Woah! This is exactly what I’ve come to expect from Gillian McAllister. Fast paced with a great story that kept me turning the pages.

I’ve not read a book by this author that hasn’t gripped me throughout. Sometimes there are authors who, when they release a book, that book takes precedence over your current read. And they never disappoint. Gillian is one of those authors and I’m already looking forward to her next book.

What a page turner this was . I couldn’t put it down and it held my attention all the way to the end. Every time I thought I knew what was going to happen next I was wrong

How far would we go for our family? How would we deal with the lies we were made to speak after that fateful night. This is a really good read and I would recommend it to anyone who likes to lose themselves in a good book.

Gillian McAllister’s latest novel ‘That Night’ is her best yet. Focusing almost entirely on three adult siblings, Joe, Cathy and Frannie, the reader is taken from their first crime – a car crash resulting in the killing and hidden burial of an Italian man during their annual holiday near Verona – through the following months as the severity of what they have done hits home back in England in many different ways.
On reading a resume of the plot one might be forgiven for initially judging it preposterous. How many ordinary people would be willing to cover their crime in this way? Can’t these intelligent adults see that it’s going to end in disaster? What a terrible thing to ask of a brother or a sister. However, the Plants’ bonds are extraordinarily tight, not least because of childhood tragedy, single parenthood and their domestic and working arrangements.
McAllister’s plotting adds hugely to the tensions and the surprises in this story. Sometimes we’re in the present when one of the sisters is talking to Jason in his Birmingham office – is he a counsellor, is he a lawyer? Sometimes we’re in the beautiful Italian countryside marred by the memory of blood and earth. Sometimes we’re in the siblings’ veterinary practice noticing how good they are at their work, how irritating they find their ‘outsider’ colleague, Evan. And sometimes they are gathered in Frannie’s kitchen surrounded by toddler Paul’s dinosaurs. These different settings let the reader gain a better understanding of this slowly unravelling tightknit family.
This, and McAllister’s use of revelations, ensures that the reader is fully immersed throughout the narrative. We begin to understand why her characters behave as they do and how their reactions, emotional states and backgrounds allow the story unfurls as it does. Gillian McAllister has written a number of best sellers; ‘That Night’ is sure to be no exception!
My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Michael Joseph UK for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

I read it in a day. I have come to understand that a clear schedule is the best situation to be in when starting a new Gillian McAllister book. After the publisher granted my wish for an advanced copy, I got up, put makeup on (if you can’t dress up for a new Gillian McAllister book when can you…?) and I started.

I was nervous. Gillian’s 2020 publication How To Disappear was absolutely incredible. The sort of book that you cannot imagine being bettered by another. So That Night already had a high bar set and my expectations had rocketed. I’ve been talking to other fans and I know that some of you feel the same as I did. All I can say is, be reassured. It’s fine. It’s more than fine. Gillian McAllister has done it again.

I was drawn to the family dynamics immediately. Frannie, Joe and Cathy. Linked together forever not just through blood but through tragedy. Their close relationship, at times, was annoying. But I got it. This book directly challenges you to think, ‘What would I do? If I got that call, in the middle of the night, what would my response be?’ It’s the impossible dilemma, something of which Gillian is quickly becoming the master of writing about.

The other aspect of this book (apart from basically everything) that I loved the most was the emotion it invoked in me. That sense of dread and guilt that came out of the pages and travelled through my own mind as I tried to unpick the story. That feeling in the pit of your stomach…it’s right there. And I’ve never killed anyone. So that’s a true Writer for you – bringing it right out of the pages and into the room!

Gillian has an incredible talent for characterisation and emotion. Her books are full of facts as well as feelings. The research, time and effort that goes into her characters in That Night is matched by the immense amount of knowledge she has and knowledge she obtains to ensure that she writes about subjects accurately. And to do all of that in the midst of a global pandemic…when you can’t travel to the heat of Verona, or closely capture the tension of Vets performing surgeries in their practices…is applaudable.

Many of us have had to continue our jobs during twelve months of the most unbelieveable, unfathomable, petrifying times of our lives. Gillian is one of those people, and yet her writing hasn’t slipped, her style hasn’t faltered, she has excelled herself and this book is a testament to her unflappable style and stunning prose.