go forward after this. She goes to sleep distraught and in despair. The next morning, she wakes to find herself not on the morning after the crime, but a day before the crime was committed . Jen wakes up in the past, Day- 0.

And every time Jen goes to bed and wakes up, she is further back in the past. Sometimes skipping months together. She soon realizes that she has to find the clues in the past, to stop the future and save her son. The further back she goes, the bigger the secrets she discovers.

Can she alter the past? Haven’t we all been warned about the Butterfly affect? Can Jen save her son?

Verdict

This story was a delightful surprise, being far more intellectual than I anticipated. The narrator is very good and does a great job at inflecting varied voices for all the characters. Oh might I add “Alright” ! oh you’ll know what I mean when you’ll read the book 😀.

The plot is a complex puzzle with random pieces that finally come in to place. It is a story of a mother’s love- who will do everything in her power and more to save her son’s future!

The story does get a tad wearisome at places specially when Jen skips many days at a stretch, having to listen to her explain herself again and again ! You may find yourself getting a bit bored. But stick with the story and you will be amazed at how it unfolds.

The ending is not what I did not see coming but nonetheless it kept me on my toes!

There are many instances in the story where you as a parent can relate to Jen’s heartache, her guilt as she questions if it was her failure as a parent that her son turned out to be a murder ! Oh parenthood can be so hard and rewarding at the same time right ?!

“The love, true love, it should have eclipsed the shame, but there is so much judgment involved in parenthood that it never did. The shame is so easy to access, at the school gates, at the doctor’s, on fucking Mumsnet. She can’t let it go.”

The guilt of modern age parenting of doing enough or not doing enough! Now that is topic for another day.

I positively enjoyed this story on my morning walks, drives and otherwise! Yes, please go give it a listen or a read.

“The maternal habit of a lifetime, feeling guilty no matter which she chose.” ~  Gillian McAllister