I See You — Books, Beauty, & Buys

By: Clare Mackintosh
Published Year: 2017
Publisher: Berkley Books
Pages: 384

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I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Every morning and evening, Zoe Walker takes the same route to the train station, waits at a certain place on the platform, finds her favorite spot in the car, never suspecting that someone is watching her...

It all starts with a classified ad. During her commute home one night, while glancing through her local paper, Zoe sees her own face staring back at her; a grainy photo along with a phone number and a listing for a website called FindTheOne.com.

Other women begin appearing in the same ad, a different one every day, and Zoe realizes they’ve become the victims of increasingly violent crimes—including murder. With the help of a determined cop, she uncovers the ad’s twisted purpose...A discovery that turns her paranoia into full-blown panic. Zoe is sure that someone close to her has set her up as the next target.

And now that man on the train—the one smiling at Zoe from across the car—could be more than just a friendly stranger. He could be someone who has deliberately chosen her and is ready to make his next move…

First Impressions

Last year I received Mackintosh’s debut novel I Let You Go for review. While I wasn’t crazy about it, I saw potential in her writing and knew I was going to check out her future books. When I was offered the chance to review her sophomore novel I jumped on it! The cover is intriguing and the summary sounded so interesting. I also liked that this one wasn’t being compared to Gone Girl or other similar novels.

What I thought

This novel was so good! If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know my biggest issue with mystery/thrillers is predictability. I’ve mentioned that I have a bit of a gift in predicting the endings so it takes a special novel to surprise me. While this one didn’t shock me 100%, there were parts that I did not predict and the parts that I did get right, I didn’t guess until pretty far into the book!

Zoe is a 40-year-old woman living and working in London. One day on her commute home she sees her own picture in an ad for an escort agency. The next day, she notices a different woman in the ad and shortly after that, the woman is found dead. Obviously scared for her own life, Zoe informs police inspector Kelly Swift of the connection which leads the police down a path to discover where these ads came from and who the next victim is going to be.

I See You alternates between chapters from Zoe’s perspective, PI Kelly Swift’s perspective, and anonymous inputs from the person who placed the advertisements. This alternating perspective formula was used by Mackintosh in her first novel, but it worked better for me in this one. Maybe it was because I liked Swift better than the other police officer, but it flowed better for me. If she had her own series, I would definitely continue reading them.

I would also classify this story as more of a police mystery than a thriller. It focuses around an investigation and Zoe is very much a part of it. I liked that Zoe wasn’t ignorant and knew immediately that something was up and did something about it. A lot of the time it seems like the women who are having troubles in stories like these either don’t go to the police, or when they do they aren’t taken seriously. I greatly appreciated that Zoe had a good head on her shoulders and that the police were presented in a good light as well.

I don’t want to give too much away because I feel like the less you know about these types of stories the better, but it felt like everything that didn’t work for me in the last book worked for me in this one. The story itself was fascinating because it had ties into a lot of society. The use of technology in this book was done well, and while if broken down it may not be completely plausible, the way that Mackintosh wrote about it made it seem like it could be happening right now.