THE OTHER PEOPLE by C.J. Tudor
Ballantine Books; 1/28/20
CBTB Rating: 5/5
The Verdict: A gripping, inventive, sinister thriller
I breathe a sigh of relief every time I start a new book by C.J. Tudor. That’s not because these books are light, relaxing reads—they’re not, not by any stretch of the imagination. It’s because C.J. Tudor, perhaps more so than any new author I’ve discovered in the past few years, writes with the kind of confidence and assurance that puts the reader totally at ease. Tudor’s stories are dark, intricate, mind-bending confections, the kinds of books that creep under your skin and demand you keep turning the pages well beyond your bedtime. They are, for me, pure escapism—stories worth setting aside your to-do list to devour. Tudor’s third outing, which just went on sale in the U.S. earlier this week, is no exception. THE OTHER PEOPLE begins with an apparently straightforward missing persons mystery: a father is on the hunt for his young daughter, a girl who went missing three years prior. He is the only one who believes she is still alive, and he won’t give up until he finds her. But there are more sinister forces at work here, namely, an anonymous and shadowy group that lives on the dark web—The Other People. Who are these “other people,” and what involvement do they have, if any, with our protagonist’s missing child? As readers follow the threads of this intricate mystery, they will quickly discover that the bigger picture of THE OTHER PEOPLE is even more fascinating than its individual parts. Laced with supernatural suspense and brimming with page-turning entertainment value and emotional heft, THE OTHER PEOPLE cements C.J. Tudor as the modern queen of creepy. Any reader who loves crime fiction that pushes the envelope simply must add C.J. Tudor to their to-read list.
Plot Details:
Q: Why are you called the Other People?
A: We are people just like you. People to whom terrible things have happened. We’ve found solace not in forgiveness or forgetting. But in helping each other find justice.
Driving home one night, stuck behind a rusty old car, Gabe sees a little girl’s face appear in its rear window. She mouths one word: Daddy. It’s his five-year-old daughter, Izzy. He never sees her again.
Three years later, Gabe spends his days and nights traveling up and down the highway, searching for the car that took his daughter, refusing to give up hope, even though most people believe she’s dead.
When the car that he saw escape with his little girl is found abandoned with a body inside, Gabe must confront not just the day Izzy disappeared but the painful events from his past now dredged to the surface.
Q: What sort of justice?
A: That depends on the individual. But our ethos is a punishment that fits the crime.
Fran and her daughter, Alice, also put in a lot of miles on the road. Not searching. Running. Because Fran knows what really happened to Gabe’s daughter. She knows who is responsible. And she knows what they will do if they ever catch up to her and Alice.
Q: Can I request to have someone killed?
A: If your Request is acceptable, and unless there are exceptional circumstances, we fulfill all Requests.
C.J. Tudor is, to me, one of the most fiercely original talents at work in the suspense and thriller space right now. That’s no easy feat—this is a very crowded field, one brimming with bright new talent and formidable established authors alike. But there is, simply put, no one quite like Tudor. Blending elements of horror nostalgia and psychological thrills with plots that explore the dangers and dark corners of childhood, Tudor’s novels are intoxicatingly original and impossible to predict. She also happens to be an author for whom growing pains don’t seem to exist. We can never know the challenges authors experience while writing their work, but from the outside, Tudor’s ascent has been effortless. Each book of hers truly is better than the last, and it’s nothing but a pleasure to see how she grows and pushes herself with each new release. It stands to reason, then, that her brand-new book THE OTHER PEOPLE is an exceptional psychological thriller—and boy, is it ever. True to form, Tudor begins with a premise grounded in reality: a man is hunting for his daughter, who went missing years prior. Also true to form, Tudor uses this realistic premise as the launching point for a story of incredible complexity and mind-bending creativity. THE OTHER PEOPLE is part missing persons mystery, part psychological thriller, part work of supernatural suspense, and the sum of all its parts is an exceptional, gripping novel laced with menace and dripping with entertainment value. Simply put, C.J. Tudor has done it again.
