A kidnap…
Matt Westbrook only turned his back for a moment. But when he looks around, his car – with his three young children inside – has vanished.
A ransom…
Panicked, Matt assumes a car thief has got more than he bargained for, but then he starts to receive text messages: This is a kidnap. If you want to see your children again, you will exchange them for your wife.
A choice…
Matt and his wife Annabelle are horrified. They can’t involve the police, or their children will be killed. Which means they have to choose: Annabelle, or their children. Either option is unthinkable. But one is inevitable. And they have only hours to make their decision…
It is every parent's worst nightmare to have their child go missing, but the anguish is tripled when Matt loses all three of his children. What a plonker! He thought they'd be fine left in the car for a few minutes when he popped into the shop but when he returns his car and his children are gone. What a fantastic start to The Choice. It starts at breakneck speed and doesn't let up; I certainly couldn't read it fast enough.
When Matt gets text messages from the kidnapper, not only do you think it's somebody he knows (how else would they have his mobile number?) but it's someone who doesn't want money in exchange for the kids, they want Matt's wife Annabelle. Through flashbacks to the past, the most likely suspects are set out before us and by some miracle I actually guessed the right person. I'm not saying it's obvious by any means; it really was pure luck as something innocuous jumped out at me and tingled my spidey-sense.
This isn't so much a 'what would you do in the same situation' kind of book as I'm sure any mother wouldn't think twice before swapping herself for her children. What it did though, is make you think back over your own past and think of situations you might have been in where other people seemed innocent but they could easily have been hiding an ulterior motive. Scary thoughts indeed.
Taut, tense and suspenseful, The Choice is an excellent psychological thriller. The pacing is fast and the hunt for the kidnapper is relentless making it a gripping and riveting read. I really enjoyed it and I'm now bumping my other Alex Lake books up my reading queue.
I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.
My rating:
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About the author:
Alex Lake is a British novelist who was born in the North West of England. After Anna, the author’s first novel written under this pseudonym, was a No.1 bestselling ebook sensation and a top-ten Sunday Times bestseller. The author now lives in the North East of the US.
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