The Other People

August 1, 2019

Ever since he witnessed five-year-old daughter Izzy's abduction, Gabe spends every spare moment trolling the motorway where Izzy disappeared, though most people are convinced that she's dead. It's cold comfort when Gabe finally finds a clue leading him to the Other People, who understand what real loss is like and want others to feel it, too. From rising-star Tudor, author of The Chalk Man and The Hiding Place.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 21, 2019
Gabe Forman, the protagonist of this nightmarish novel from Thriller Award–winner Tudor (The Hiding Place), is running late for dinner when he spies his five-year-old daughter, Izzy, in the window of a stranger’s car. He gives chase, but loses the vehicle in traffic. When he calls home, police inform him that an intruder shot and killed both Izzy and his wife. Though his father-in-law positively identifies the bodies, Gabe knows what he saw, and he abandons everything to travel England’s M1 motorway in search of Izzy. Three years later, Gabe discovers the abductor’s abandoned car, which contains clues pointing to a dark web group that helps wronged parties find justice. But why target Gabe’s family—and where is Izzy? Tudor intersperses Gabe’s hunt with scenes spotlighting a woman named Fern and seven-year-old Alice, who have spent three years on the run. Realistic characters fueled by genuine emotion carry the tale to a pat yet pleasing conclusion, though the central mystery relies too heavily on coincidence, and a supernatural subplot involving Alice’s mirror-induced narcolepsy feels half-baked. Hopefully, Tudor’s next book will be a return to form. Agent: Madeleine Milburn, Madeleine Milburn Literary (U.K.).

November 15, 2019
A few years ago, Gabe Forman's wife, Jenny, and 5-year-old daughter, Izzy, were killed in their home, but Gabe is convinced that Izzy is still alive. Traversing England's M1 in a camper van (which doubles as his home) in an endless search for clues to his daughter's whereabouts is no way to live, but Gabe, who is a shadow of his former self, sees it as penance. During the attack on his family three years ago, Gabe wasn't home. He was on the M1, where he insists he caught a glimpse of Izzy in an old car. His father-in-law identified their bodies, but Gabe's sighting of Izzy that day, and a few other things, has convinced him that she's still alive. He was a suspect for a short time but was cleared and couldn't convince the police of his sighting. A tip on Izzy from a mysterious man who calls himself the Samaritan leads to a submerged car, a dead body, and an underground network that calls itself The Other People. Its website is only accessible via the dark web, and it offers a very exclusive service for victims of crime who feel robbed of the justice they feel they deserve. But the group's help comes at a terrible price. Meanwhile, a woman named Fran is on the run with a little girl named Alice, who has terrifying visions of a girl and an eerie beachscape. Who is the girl, and what is she trying to tell Alice? Tudor's (The Hiding Place, 2019, etc.) narrative is saturated in menace, and the action, once it starts, barely lets up. Gabe's urgency becomes the reader's as he gets closer to finding out the truth about the horrible day that he lost his family, and Tudor skillfully weaves in poignant observations on the nature of justice and the power of grief. However, while the supernatural storyline is certainly creepy, it could have used a bit more meat on its bones--but that's a quibble. Dean Koontz fans, in particular, will find much to enjoy in this sinister, unsettling treat. Tudor just keeps getting better and better.

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December 1, 2019
Two years ago Gabe's wife and daughter, Izzy, were murdered in a home invasion. Gabe was too distraught to identify their bodies, but he knows Izzy can't be dead; at the moment they were supposedly killed, he was trying to tail a car through rush-hour traffic because he was certain Izzy was frantically calling to him from the back window. Now Gabe obsessively searches English highways for the car in which his daughter had been riding. His only ally is The Samaritan, a mysterious figure who offers reassurance and protection and who eventually finds the car. Paperwork in the glove compartment leads Gabe to The Other People, a Dark Web group that offers crime victims a chance at retribution but at a soul-snatching cost. Meanwhile, Fran and seven-year-old Alice have evaded The Other People's volunteer killers for years. But, while Gabe closes in on Izzy's kidnapper, Fran disappears, leaving Alice to trust strangers with her life. A breathless escape story with hints of the supernatural and the promise of redemption dangling just out of reach.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)