The Other People by C. J. Tudor

The reason I read psychological thriller novels is because I love to play detective. I love to try to work out what’s happened and basically ‘who dunnit’, as I’m sure everyone else who’s into these books loves to do as well. What is so sensational about ‘The Other People’ is that the author, C. J. Tudor, allows the reader to play detective in a seemingly effortless way. The ability to write an interesting crime story is one thing, but actually being able to make the reader part of the story themselves is another skill entirely. In this story we accompany the main protagonist Gabe on his journey to find his believed to be deceased daughter. It has been three years since Gabe saw his daughter being taken on the day of her and her mother’s (Gabe’s wife’s) supposed murder. Gabe’s world was shattered on that day and his only hope of attempting to fix some of those pieces back together is to find his daughter, that he knows is still alive. But with a girl’s dead body and a positive identification from the girl’s grandfather, the police have no intention of helping Gabe on his quest. He must go alone. There is hope however, as some assistance arrives from some unlikely places, such as from Katie, the woman who works in the services where Gabe frequents and the Samaritan who prevented Gabe from taking his own life a few years prior. These people are not Gabe’s friends nor his family, so why should they help him in finding his daughter, particularly when they are in so much danger themselves? Is it really a selfless act of kindness or are they mixed up in the mysterious story some way too? Also why should the grandfather positively identify his granddaughters body, when it clearly wasn’t hers? This story has so many interesting twists and turns, with more and more people becoming involved in the mystery as the story unfolds. This is not your basic ‘who dunnit’ story but more of a ‘what could be the reason for who dunnit’ kind of story. The author reveals tiny but valuable morsels of information in a carefully precise manner throughout, right up to the very last chapter, allowing the reader to piece together the events of three simultaneous stories that seem so disconnected at first. In doing so, the reader is given time to process all the information and work out motives for each character, allowing them to gain a web of connectivities, just like a DI would in the movies. Then, a sense of overwhelming satisfaction is felt by the reader as they reach a conclusion just a page or two before their theory is revealed to be correct by Gabe. In this novel, C. J. Tudor has very cleverly not only made the reader empathise heavily with Gabe but also become Gabe himself, as we receive, piece together and utilise new information just as he does. The only thing not revealed to the reader is why the strange events in Gabe’s daughter’s narcoleptic episodes occur. Here the reader is forced to use their imagination and come up with their own theories, without being given any logical possibilities. This book therefore also continues the mystery beyond the final page, leaving the reader gripped and contemplating what things go on in the incomprehensible land of dreams when we all fall asleep. Congratulations on this fabulous page turner. I can’t wait for the next novel coming out this year!