Carole Tyrrell worked in the theatre for nearly 10 years and was always fascinating by the way death and the supernatural formed many of the greatest and most enduring works. She has read crime fiction for many years and enjoys the broad range of the genre.
20 years ago, a group of teenagers went to the local derelict cannery to play pellet gun games. The fun stopped when someone used a gun that was loaded with something much deadlier.
And one of the gang Luke Hollander, didn’t go home alive.
In the confusion afterwards Rachel Gaston, his half-sister was arrested and charged. She was acquitted and has spent most of her adult life wondering if she really did kill Luke. Some of the townspeople of Edgewater are convinced that she did, but got away with it. But, burdened with nightmares and constantly reliving that night’s events some would argue that Rachel is already serving a life sentence.
One the 20th anniversary of that fateful night, three people don’t want the incident to be forgotten. Mercedes, the editor of the local paper sees an opportunity to sell papers by running a four-part series on it and the person determined to bring Rachel finally to justice.
After all, what goes around, comes around – or does it?
Edgewater is a small town in Oregon down on its luck. The cannery was once its largest employer but its rotting hulk is a reminder of better times. It’s the kind of place where everyone knows one another, or think they do, and no-one locks their doors. People stay in the town or, if they have vague plans to escape, they are drawn back. The once teenage gang are now nearly 40 but their lives still intertwine with each other.
Rachel is aghast when Lila (once her best friend and mother of Luke’s child), plan to hold a 20-year reunion. But Lila’s plans go awry when Violet Sperry, who testified in Rachel’s defence is found murdered in her own home. Is it coincidence that it happened on the exact date on which Luke was shot 20 years later?
Rachel, now ex-Mrs Ryder, is struggling. She’s lost her job and has two teenage children at high school who are growing away from her. She is haunted by the nightmares and is even more frightened at receiving untraceable text messages saying ‘I forgive you’. There are shadowy figures hanging round the house and Rachel hears on the grapevine that Luke’s real father Bruce, has been released from jail. Is he heading to Edgewater to seek revenge?
But when Cade, Rachel’s ex-husband, the local police chief discovers an overlooked discrepancy in Luke’s crime file he begins to realize that Rachel may have been unfairly paying the price for 20 years, or is he wrong?
Jackson is good at portraying small town life with its secrets and rivalries. It can feel claustrophobic which is why people often leave or plan to leave There can be safety in familiarity. She also has a real ear for dialogue as in Rachel’s exchanges with her children and the use of emoji’s to underline characters comments.
She faultlessly leads the reader through twists and turns right up to the bitter sweet ending.
I really enjoyed Paranoid and would recommend it to anyone looking for an engrossing, suspense-filled story.
