A secret PAST
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A SEEMINGLY PERFECT MARRIAGE DISINTEGRATES IN A TERRIFYING WAY?
What drives a woman to shoot her husband? In the first pages of Since We Fell, Rachel Childs puts a bullet into the man she loves and much of the rest of the story is devoted to a detailed exploration of why.
We are taken back to
Rachel’s childhood in an idyllic part of Massachusetts, being brought up by a solo mother who refuses to reveal the identity of her father.
Rachel is obsessed with tracing this missing part of her past but it’s a tricky mission and one that is destined to never fully satisfy her.
She throws herself into her career as a TV journalist but a crisis results in her having a meltdown on air, leaving her unemployed and severely agoraphobic.
Brian Delacroix has been in the background for some time but now jumps into the forefront. He’s charming and kind, and supports Rachel through her self-doubt and panic attacks. Eventually, she marries him and he becomes her everything, literally.
Brian spends much of his time travelling for work. One day, when he is meant to be on a plane, Rachel spots someone who looks and dresses exactly like him.
Fearing Brian is lying to her, she slowly begins to realise something about their life has been off-key. What is going on? Who is this man?
Based on those first pages, you may think you know what happens. But this book is a complicated web, with many skeins and plenty of surprises in store.
I tend to race through thrillers, desperate to know how the story turns out. But it pays to slow down with this, as it’s almost two books in one – it’s as much an intimate portrait of a troubled woman as it is a dramatic thriller.
Damaged, vulnerable Rachel is someone we get to know in-depth in the first half of the novel. When the action breaks out in the second half, we discover a different side to her and things become shocking, dramatic and twisty.
I found this an addictive read. It’s deeper and a little different from the average thriller.