"How Fast Can You Run?": A Review of I See You

Elvira Dimitrova
Nov 25, 2018
3 min read

“Variety is important. Even the finest steak becomes dull when you eat it all the time.”

Have you ever found yourself looking over your shoulder to check if anybody has been following you? Or perhaps, you have had the situation feeling like somebody is staring at you but when you look there has been no one? If you are a woman, this has probably happened to you more than once and it is also one of the reasons why Claire Mackintosh's I See You will give you the chills. Big time.

To start with, the there are two main characters. The first is Zoe Walker - a woman in her forties who has two grown children and has been divorced but who has been lucky enough to find love again. This has nothing to do with a love story though. It is much more psychological than that. Zoe is the kind of person who will always commute to and back from her at the same time in the same day (which I am certain is something that a lot of us do) and then one day, on her way back from work, she sees her picture in the newspaper along with a phone number and a mysterious website, called findtheone.com.

This is where the second main character of the story comes in. Kelly Swift is a police officer who has been demoted due to her inability to control her anger on a case regarding rape. She notices a trait between crimes which are all somehow related to the Undergroung: all crimes with women as the victims and she begins to insist on being allowed to work on the case. It is after Zoe figures out that another of the women posted in the newspaper has been killed, that the women's paths cross and the story begins to progress from there.

The story is considerably fast-paced and there are some new additions to the case throughout the whole book. And as the novel progresses, so does the question "Who is the person behind it all?" Who controls this website and is willing to provide details about so many women which in turn leads to multiple crimes?

In addition, it is also the kind of thriller that will make you consider the concept of surveillace and stalking in our modern rushed world. However, there were moments where I felt that the climate of the story did not reach up to the expectations. It somehow seemed unbelievable and unrealistic for some small parts. Despite this minor drawback though, it is the end that I never really saw coming. Those very last pages which left me gaping at the page, barely blinking.

Overall, I recommend the book to all of you who are looking for some intriguing, considerably fast-paced psycho-thriller and who are into this type of mystery. Nevertheless, you might need to brace yourself for the fact that there are some extremely creepy moments that will make you wonder whether you shouldn't change your routines from time to time.

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