One of my personal favorite qualities of Tudor’s work is how effortlessly her stories grow from small, simple premises into intricate, sometimes even larger-than-life mysteries. In THE OTHER PEOPLE, our story begins with a father’s worst nightmare coming true. One night, while driving home from work, our protagonist Gabe sees something unthinkable in the car in front of him: his young daughter, Izzy. Why isn’t Izzy safe at home in her bed? Whose car is she in? Suddenly, Gabe’s life becomes a living nightmare—but things are about to get worse. Gabe arrives home to discover that his wife and daughter have been killed in a brutal home invasion. Years later, Gabe is a man unhinged. He has committed his life to searching for Izzy, whom he believes is still alive. He can’t let go of what he saw that night on his drive home. At the same time, Tudor presents readers with another mystery: that of a woman named Fran, and her daughter, Alice. Much like Gabe, Fran also spends her life on the road… only she’s not searching for someone, she is running from someone. Fran knows something she shouldn’t, and she knows what will happen to her and her daughter if she is ever caught. Alternating between these two main storylines, THE OTHER PEOPLE unspools an intricate, sinister story of a father’s love, a mother’s devotion, and a desperate race to escape a shadowy group known as “The Other People.”
THE OTHER PEOPLE is a hugely character-driven work of suspense. Readers will find Gabe and Fran instantly intriguing: both Gabe and Fran are individuals driven by love for their children, and both harbor secrets and motivations that, when revealed, will shock even the savviest reader. But perhaps the most interesting character of all here is the story’s titular collective—“the other people.” In The Other People, Tudor has crafted an absolutely fascinating “villain,” if we can even think of “them” that way. The Other People is a group of ordinary men and women - anonymous individuals - who organize on the dark web. This group isn’t motivated by anything other than helping one another get justice. The concept is simple: sometimes the law can’t truly deliver justice, so ordinary people must take matters into their own hands. To participate in this group, an individual can submit a “request” online. If the “request” is accepted, it will be carried out by another anonymous individual. The requester, in turn, must be prepared to complete someone else’s “request” when called upon. It’s a simple quid pro quo… but, as readers are about to find out, it can be deadly. This conceit is so wholly entertaining and chilling, I can’t sing its praises enough. I love the concept of a thriller that pushes ordinary people into extraordinary situations, and that’s exactly what Tudor does to her characters here. If “the other people” are simply ordinary men and women, can they really be “bad guys”? Where is the line between seeking justice and committing another injustice in the process? Tudor plays with the boundary lines of morality to hugely entertaining effect through this sinister organization.
As is always true for Tudor’s novels, THE OTHER PEOPLE refuses to be confined by the limits of reality, but the less you know about this book’s otherworldly elements, the better. Readers who don’t want any supernatural suspense in their crime novels might prefer to skip this book, as it does have elements that simply cannot be explained by logic or reason. However, Tudor never uses these otherworldly elements as easy solutions to her story’s many mysteries; they are simply an added layer of intrigue in a story that is tightly and thoughtfully plotted from first to last. THE OTHER PEOPLE is an exceptional, boundary-pushing thriller, the kind of book that genuinely deserves to be devoured whole and shared with all your thriller-reading friends. C.J. Tudor continues to carve out the most exciting space for herself in the crime fiction genre, and I cannot wait to see what this talented author will come up with next.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. All opinions my own.
Book Details:
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books (January 28, 2020)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1984824996
ISBN-13: 978-1984824998
Crime by the Book is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. This in no way affects my opinion of the book(s) included in this post.
Home ownership feel like a distant dream? Zillow listings have you convinced you’ll be renting for the rest of your life? The woman at the heart of Carissa Orlando’s debut The September House feels your pain—and she’s prepared to put up with a lot if it means she and her husband can finally have a place to call their own. In this case, that might just mean living in a house that’s haunted. Playful and irreverent, spine-tingling and spooky, The September House puts a fresh spin on the classic haunted house story, delivering an immersive tale about the secrets lurking within one building’s walls, and within the lives of its inhabitants.