Welcome to my review of The Evidence Against You by Gillian McAllister. We chose this book for book club, and it was quite a mixed bag! While it was mostly enjoyable, I didn’t relate well to the characters and the plot. I found it annoying, but it brought up some interesting questions.
17 years after being convicted of murder, Izzy’s father is finally released from prison.
She wants nothing to do with him – but he claims to be innocent.
She’s always believed he killed her mother, but now doubts are creeping in.
Because if he’s telling the truth, then someone else has been lying all this time . . .
Gillian McAllister is the Sunday Times Top 10 bestselling author of Everything But The Truth, Anything You Do Say, No Further Questions, The Evidence Against You and How To Disappear.
Her latest release is That Night, available now and selected for the Richard & Judy summer book club 2021.
All of her novels are standalone and can be read in any order. She is published in ten countries around the world. The Good Sister is her US debut, released by Penguin USA, and is the American title for No Further Questions. The Choice is her second American release which is the US title for Anything You Do Say.
You can find her on Twitter and Instagram @gillianmauthor. She also blogs at http://www.gillianmcallister.com.
I previously read Gillian McAllister’s book How to Disappear, and I loved it and gave it a five-star review. I was really looking forward to this book, but I was disappointed.
Firstly, the title of the book, The Evidence Against You, should have been called The Evidence Against Him, as this was mentioned throughout the book. However, that aside, I liked the cover.
The plot had a great premise. Izzy’s father, Gabe, has just been released from prison after serving a long sentence for killing her mother. He comes to find Izzy and wants to prove his innocence, all of which is understandable and believable – how many criminals say they are innocent? The rest of the story follows with various twists and turns, making you wonder who else could have done it and why and thinking about whether Gabe is innocent. The Evidence Against You does create a good amount of uncertainty.
Izzy’s recollections of her parent’s relationship, the night of the murder and numerous events her father speaks of are interesting and provide further intrigue into what is real and whom to believe.
I found the repetition a little annoying and some parts too far-fetched. For example, how many people would just accept the situation without thinking of it for almost two decades and without investigating it or reading about it, especially someone so young and presumably more curious? There were some excessive hints about what had happened and a few too many red herrings. Although, the full details don’t come to light until the end. It is a big twist I didn’t see coming, though I had recognised that it was related.
I didn’t connect to Izzy at all. I found her irritating and more than a bit strange in some of her actions. Her husband Nick was also unlikeable and seemed a bit pathetic. However, it did make me wonder if perhaps he was pretty controlling of her (this wasn’t mentioned). For example, he didn’t want her to interact with his family on their family chat and wanted to ensure she did what he thought was best. But, on the other hand, he may have genuinely been trying to look after her.
Gabe was the more likeable character for me. He appeared to genuinely love Izzy and wanted to try to prove his innocence, though I am unsure why he left it for his whole sentence to try. Additionally, he didn’t seem like he had been a particularly good husband to Izzy’s mother, Alex, before her death. However, he is an ‘arty type’, so perhaps this is just his personality, and she always just accepted it.
It felt like there were a lot of inconsistencies in the plot. For example, I couldn’t understand why Izzy had some family relationships but not others. I don’t want to give too much away about the plot, but it didn’t hold together as enjoyable and believable to me.
The part I did enjoy the most was the feeling of being institutionalised. It posed (perhaps unintentionally) many questions about our prison and reform systems and what these should achieve and how. Again, the depictions of this in Gabe came through well.
I didn’t enjoy the ending. It felt rushed and like Izzy had dropped everyone around her, though it was good to see that she had moved on in many ways.
| Title | The Evidence Against You |
| Author | Gillian McAllister |
| Series | N/A |
| Format | Kindle |
| Page Count | 448 Pages |
| Genre | Psychological Thriller |
| Publisher | Penguin |
| Release Date | 18 April 2019 |
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