Gillian Mcallister always has very interesting subjects and topics for her novels. Everything is grey, not black and white.
This book was a slow burn for me and I found myself often annoyed that it was so slow. None of the characters really felt fleshed to me. They all seemed very bland.
I did not really care much for the final big clue, and in the end I do not think I would recommend this.

This book was as well written as you would come to expect from Gillian McAllister but the plot fell a bit flat for me. I really liked the sound of the synopsis but I just found it really slow going and I wasn’t gripped like I have been with her other novels. And the reveal at the end left me a bit cold as well. It seems most people have enjoyed this but I just felt a real disconnect from the plot and the characters which is a shame. Thanks to the author, Netgalley and Penguin for an advanced copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

McAllister is getting quite the reputation when it comes to the premises of her books. She picks scenarios with no clear black or white answers. In fact her speciality is the murky variety of grey shades when it comes to questions of guilt, innocence and the foggy swampland of neither in between.

Izzy English isn’t sure whether she should be relieved or worried. Today is the day her father is being released from prison. He has spent the last seventeen years behind bars for the murder of his wife and her mother. Izzy is sent into a little tailspin, because she doesn’t know whether she should forgive him or stay away from him.

That is already a quandary, but what really shakes Izzy to her core is the fact her father maintains his innocence. The same man who was found guilty by a jury of his peers and who showed remorse to the parole board, is now saying that he didn’t do it and that the guilty party is still out there somewhere.

She decides to start her own investigation into the brutal homicide of her mother, despite all the evidence pointing firmly in the direction of her family.

I enjoyed the way the author portrayed the main character in complete emotional turmoil. She wants what is left of her family back so badly that she is willing to risk her life to prove her father is innocent. At the same time she lies to her loved ones about looking for the real guilty party, and because they think her father is guilty in their eyes there is no danger.

It’s a perfect game of cat and mouse, simultaneously it is a mind game full of paranoia and suspicion. Did he do it or didn’t he? What does Izzy believe or rather what does she want to believe?

McAllister gives the reader a riveting read full of doubt, self-doubt and speculation. It’s a psychological thriller that will keep you on your toes and keep you guessing until the end. You know what they say sometimes if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck – sometimes it’s just a duck.

I suggested with this book that begin with, it was incredibly slow to start, and I found that at times I was almost forcing myself forward, that said it does pick up as you get further into it, with a few shocking twists coming towards the end. On the whole it was a reasonably good read.

I found the concept of this story intriguing - Izzy's father was found guilty of her mother's murder and is now being released having completed his sentence, but was he innocent all the time? Izzy starts to doubt his guilt and together they try to uncover the truth. Unfortunately the story progresses very slowly and I had to struggle on at times to continue reading. I thought I knew what the eventual conclusion would be and who the murderer was but as with good plot lines the twists start to come near the end, which is when the pace really picked up. The final twist - no spoilers from me! - was surprising, a little disappointing and sad. Worth persevering to read to the end though.

A book about murder. Did her father really murder her mother? He must have, he's spent eighteen years in prison. Yet when he is released, the one thing he wants to do use to convince his daughter that he didn't. How can she believe him? By listening to his side of the story and her memories. How does she know if he's telling the truth.

A really good book that took me a while to get into. I nearly gave up on it a couple of times, but something drew me in and it was well worth it.

I really enjoyed this book though it was a little slow to start with. Quite a few twists to keep the reader guessing till the end.

Gillian McAllister is a fantastic novelist. I always enjoy her books. This one was no exception. I found it rather slow starting this time, hence the missing star, but it did pick up to become a thrilling read.

The Evidence Against You was in my opinion not as good as Gillian McAllister's other books.Izzy's father Gabe has just been released from prison after serving seventeen years for murdering her mum but he has always proclaimed his innocence so Izzy sets out to find new evidence which will exonerate Gabe Along the way Izzy finds out plenty of secrets and lies which her mum had kept hidden from her and so confusing Izzy into what really happened all those years ago .Although it is a good thriller i just felt it dragged in parts and it wasn't a page turner that had me gripped i'm sorry to say,A few surprises towards the end upped the suspense a little but for me Gillian McAllister has written better books by far.

I enjoyed this book in the main and zipped through it. Good character building in a story about a young girl who lost her mother in tragic circumstances. I was reasonably happy with the outcome, although I partly guessed it. I kept thinking there was more to the late mother's backstory but satisfying nevertheless.

It was okay and I was intrigued to read forwards to find out what happened. However, I did find it a bit slow.

This book had my rapt attention right from the start and I was immediately hooked. Gillian McAllister has become one of my favourite "go to" authors when I want to read a thriller to really get my teeth into.

The premise is straight forward enough. Izzy's father Gabe was convicted of murdering her mother and his wife over 18 years ago.
When he's released he immediately turns up at the restaurant Izzy owns and looking at her through the window, puts a letter through the letterbox proclaiming his innocence. Over the next few days more letters arrive asking her to talk to the person who knows Gabe best, his best friend Paul. Izzy is naturally conflicted and feels torn until she decides to do something and speak to Paul.

Paul tells her that if only they could find the alibi, David Smith, the neighbour working casually for the summer as a windsurfing instructor and who left after it happened. He would be the biggest part of his defence. By this stage Izzy is sucked in and gets more pulled in and grows ever more determined to find the truth and discover if her father is innocent and was wrongly imprisoned, or if he's someone she should be wary of; a sly, charming manipulator with two sides to him. She decides to talk to him, initially just phone calls, which then lead to face to face meetups. For reasons she can't answer, she keeps contact with her father a secret from her husband Nick, not knowing how he'd react.

