Review of That Night by Gillian McAllister

I loved McAllister's first twisty, clever, surprising mystery. This novel left me wanting more plausibility, more development, and more reasons to feel invested in the story of three siblings making morally questionable choices and doing a poor job of sticking to the plan.

Siblings Joe, Cathy, and Frannie work together (at the vet practice their mother started), they live very near each other, they have weekly traditions, and now they are vacationing together at their jointly owned villa in Italy.

After youngest sibling Frannie makes a frantic late-night call to her brother and her sister, they arrive to find that she has hit a man with her car. She is covered with blood, and he may no longer be alive. She explains that it was a mistake, tells a convoluted story, and begs them to help her, if only to protect her young son, to whom she is a single parent.

The cover-up occurs immediately, with the book focusing on the repercussions of secrets, lies, loyalty, and sacrifices required of the siblings.

Paranoia, fear, poor judgment, and panic all constantly threaten to reveal the truth and send all three of them to prison. They are terrible at keeping their secret. They cannot keep straight faces, they discuss incriminating facts where others might hear them, compound their own problems, and don't seem to understand how a basic cover-up would work. I was continually astounded at the poor decision-making that followed their original, tragically flawed plan.

I was anticipating a twist, but there were only a couple of illuminating revelations. One is related to the first accident, and made its impact far more damning; and one is related to the ultimate punishment for the snowballing crimes the family commits.

The fact that Cathy and Joe immediately stepped in to do what they did for Frannie, despite her thin and strange story, just never felt plausible to me, so it was difficult for me to read on without that troubling element in mind.

Meanwhile, I also didn't believe some of the more minor elements: I didn't at any point buy that thuggish Joe was intelligent as he is said to be, nor that he was capable of having successfully pursued veterinary studies and become a vet. I had a hard time believing that Tom would enter into the situation at the time he did and be able to bring himself to stay involved. I was left doubting that Frannie's eventual situation would have been allowed and possible. And I was shocked that the punishment doled out for those who are punished was as lenient as it was.

The characters are not sympathetic, and their judgment is terrible; I appreciated the layers of particularly Cathy's back story, but the present-day situation consistently frustrated me. I was puzzled by the issues that made the characters feel indignant and wronged, particularly after their actions, and I never fully understood the siblings' general babying of and extreme allowances shown to grown Frannie, even with the past family tragedy in mind.

I received a prepublication audio version of this title through Libro.fm and William Morrow.

More Gillian McAllister Novels

Gillian McAllister is also the author of Wrong Place, Wrong Time, a book I loved, as well as Famous Last Words.