A gripping thriller about a man’s quest for the daughter no one else believes is still alive, from the acclaimed author of The Chalk Man and The Hiding Place. An ID Book Club Selection • “C. J. Tudor is terrific. I can’t wait to see what she does next.”—Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling authorQ: Why are you called the Other People?A: We are people just like you. People to whom terrible … 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.
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The Other People is a creepy, intense novel that drew me right in and never let go. C. J. Tudor’s books keep getting better and better, and this one won’t let you stop reading until the very last page!
I read The Other People at Halloween, on a flight from New York. It was hugely enjoyable and deliciously creepy. I was hooked from its gripping opening, all the way through its many twist and turns, until I arrived in London completely unsettled and on edge. Ostensibly about a man searching for his missing daughter, it’s a tale about loss, where nothing is quite as it seems; and, although you may think you’ve got it worked out, C. J. Tudor is always several steps ahead. A brilliant storyteller.
CJ Tudor delivers yet another story with more twists than a corkscrew. From page one I was gripped as our hero, Gabe, witnesses the gut-wrenching abduction of his daughter. His subsequent search for her, that stretches over several years held my attention until the end and every chapter held a jaw-dropping revelation. Great read.
This was a fantastic read and this author manages to deliver a heart-pounding and mysterious story yet again.
This was a tangled web of reactions where everything that is seemingly random is interconnected until finally, the bigger picture emerges.
Each individual here suffers from an almost 3 degrees of separation, there are no coincidences between these pages and all roads will eventually converge.
So this starts off sprinting with Father and husband Gabe travelling home when he is almost positive he spots his five-year-old daughter Izzy in the back of a vehicle he is tailing behind.
Thus begins a nightmare there seems no end to and Gabe’s existence now consists of haunting the motorway and services in his beat-up old camper van searching for the daughter he believes is still out there alive.
This is despite his father in law identifying his wife Jenny and daughters bodies he still refuses to believe that Izzy is gone.
This is told from multiple POV each individual playing their part and all connected in some way.
We have single mum Kate the kind-faced blonde waitress that serves Gabe his coffee when he stops off for a break, she observes the closed-off pain that radiates and nicknames him the thin man.
Then there’s Fran and Emily on the move and forever running from something in their past.
Emily with her strange ways, fear of mirrors and her rucksack of pebbles she won’t let out of her sight.
Then there’s Gabe’s mysterious samaritan is he friend or foe and what does he want.
The Girl in the room hooked up to all those monitors just where does she fit into all this and also who is the sandman, finally just who are The Other People and what is their purpose.
So many questions thrown into this mix waiting for answers.
This was fast-paced from the onset and pulled me in keeping me turning those pages long into the night.
A fantastical suspenseful mystery that I enjoyed immensely,
I voluntary reviewed a copy of The Other People.
Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
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Not as good as The Chalk Man, but still another solid outing from C.J. Tudor. It would have worked even better without the supernatural aspect, which seemed tacked on at the end.
Holy Moses, I absolutely LOVED The Other People by C.J. Tudor! This is my first time reading a book by her and it has me wondering what took me so long.
The Other People is fast-paced and completely addicting. Once I started I didn’t want to put it down and I could see lots of people reading this in one sitting if you have the same reaction as I did. I couldn’t wait to find out where it was going, and I really enjoyed the creepiness of it. I think it would make for a great Fall/Halloween read.
I really liked the multiple viewpoints and how things tied together at the end. Maybe there are “too” many answers for some readers, but I personally was incredibly happy with it. At the same time, the last chapter still left me with a chill but made me grin, just a little, and there were a few times that I had to laugh at certain things. I enjoyed the dry humor, and I thought it helped with the heaviness of the novel. And what book would be complete without yelling at characters? I got annoyed with Gabe a few times and I hope I’m not the only one! I also loved the nod to Bill Hicks.
Final Thought: I’m so glad I finally read a C.J. Tudor novel and now I can’t wait to read her first two books. If you’re in the mood for a unique thriller with some creepy vibes but also lots of murder, The Other People should be a perfect fit. I know it won’t be for everyone, but I loved it so much and I’ll definitely be reading her other book VERY soon. I swear it!
Thank you to NetGalley for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
Like no book you’ve read before. It’s the definition of a nail-biting page-turner and sets the bar high for every other thriller this year. Tudor remains at the top of her game. Tightly plotted and utterly unpredictable, The Other People proves that Tudor is the queen of the cliffhanger.
