Thoughts

I've previously read a Jo Spain novel and wasn't that impressed with it, but when I saw the concept of this one, I was intrigued. Plus, the audiobook was on sale and read by Laura Aikman and Russell Tovey (who I love), so I decided to give it a go.

Although this book is fictional, the act of disappearing, johatsu, is a real phenomenon. The book compares and contrasts Japan versus England. Cultural shame means johatsu has an entire industry in Japan - professional people to help you disappear. In England, that doesn't really exist but our protagonist Veronica is making it happen... until she ends up having to find someone instead.

The finding is just as fascinating - in this modern world of mobile phones and CCTV, can anyone really disappear? The problem is the book kept drifting away from its central premise. There was the mystery of finding this person, there was a romance subplot, there was being on the run from the police, there was working out who to trust. I just wanted to know more about the tracking side of things.

Veronica is a believable character, because even when scenarios get far-fetched, it's all built slowly from the first chinks in her meticulous world:

And then I see it. The drawer of the television unit is open. Only marginally, so it could easily be missed. I know for a fact I didn’t do that. I never open that drawer. It gets stuck. I keep an orderly home. I know when I’ve done something like leave my coffee cup out. I’m not obsessive, I’ve just lived with enough boyfriends over the years to appreciate only having to clean up after myself.

The audiobook's dual narration was good, but Tovey was vastly underused. He read the male point-of-view chapters, of which there were only a few and they were relatively short. Aikman did a great job on her own so it didn't need two readers.

This was better than the previous Jo Spain book I read, and although it drifted from the story I wanted it to tell, it was still a good thriller surrounding an interesting topic. I'm probably not going to seek out any more books by this author but if one ends up in front of me, I'm certainly going to give it a look. This book gets a 3 out of 5.

Rating: 3 / 5