Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

Posted on the 13 May 2023 by Booksocial

Read it in three days as I just had to know what happened next – Wrong Place, Wrong Time.

Wrong Place – the blurb

It’s late. You’re waiting up for your son.
Then you spot him: he’s with someone. And – you can’t believe what you see – your funny, happy teenage boy stabs this stranger.

You don’t know who. You don’t know why. You only know your son is charged with murder. His future is lost.
That night you fall asleep in despair. But when you wake . . . it is yesterday. The day before the murder.
Somewhere in the past lie the answers – a reason for this crime.
And your only chance to stop it . . .

If Benjamin Button did murders

It was a really intriguing concept traveling back through time to try to unravel why your beautiful, teenage son stabs a man to death one night seemingly unprovoked. Each day has some significance to the crime and lawyer Jen just has to work out what. I loved reading the whole thing backwards as well as seeing how McAllister dealt with the fact Jen couldn’t take anything with her as she traveled through the past. Each day started a fresh with those around her unknowing to her plight. Subtle things marked the changes such as phones becoming bricks and even an appearance from Woolworths (I totally would have bought Pic n Mix).

Interspersed in all the inevitable cliff hanger, bombshells were moments of pure emotion – Jen’s dad dying, the guilt around parenting. There was also a real sense of freedom in living your life backwards. Realising that the stuff we are hooked up on just doesn’t matter. You could really say what you felt without any consequences and I think I would have pushed this further.

It’s one of those books you don’t put down until you are done. Despite the time traveling nod it is NOT a sci-fi book but a thriller to it’s core and you genuinely just go with the whole time travel as if we all are capable of doing it. I really enjoyed it and I’m sure it will have wide appeal.