The Other People is tight as a straitjacket, diabolically clever, and propulsive as a roller coaster. If you like twisty thrillers that leave you guessing till the very last page, this is a must-read.
C. J. Tudor has done it again. A mesmerizingly chilling and atmospheric page-turner.
The Other People is a strong mystery/horror story about grief, revenge and consequences. Does what you intend matter or just the result? It’s also about forgiveness and moving on, and whether you can (or should) be absolved from intentional or accidental acts that have horrific results. At what point does your behavior move from accidental to intentional? When should you have foreseen the consequences? Is it the illegal activity or the result that should determine the punishment?
It is most importantly about how one event never touches only one person.
Readers will likely come away from this book with varied responses, but they are important questions. The tale is fiction but the underlying concepts and questions are very real issues. Whatever else you may take from The Other People, this novel is certainly a cautionary tale about how violence begets violence.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. The opinions in this review are honest and my own. #TheOtherPeople #suspense #paranormal #horror
5
Finally my first foray into a novel by C.J. Tudor and I certainly was not disappointed. I devoured this book in two days and loved every minute of it.
Gabe is driving home and he’s shocked when he sees his little girl Izzy in the back window of a car on the road. He starts to pursue the vehicle, can’t catch it in traffic and finally decides it can’t be her, she’s home with her Mom. But when he pulls off to call home he hears the news that his wife Jenny is dead and Izzy is too. No one believes him that he could have possibly seen his daughter in this car. Gabe spends the next three years driving night and day searching for the car, “sticker guy” because of all the crazy bumper stickers all over the back of it, and for his daughter he knows has to be out there.
“People say hate and bitterness will destroy you. They’re wrong. It’s hope. Hope will devour you from the inside like a parasite. It will leave you hanging like bait above a shark. But hope won’t kill you. It’s not that kind.”
Fran is also on the run on the roadways with her little girl Alice who suffers terrifying bouts of narcolepsy. But she’s running from people to protect their lives because she knows what these people are really capable of.
“She glanced at Alice. She was staring out the window, a familiar lost look in her eyes as she fumbled with the bag on her lap. Clickety-clack. Clickety-clack. The shell from the bath had disappeared, added to Alice’s collection. Where did they come from? she thought again. Who was the girl on the beach, and what did she want? “The Sandman was coming.” Why did that phrase seem so damn ominous?
Add in the fascinating and mysterious man known by The Samaritan, who seems to be helping Gabe in his search for clues about Izzy’s disappearance. As well as Katie, a single mother and waitress at one of the service stations who sees Gabe like clockwork during his cycle of stops for coffee. Oh and yes, of course- The Other People, the ones who help people find justice when something tragic happens to them, no matter the cost.
“We fulfill all requests.”
A really terrific mash up of mystery, thriller and horror without a dull moment. Once again in a January, I can see this being one of my top reads of the year. I’m also extra happy I holiday gifted myself the author’s earlier books, The Chalk Man and The Hiding Place. Already snuck them way up higher into my rotation to tear into as soon as I have a night here and there, looking forward to them even more now.
*My thanks to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for an ARC copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*
The Other People is about Gabe and his search for his missing daughter. Gabe’s wife and daughter were murdered while he was on the way home. At the time, Gabe didn’t know that and was surprised when he saw his daughter’s face appear in the back window of the car in front of him. That set off a series of events. Gabe was accused of their murder and the cleared. Then the car is found and new evidence that his daughter wasn’t the one that died. But, Gabe isn’t prepared for the truth. He also wasn’t ready for a secret that he has kept buried to be exposed. What happened the night his wife and daughter were killed? Will Gabe get his answers?
I know that it is only a few weeks into the new year, but this has to be the best mystery/thriller/suspense book that I have read to date. I couldn’t put this book down!! Put it this way, I read it in two hours. It was that good!!
The plotline in The Other People does get off to a slow start. It did take me a couple of chapters before I got immersed in it. There was also a small amount of lag in the book, right around where Fran left Alice with her mother. But the author was able to get the book back on track.
Gabe was amazing in The Other People. He knew that he saw his daughter the night of the murder, and he never gave up hope that she was alive. I did feel bad for him at the beginning of the book because he was utterly destroyed by what happened. I also admired his restraint when he found out what his in-laws had done. I would have gone ballistic. And of course, there was the issue of his secret. I wish that it had been released earlier in the book.
