I seem to be going through a bit of a psychological thriller stage with my recent book choices. Maybe that is not unique to me given the recent successes of the book and movie adaptations of Gone Girl and Girl on a Train.
The One Who Got Away has been likened to both of those books. By the time I had finished it, I felt a better comparison was with the movie The Sixth Sense. It is not a ghost story or science fiction but it is a good rollicking yarn with enough twists and turns that it kept me guessing right to the end.
The story begins with Loren Wynne-Estes disappearing while holidaying on a cruise.
Overington then uses flashbacks and changing narrator devices to great effect to uncover what happened.
We learn that Loren was a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who marries an ostensibly successful businessman, David. Moving to New York and then the more affluent part of her own home town with her husband and twin girls, she seems to have it all. Predictably, her life is not that perfect. The complexities of Loren’s relationships, her marriage and her own internal struggles become clearer when each of the characters explains what they saw happening in Loren’s life prior to her disappearance.
Overington’s writing is good enough and no better. Her skill is not in her prose but in her very original story. Her characters are developed enough to be engaging but I do not expect them to linger with me.
In short, this is a great page turner and thoroughly satisfying but it does not bear up to much scrutiny if you are looking for outstanding writing.
