| “I Let You Go” by Care Mackintosh – Wed 9th Sept 2026 seven of us met in person to discuss this book and were joined on Zoom by two others. Mackintosh is a former police officer who became a full-time writer in 2011. This is her first book which was published in 2014 to wide acclaim. She has now written 10 further books, also well received. As of 2019, her novels have been published in 40 languages, and she has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide.Reviews of her work online range from glowing, 5 star, to one star. Our rating was in between – 2 to 3 stars. The twist in the plot was widely admired by many online reviewers but deplored by others. The prologue has Jacob, a five-year-old child, being killed by a “hit and run” driver. After this, the story has three main strands which are interleaved throughout the book. The plot is moved forward by the strand written in the third person describing the police investigation. We thought the police were unbelievably slow on the uptake at times, but this was needed to support the plot. Some of us thought the description of the policeman’s home life was unnecessary and a bit hackneyed. Maybe the book would have been better without it? A second strand was written in the first person which avoids using names. This is a deliberate misdirection of the reader because there are in fact two women’s accounts. This deception is supported by having both women having lost a child and both leaving Bristol after the accident. Most of this strand is devoted to Jenna making a new life for herself in Wales. Anya, Jacob’s mother only has a small part. The third strand features Jenna’s husband Ian’s first-person account of their marriage and events leading up to it. It is a graphic account of coercive control, and appalling violence. Having it in the first person enables the author to show how Ian’s mind works – notably how he is convinced that he is blameless as Jenna always provokes him and brings the violence onto herself. This is strand is horrific and portrays the character very well, but after establishing what he is like and describing what was going on, we agreed it went on too long. I think most of us skipped over parts of this section. The ending of the book was much criticised by the group as being too dependent on coincidences. As one online reviewer says, “Asking me to believe that Jacob happened to be crossing the street just as Ian happened to turn down it while abusing his wife in a fit of rage, took it over the top for me.” At the end of the meeting, only one person said she would read another book by Clare Mackintosh. Nevertheless, it was a good book for a reading group as it led to a good discussion about the book itself and the issues of coercive control and domestic violence. Postscript an absent member says don’t be put off, the other books by the author are better, particularly the series featuring DC Sarah Morgan. |
