Everything but the Truth by Gillian McAllister

Of course you’d want to know if the man you’re having a child with has skeletons in his closet, and because she had time on her hands and was in a stressful mindset she became quite fixated on having to know at any cost. I did find Rachel’s actions quite shocking at times, it was hard to think of someone behaving how she did but within the context of the plot it kind of made sense. Rachel was grieving for her mum, and for the loss of her career and adjusting to being pregnant while Jack was only meant to be living in Newcastle temporarily for work and is really busy with his career plus trying to make time to get back up to Oban to visit his family. It seemed strange to me at first that they weren’t sharing their pasts with each other but then as I read more I could see how that could happen. My relationship with my husband started off in a whirlwind – we’ve pretty much lived together since the very day we met – so I totally understood how Rachel and Jack had connected so quickly and how they fell in love so deeply in such a short space of time. I did work out early on what might have happened with her patient but I really liked that in the build up to the reveal we got to see her thought process and to really understand why she did what she did. This part of the plot was also great to read.

On top of this Rachel is also hiding the reason why she quit medicine. I was kept hooked by my inability to pin down what was going on. I felt for a while that Rachel was reading too much into things, and was being a little paranoid but then I started thinking that Jack was acting a bit strangely so switched to thinking that he must be hiding something major. From then on she tries to find out what the email meant and skirts around the issue with Jack, as she doesn’t want to outright admit to reading his emails. Rachel sees Jack’s iPad light up with an email notification late at night and she feels compelled to glance over and read it. I loved that it is set in such a normal, every day situation so that this story initially felt like it’s something that could happen to any one. This is such a well-written, accomplished debut domestic noir and I very much enjoyed it. Why has Jack been lying about his past? Just what exactly is he hiding? And doesn’t Rachel have a right to know the truth at any cost? My Thoughts: Or the chain of events it has set in motion. She trusts him.īut now she’s seen it, she can’t undo that moment. She loves Jack and she’s pregnant with their child. Just how much can you trust the person you love?Įverything but the Truth is Gillian McAllister’s stunning breakthrough thriller about deceit, betrayal and one woman’s compulsive need to uncover the truth

Everything but the Truth by Gillian McAllister