The Victim

June 17, 2019
British author Manning (Don’t Look Now) explores the life-altering consequences that can ensue from split-second decisions in this clever thriller. Connor “Con” Norton, a vicious psychopath, accosts Gem Golding, a public relations executive, outside a London supermarket, demanding her car keys and forcing her to the ground. From that point, the author portrays two vastly different versions of the future depending on whether Gem opts to act as “Gem, the Warrior” or as “Gem, the Victim.” Characters affecting both future paths include Det. Insp. Elliot Day, just demoted from Scotland Yard to the Hackney CID
, who desperately wants to solve this apparently simple carjacking; Gem’s boyfriend, Drew Bentley, a control freak who exploits Gem’s carjacking incident to manipulate her while concealing a past relationship of his with Con; and journalist Matt Revell, who uses Gem’s story to further his career. Manning adroitly manipulates the alternative story lines up to the shocking ending. Lovers of psychological suspense will be mesmerized. Agent: Madeline Milburn, Madeline Milburn (U.K.).

June 1, 2019
The decision Gem Golding makes one fateful night changes her life. Coming home late from work, she stops to buy painkillers at a drugstore, and as she leaves her car, she's accosted by a carjacker with a knife and must choose whether to fight or surrender. Here the narrative splits. In one scenario, Gem fights, biting her attacker and getting back into her car and hitting him when he impedes her escape; in the other, she surrenders, lying on the ground at her attacker's command but getting up too soon and being run down by him and having her wrist broken. Ironically, the fighter sustains more trauma, particularly after becoming a media darling and giving an interview that infuriates her psychopathic attacker; she becomes fearful of leaving home and delays returning to work, while the Gem who surrendered is resuming her normal life. Gem's live-in boyfriend, lawyer Drew Bentley, is generally supportive, despite having long urged her to stop working so they could start a family, and the recently-demoted detective inspector on the case has a lot to prove. From the author of Don't Look Now (2018), an ingeniously plotted psychological thriller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)