...When I stand behind passengers on the platform....Asking myself if I want to push. Worrying that
...deep down I might!
These are just some of thoughts that Wen li experiences, on a daily basis, she is a British Chinese women who suffers from OCD ( Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) which leads to these dangerous thoughts and impulses. Looking for love she comes across an English man who catches her eye at her new job...
Lomax Clipper is a dreamer and wants to leave a legacy, frustrated with his current job he fantasies of becoming a best selling author. At first he was taken by Wen but has hopes to re kindle an old flame he met while on secondment in Italy, he also has these reoccurring nightmares of a murder involving....
Julian Pickering a partner at the same firm Lomax works at, he has a tricky relationship with his colleagues to the point he believes Lomax goes out of his way to trouble him. Underneath the façade is man holding onto his own relationship at the seams which is further pulled apart when it comes to dealing with his father regarding his sexuality....
and finally
Fifi de Angelis is a man who just wants a friend, after his family turn their back on him he is drowning in loneliness. Fate crosses his path with Lomax and as he starts to warm up to him is glad to have him in his life. After the events that led to the end of his last friendship vows he will do what ever it takes to keep Lomax in his life, whatever it takes...
Countdown to a killing by Tom Vaughan Macaulay is a drama packed mystery involving the lives and love of our characters above. With work commitments, life commitments and a affair this was a fantastic story which kept me guessing until the end. I really enjoyed how the story was written in epistolary form.
A quirky thing the story did was from time to time have a note from the editor to remind us there was a murder still happening, and generally encouraging the reader to keep their eye on the ball. This was a fun idea and no matter how complicated or domestic the lives of our protagonists got it was there to let us know someone was still going to die.
I really enjoyed the range of issues we explored in this story, it allowed us to experience their highs and lows as everyone was struggling with something. It had the right amount of context within the emails, letters and whatsapp messages that we still got to know a lot about the protagonists and their personal lives.
This was a great way to get to know the characters and backstories while simultaneously moving the plot forward without losing momentum.
I would have liked to have seen the responses from other characters such as Hannah, Wen's friend. In the beginning following some of the story off of the responses which were sometimes one sided was a little tricky at first but I quickly got over that as we got into the thick of things.
Overall this was a great story, I was second and even third guessing who the murderer and victim was. The build up towards the end was brilliant, all the suspects ended up in the same place but I was still shocked at the final outcome.
