Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister @MichaelJBooks @GillianMAuthor #NetGalley #bookreview #WrongPlaceWrongTime

Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

Published by Penguin Michael Joseph UK

Publication Date: 12th May 2022 (hardback), 2nd March 2023

My thanks to the publisher for allowing me access to this book in order to offer my review.

Book Description:

CAN YOU STOP A MURDER AFTER IT'S ALREADY HAPPENED?

It's late. You're waiting up for your son.

Then you spot him: he's with someone. And - you can't believe what you see - your funny, happy teenage boy stabs this stranger.

You don't know who. You don't know why. You only know your son is charged with murder. His future is lost.

That night you fall asleep in despair. But when you wake . . . it is yesterday. The day before the murder.

Somewhere in the past lie the answers - a reason for this crime.

And your only chance to stop it . . .

My Thoughts:

The first thing to say about this book is: wow! I am blown away with the planning of this book.

Secondly, do not let the whole "time travel" thing put you off. That is the whole reason I left this book on my shelf for SO long, thinking that I wouldn't be in the mood for a book with a sci-fi slant. How wrong was I? Although our main character is indeed stuck in a time loop, it doesn't affect the feel of the book as it is very much a mystery thriller but very cleverly written in reverse. Kind of. I very much wish I had read this book as soon as it landed on my virtual shelf and am SO impressed with Gillian McAllister's ability to write this book, keeping all the facts in order and lined up despite working in the opposite direction to the way this kind of book usually works.

Jen and Kelly have a great relationship. They met when Kelly arrived at Jen's father's law firm, him touting for business as a painter and decorator. Kelly is mega chilled, so laid back he's horizontal, as the saying goes. Jen is the super organised one, the disciplinarian who makes sure their 18 year old son Todd knows right from wrong and is one of the nice guys. It is therefore a major shock when Jen watches as her son comes home from a night out, is approached by an older guy. Todd turns and stabs him to death outside their family home. He's arrested and taken to the police station where he's kept for questioning.  Jen and Kelly have no choice but to return home, shocked and tired, leaving Todd to the consequences of his actions. Or do they?

Jen wakes up the next morning - except it's not the next morning, it's the day before. Once Jen can compute in her mind what's going on, she realises she's been sent back in a time loop in an attempt to put things right for her son and change his future. 

It's a few days since I completed this book and I am still totally overwhelmed at how an author can so accurately write this storyline. Every detail was spot on in how it fitted with other facts in the book later on (or earlier, depending on how you look at it). The characters are fleshed out perfectly at the various ages they would have been given the change in period. It's all just SO DARNED CLEVER and the conclusion to the book was an absolute pleasure after reading the challenges Jen and Kelly had to face along the way. I can honestly say I have never read a book like this before and Gillian has set the bar so high if any other author wants to try a similar theme for their next book.

About the Author:

Gillian McAllister is the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of the following novels:

Everything But The Truth (2017)

Anything You Do Say (2018) called The Choice in America

No Further Questions (2018) called The Good Sister in America

The Evidence Against You (2019)

How To Disappear (2020)

That Night (2021)

Wrong Place Wrong Time (2022)

All are standalone and can be read in any order.