I am Watching You – Book Review

Hello ALL!!! Just finished with the audio book, I am Watching You by Teresa Driscoll. Can’t wait to share my thoughts with you all!

What would it take to make you intervene?

When Ella Longfield overhears two attractive young men flirting with teenage girls on a train, she thinks nothing of it—until she realises they are fresh out of prison and her maternal instinct is put on high alert. But just as she’s decided to call for help, something stops her. The next day, she wakes up to the news that one of the girls—beautiful, green-eyed Anna Ballard—has disappeared.

A year later, Anna is still missing. Ella is wracked with guilt over what she failed to do, and she’s not the only one who can’t forget. Someone is sending her threatening letters—letters that make her fear for her life.

Then an anniversary appeal reveals that Anna’s friends and family might have something to hide. Anna’s best friend, Sarah, hasn’t been telling the whole truth about what really happened that night—and her parents have been keeping secrets of their own.

Someone knows where Anna is—and they’re not telling. But they are watching Ella.

• Print Length: 301 pages
• Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (October 1, 2017)
• Publication Date: October 1, 2017
• Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Teresa Driscoll – a former BBC TV news presenter – is now a million-copy #1 bestselling author. Her debut psychological suspense I AM WATCHING YOU hit Kindle #1 in the UK, USA and Australia and has also been a bestseller in Italy in translation. Her second thriller THE FRIEND again made Kindle #1 in the UK and Australia while THE PROMISE hit #2.
Teresa’s work has been sold for translation to 20 countries and optioned for film. She also writes women’s fiction; RECIPES FOR MELISSA was auctioned at the Frankfurt book fair between seven German publishers and her second women’s fiction title is LAST KISS GOODNIGHT.
During her long career as a journalist, Teresa worked for newspapers, magazines and television, including 15 years presenting the BBC TV news programme Spotlight. Covering crime for so long, she was deeply moved by the haunting impact on the relatives, the friends and the witnesses and it is those ripples she explores now in her darker fiction.
Teresa lives in glorious Devon with her family and blogs regularly about her “writing life” at her website – http://www.teresadriscoll.com.

In a nutshell, Ella Longfield was travelling to London for a conference. She gets bored and overhears a conversation between two attractive looking men named Karl and Anthony and two teenage girls, Sarah and Anna, who have just finished their GCSE and are on their way to London to celebrate. But then Ella finds that both Karl and Anthony have just been released from prison. Maternal instincts take over as Ella wants to stop the girls from interacting with the men and call their parents but something prevents her from doing that. The next day, when Ella turns on the TV, she finds that the beautiful green-eyed teenager, Anna Bollard had gone missing. A year later, Ella is still coping with the guilt that she couldn’t do anything about preventing the girls from talking with the ex-cons. Ella then starts receiving postcards from someone with the caption “I AM WATCHING YOU” meaning someone is watching at Ella.

So let’s start with the ones I like about the book.

• The book was a fast paced thriller which I like it. As a result, I wanted to know what really happened to Anna–did Karl or Sarah’s father kidnap her or did she runaway. As a reader, the author does a good job of making the reader keep at the edge of the seat to know what really happened to Anna.
• The book was told from the perspectives of four different characters – The Witness who is Ella, The Father who is Henry Ballard, Anna’s father, The Friend, who is Sarah and The Private Investigator who is Matthew hired by Ella after she started getting those postcards. So as a reader you will know what each of these characters think, how they are all (except for Matthew) coping up with Anna disappearance. Also you will also know how the police are investigating the disappearance case through Anna. We also wonder what secrets does Henry and Sarah holding and as a reader you want to know their deadly secrets!
• There were twists in the book and the ending was a bit unexpected twist. It was good.
• The author’s writing was good and the narrator did a good job reading it. Not much descriptions but simply told the emotional trauma that each one is going through because of Anna’s disappearance.

Now the things I didn’t like.

I wish I know what happened to Sarah in the end even though the author had given a clue about what happened to her.

Overall, this is a good fast paced thriller, enjoyable to read and keeps you at the edge of the seat! Worth five stars!