Izzy soon notices that her father's memories as he recounts them, always show him in a better light than her mother. If he's recalling an argument between them, he presents it in a way that favours him and shows her mother in an unfavourable manner. His memories then trigger Izzy's own memories she had buried deep down. Yet they seem to be at odds with her fathers, and show his to be full of discrepancies. So what is the truth? Whose memories are correct? Have any memories been distorted by the passage of time, or purposefully to fudge the truth?

As Izzy tumbles further down the rabbit hole, the truth becomes more blurry. Similar to the distorted reflections the mirrors at the funfairs house of mirrors reproduce.

The Evidence Against You is a terrific thriller and a must read if you enjoy nail biting thrillers. Like the best books in this genre do, they keep you thinking you know the twist, only to discover you've been wrong footed and the spot light of guilt pointed elsewhere. With the market so over saturated with thrillers, some brilliant and original, others a bit meh, Gillian McAllister has shown she is an author who can be relied upon to give you exactly what you want. A twisty, suspenseful, tense read full of uncertainty, that will have you second guessing and looking at each and every character suspiciously.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin U.K - Michael Joseph for the opportunity to read this ARC in return for an honest and unbiased review.

Brilliant, absolutely loved Gillian McAllister’s latest offering, The Evidence Against You, another complex and twisted thriller. This is an author who really understands how to build tension and her characters are convincing in word and deed.

The premise is unusual. The narrative is based on the viewpoint of a single character, Izzy, whose father murdered her mother twenty years ago. He’s released from prison and returns to seek out Izzy, proclaiming his innocence. The Isle of Wight setting during a hot and oppressive summer really adds to the introspection and sense of claustrophobia. In a small tight knit community, everyone knows your business and memories are long. Izzy hasn’t seen her father since the murder and doesn’t know how to deal with his return or the conflict caused by his possible innocence. What really happened that night and who was responsible?

Bit by bit, layers of an apparently happy marital life are exposed. There’s infidelity, deceit, earlier domestic violence and a host of individuals who aren’t quite as they seem.

It’s a truly clever cracker of a story. Twisted, occasionally dark as cracks start to show. The really compelling part of this tale is that Izzy appears to be a reliable narrator, so her doubts and fears are almost palpable. Tension builds slowly in this beautifully constructed chiller which kept me engrossed right the way through. Another winner from McAllister.

Gillian McAllister knows how to write a gripping book. Whenever she has a new book out it always go straight to the top of my reading pile, she is one of the best writers of psychological thrillers out there at the moment. Her latest The Evidence Against You is another absolutely compelling read that will keep you turning the pages.

Twenty years ago, Izzy’s mother was murdered and her body left in the woods. Izzy’s father was charged with her mother’s murder, and now he has finally been released from prison and is keen to make amends with Izzy, but Izzy soon realises that he means to try and convince her of his innocence. Izzy carefully begins to unpick the evidence that lead to her father’s trial and conviction and startling revelations begin to come to light. Could her father be telling the truth?

One thing that Gillian McAllister really writes well in her novels is the relationships that her characters have, and in this book, this was especially the case with Izzy and her husband, Nick. I loved the way how Gillian fleshed out their marriage, and they really become real people, who you could just imagine being people that you know.

Izzy was a character who I could root for all the way through. She is someone who has gone through unimaginable turmoil, losing one parent to a heinous act and then to find out that it was her other parent who committed the crime. It must be very hard even to begin to imagine what that does to a person. Gillian kept me asking questions about Izzy’s dad all the way through, was he innocent or was he guilty? I was never sure if he was simply playing Izzy and I couldn’t help but feel for her as she attempted to try and make sense out of everything that was happening, especially when she was being told repeatedly that there was no mistake in the original conviction. It seemed impossible at times to think that she would ever get to the real truth, as so much time had passed since her mother’s murder.

This is another brilliant book from Gillian McAllister that I was very excited to read and it did not disappoint. She is proving to be a psychological thriller writer who is at the top of her game. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

Unbelievably good book. I could not guess at all where this was going and it kept me going all the way to the end.

Just could not put it down! The characters of Issy and Gabe in particular are really well drawn and you quite fall in love to them and their sad sad tale .

Looking forward to the next from this author

Brilliant read yet again !!! I love the detail you get in a book by Gillian McAllister . The story starts with Izzy's father being released from prison after being convicted of murdering her mum . He contacts Izzy protesting his innocence and together they start to investigate the days leading up to the murder and discovery of her mums body . It's brilliantly written and kept me guessing all along as Izzy must decide whether to trust her dad . The people in her life also have some secrets to hide , including her police analyst husband .
I found this book incredibly sad at the end but totally understood the conclusion reached . Fantastic 5 stars from me .

It took me a few chapters to get into this read but then I was hooked. Izzy is having a hard life having experienced the loss of her parents and longed for passion to dance. When the chance to find out more about the past which changed her life path for ever comes about, Izzy can't resist. The rest of the book is Izzy, and ourselves as readers, uncovering the truth. The writter keeps us guessing with twists to chage our minds in every chapter. A good mystery novel.

This was a very well-written book - good characterisation and achieved the right amount of tension from the very beginning. I would have no hesitation in recommending it - particularly for a book-reading group as there were many good topics for discussion.

With thanks to Net Galley for giving me the opportunity of reviewing it.

Totally loved this book. Bursting with tension as Izzy battles to decide if her father is telling the truth about his innocence or if he is a manipulative murderer. Secrets are uncovered and I didn't predict the ending - not even close! Excellent.

I have read a few of Gillian McaAllisters books and enjoyed them. Reading The evidence against you, I found my mind wandering. I wanted to love this one, but struggled. Love the concept of the story and the intrigue. But for me the story was written over two many chapters and I found my self skim reading some chapters.