The Other People by C.J. Tudor

Cover Art Courtesy of Goodreads

So C.J. Tudor is an author that I know a lot of thriller fans love. She has three novels out, and I've had some exposure to all of them. The first was The Chalk Man, which to me was solidly okay, but I only rated 3 stars. The Hiding Place came next which I attempted to read, but unfortunately ended up DNF'ing. When this third book, The Other People, came out, I thought it would help me finally get a good idea of how I felt about C.J. Tudor's work overall. 

The Other People starts with following three main story lines. Gabe's daughter has been taken, but no one believes him. Instead, everyone else believes Izzy to be dead. Not just dead, but murdered. For three years, Gabe trolls the interstate looking for the car he saw stealing his little girl away years ago. Katie works as a waitress in a service station, and often sees Gabe when he comes in. She sympathizes with him, as she too has lost someone unfairly...her father. Fran and her daughter Alice are constantly moving from place to place, running from people that pose a threat to them because of something that Fran knows.

I try to go into thrillers knowing as little as possible. I usually don't even read the synopsis. That's why I was pleasantly shocked to find out that this book prominently featured the dark web. This has always been something I've been intrigued by, and I haven't seen a lot of in thrillers up to this point. This book also had a few, dare I say, supernatural elements to it as well, which were a nice addition. Three story lines were a bit much to follow at first, and I found myself not being drawn to any of them. The book did pick up in the last third or so, but for a while there it was a lot to slog through. The ending was decent, but didn't really take my breath away or shock me.

As much as I had hoped this would give me a true read on my thoughts on this author (ie, I was hoping to absolutely love or absolutely hate this book), it just didn't. Like The Chalk Man, it was a completely middle of the road read for me. I didn't find myself reaching for it, but the story was interesting enough. I guess I'll have to wait and see what she puts out next to really make a determination!

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

Thanks so much to Ballantine Books for a finished copy of this read! The Other People by C.J. Tudor is out now!