Fran was an enigma throughout the book. I didn’t understand why she was on the run until she went to her mothers. Then a little bit of her story fell into place. At that point, I understood why she did what she did. My heart broke for her.
I figured out Alice’s story reasonably early in the book. But I couldn’t understand what was happening to her with the stones. Then it was explained and man, it was creepy. Again, my heart went out to her.
The plotline with Gabe looking for his daughter was amazing. The author was able to show his frustration, worry, anger, and hope. I was a little irritated by how the police treated him. But once concrete evidence was found (and Gabe told them what his father in law did), they took him seriously.
The plotline with Fran and Alice was interesting. Right away, I guessed what was going on. But I never guessed why it happened, who Fran was running from and how it was connected to Gabe. That all took me by surprise. Add in the secondary storyline with Fran’s sister and The Sandman, and yeah, I was blown away.
There was a paranormal element in the book that I wished it had more power in the book. It was interesting because of how Alice brought the stones in. But, the connection to Gabe’s secret was something that I didn’t even see coming.
The end of The Other People was interesting. I say interesting because there were a couple of twists in the plot. I didn’t see either of them coming. The author did a great job of combining all of the storylines, even ones that I thought were done with. But, it was the very end of the book that gave me chills.
Gabe is driving home from work when he notices the blond child in the car ahead of him. It’s his 5 year old daughter, Izzy, … he never sees her again.
Three years later, he lives in his van and he cruises the roads day and night looking for the car, even though most people believe that his daughter died the same night his wife was murdered.
He gets help from a man known only as the Samaritan. And that leads to a website .. the deep dark web. What Gabe discovers is worse than any night terror he’s ever had.
And there’s one person out there who knows the truth … she knows who is responsible. And she knows what they will do if they ever catch up to her.
This is a terrifying psychological thriller with a great deal of suspense and twists and turns that resemble a roller coaster ride. It’s a real page turner from the very start to the very unexpected ending.
Many thanks to the author / Random House – Ballantine / Netgalley for the digital copy of this gripping story. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
The allure of The Other People is instantaneous. Tudor grasps the minutely written characters and their complex stories, wrapping it all into an intermingling tangle of horror. A superbly written thriller, it reads like a vivid dream you can’t escape. Layered with deep suspense and intricate twists, The Other People will stay with you awhile.
Psychological Thriller | Mystery and Suspense
WHAT A BOOK! Wow. Just processing this one is giving me major tingles across my body! C.J. Tudor KNOWS how to write a psychological thriller that will CONSUME you. I’ve been a fan of her work ever since I read The Chalk Man a few years ago and I know I’m going to be a forever fan after finishing her 3rd novel. This book is a mind bender. It’s not the typical run of the mill thriller that you figure out before the book ends. Oh no. This is so much more than that! THE OTHER PEOPLE is a creepy novel that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It’s not a horror novel but the content is certainly terrifying. And I’m not talking about the kidnapping aspect either. It’s the bigger picture surrounding it! CHILLS!!!
I have no intention of rehashing the plot in my review because I feel that readers should go into this one with as little knowledge as possible. However, I will say that it goes far beyond my expectations for a psychological thriller. This book WILL mess with you mind and it WILL shock you. Piece by piece everything comes together and as it reveals itself, you’ll find it to be even more terrifying then you thought! Yikes! I just loved it SO MUCH!!!
My friends, if you enjoy psych thrillers you won’t want to miss this one. I’m telling you its FANTASTIC! This may just be one of my TOP 5 FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2020 and it’s still the beginning of January. That should tell you something!
Make sure to take a peek at this one when it releases on January 28th!
After reading The Burning Girls recently, I was so blown away by this author that I had to read more. This one, my second read of this author, did not disappoint. Amazing plot twists that I would have never figured on. The writer really knows her craft. Kudos for this one too!
I promise you, you won’t figure this one out until the end.
This book was really good and kept my attention. It was partly a “who-done-it” and partly a thriller, with a bit of sci-fi thrown in to make it unique.
This was such a good read but it fell flat in the middle and then picked up again towards the end. I still enjoyed the storyline and felt the ending was a perfect way to wrap up the story.
Wow! What an incredible well put together thriller. This was my first C.J. Tudor read and it won’t be my last. Gabe’s story in The Other People was hard to read at times. It was gut wrenching twisted and dark. However, it sucked me in and I found I couldn’t put it down. I highly recommend reading.
*Special thank you to NetGalley for providing this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review*