Bring Me Back

Twelve years ago, a stop on a highway changes the life of Finn and Layla. While he is going to the toilet, she disappears. They had been in love, he had asked her to marry him during their holidays in France, now he is desperate to find her. That’s what he tells the police, but it is only part of the story. After some time of mourning, Finn gets closer to Layla’s sister Ellen, strange at first, but it feels right, even though he could never love her in the same way he loved Layla. Shortly after Finn asks Ellen to marry him, strange things start to happen. Ellen believes to have seen Layla, Finn is receiving e-mails seemingly coming from her and they find Russian dolls – something only Ellen and Layla know the significance of. It is impossible that somebody else is playing tricks on them. It must be Layla. But what does she want and is Ellen or Finn actually in danger?

Since I enjoyed “Behind Closed Doors” from B.A. Paris a lot, I was eager to read her latest thriller and again, she did not disappoint me. “Bring me back” is a classic thriller, right from the start you know that you cannot fully trust the characters, they have lied to others before and so they might not tell you the truth either. It keeps you alert, and since you don’t know where the discernible danger is actually coming from, the suspense is slowly rising.

What I liked especially was the construction of the novel. On the one hand, you have the story in the present told by Finn. On the other hand, you have something like secret diary entries which shed a slightly different light on the story told. After some time, Finn is replaced by Layla which gives you another perspective and adds to the suspense. The author deliberately leads to clues which turn out wrong, provides different explanations which cannot stand the tests they are put at, so you wonder throughout the novel what all this is about. It is not easy to find a good solution out of the plot, but for me, it absolutely worked and all was explained in a convincing way.