Never Forget

This was an amazing drama that literally took my breath away. The characters were realistic and well depicted. Highly recommended!

4 stars! This was a another wonderful book by Michel Bussi, that I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

Jamal has a dream - to run the toughest race in Europe. When one morning during his training, he comes across a woman on the verge of committing suicide, he tries to save her by handing her a red scarf he found on the trail. But the girl jumps off the cliff and when he reaches the beach where her body has fallen, there are two other witnesses who have seen the body but not the fall. Curiously, the red scarf is now wrapped around the dead girl's neck.

This is just the beginning of Jamal's nightmare. This suicide echoes two murders that happened in 2004, ten years from the book's setting, and Jamal is sure that the police is trying to frame him for all the three deaths. And someone is leaving his packets that contain information of the previous deaths. Aided by Mona, a young mysterious researcher, he decides to go on a run when he injures the police in charge of the case.

This was a helluva twisted ride that kept me guessing throughout. What is the connection between the cases? Why is the police out to get him? Why have the two other witnesses disappeared? Why do the life histories and faces of two victims match each other? These are some crazy questions that get answers in this crazy ride.

Like his other books, here too, there are multiple timelines that intersect to create a tale of intrigue and suspense. However, I did feel that at some points it demanded too much of a suspension of disbelief from the reader. That was what made me take away one star from this otherwise good read. Also, there are some explicit scenes that appear time and again.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this copy in return for my honest opinion.

#NeverForget #NetGalley
A suspenseful novel.
A man running along a remote clifftop path on an icy-cold February morning.
A woman standing on the cliff's edge.
A red scarf on the ground between them.
The man is alone on the cliff - adrenaline pumping through his veins.
The woman is on the beach below - dead.
The red scarf is also on the beach - beautifully (and impossibly) wrapped around the woman's broken nec
Two lives colliding by chance?
Or a revenge decades in the making?
I loved the characters but I found its narration slowly going towards its end. Although some twists were the same as I predicted.
Overall it's a good read.
Thanks to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for giving me an advance copy.

Wow! This took me all round the houses and back again as I tried to get ahead of the game and figure it all out first. I failed, but I did have a cracking time trying!
Jamal is on holiday and out running when he sees a red scarf. He takes it and turns to see a woman on the cliff edge. She looks distressed so he races to try help her. He throws her the scarf to try and pull her back but she jumps. She land up on the beach, dead, but with the scarf wrapped round her neck. She's been strangled? It doesn't make sense. The police are called. It should be straight forward - suicide and all - but it appears not. And then Jamal is pointed to an old case and it's at this point that things start to go south for him...
This is a crazy ride from start to finish. It had me spinning around, chasing my tail, pretty much all the way through which is as it should be for this genre book. There were also quite a few things that jarred with me along the way, things I had to hold on to for a while, things that didn't quite make sense. But, I've read this author before and have been down a similar road with him and never been let me down so the trust is there, I held on, and was eventually satisfied!
It's a weird old story, confusing in parts as there's a lot of obfuscation to be found along the way from some of the rather colourful and intriguing characters. And if that wasn't enough, there's the discovery of some bones to keep in mind along the way too... but, as already mentioned, it does all come together at the end, very nicely too. You might have to suspend belief a tad, but over nothing major and it is definitely worth carrying on if you do get a wee bit confuzzled along the way.
All in all, another cracking addition to an already well impressive back catalogue. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.