I Am Watching You

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Ella is on the train eavesdropping as we all do—except the tea she heard was exceptionally disturbing. Two fresh out of prison ex-convicts hitting on two teenage girls. Ella tries to forget what she heard, but that soon proves impossible when one of the girls, Anna, goes missing, and the two ex-cons are suspects. Already hated on by the media for being a bystander, Ella starts receiving mysterious hate mail. Why is this person so mad? And what really happened to Anna? I just ended up losing interest in everyone. I only kept reading to see if I was right about the villain in this one. I was off, but honestly, the author doesn't even lay out any clues for you to get this is the bad guy/girl (being vague on purpose). It comes out of left field and the wrap up is just ham-fisted. It’s not merely about solving a mystery of a missing girl but rather a tragedy that ties families together. It reminds us as well of the carelessness of the youth. Ella apparently got harassed when her name as a witness was released. People blamed her for not intervening. In the day of social media I can believe that something like this could have happened. It would have made sense if Driscoll showed that. Because a year later it seems most people have forgotten her except for Anna's family and the police. Ella was a mother and a florist. Upon the disappearance of Anna, Ella was reprimanded for not doing anything regarding what happened that night on the train.

This book was not for me. I tried and tried to get into it, but I struggled a lot. I finished it and I feel like I didn’t really even read anything. I was pretty disappointed with all of the things that went on through this story. A fairly well done mystery that takes place after a teenage girl goes missing while on a trip to London. It shows how everyone suffers the ripple effects from a single event. Told from multiple points of view, we hear from the parents, a friend, a witness and a private eye. All the immediate friends and family have secrets they are hiding which we are let in on bit by bit.

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Anna and Sara lied to their parents and instead of going to watch a movie, they were seen in a train. That night Anna was missing and Sara couldn’t remember what happened. But there is a witness who saw them in the train with two men who got out of prison. Ella, the witness, heard their conversations and wanted to call but she was distracted at that moment and sometime later she saw Anna’s picture as a missing girl. One year later, Anna’s still missing, Sara still can’t remember and Ella feels guilty and blames herself for not calling. And let’s not forget about nasty notes she receives, like: Because once you become a parent, you learn that love can involve more fear than you had ever imagined, and you never quite look on the world in the same way again. The Characters The narrative. This story is from multiple perspectives. It was a bit all over the pace in the beginning, but it weirdly becomes enjoyable as the story flows. We get every character in the third POV while Ella told her own story in the first POV. My Favorite Quotes THE WATCHER — An unidentified person who had been watching Ella and was involved with what happened to Anna. For me, this book serves two major stories — the mystery of the disappearance of Anna and the experience of parenthood with losing and having a child. I am not a parent myself but the book succeeded to feel these situations beautifully.

THE PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR — Matthew Hills is the private investigator hired by Ella. His main job was to help Ella figure out the person who sent her the threatening letters. Throughout the story, we can get a glimpse of her personal life as well as his investigating skill in handling the case. Simple. Rhythmic. Showing not telling. You can feel the disdain of Henry. You can feel the apathy toward Tim's dad for being a cliche absentee father who pops up at the end in hopes of narcissistic redemption. I am still relatively new to audiobooks but I'm starting to enjoy them. I find them perfect to listen to while doing chores or when I'm in the car. It's also nice to give my eyes a break sometimes. I listened to this audiobook at the beginning of January. As soon as I was done, I typed my review into a Word document. However, I can't find it anywhere now. I also deleted all of my notes (since I was done my review).I did like the alternating POVs but in the end they were unnecessary. I guess the author was going for character study, but none of the other characters really contributed to the plot. It was just a lot of catch up between POVs to build suspense. It was clear Henry was just a manwhore, not a murderer. It felt like Sarah was assigned some rando trauma so you wouldn't be annoyed she ditched her friend for an ex-con. I kinda liked "the watcher"—spooky vibes. And I guess the PI POV was "necessary" because the mystery had to be solved by a credible character and not one of the regular degular townspeople. Anna’s sister had been sending the postcards at first, angry at Ella for not stepping in. Tim found out and started sending more, as well as watching Ella’s house. Anna had met Ella’s son Luke at some kind of camp, and Tim was afraid that Anna was interested in him. He applied for a job at Ella’s flower shop to kill Luke. Ella and her PI got there in time to save Luke. Anna was dead. The Review: In this book, almost everything happens “off-screen” so to speak, so—if you want the action this may not be the book for you. The plot. I love how Driscoll keeps the reader questioning the answer to the mystery at hand. I kept guessing in every chapter about who might be responsible and involved in it. The secrets that every character serves in the story work perfectly well.

It was an okay read for me. It was real slow. But my main complaint is the author wrote more about the characters’ personal life and less about Anna’s missing or the mystery. It’s told in multiple POV (both in 3rd and 1st person) and one of them was a private investigator that Ella was hired but I really didn't understand his role in the story because until the first 70% he was with his wife and his newly born daughter, like all the time! Anna’s father most of the time thought about his past with his father and his past with his girls! Ella was stressed out about her son! The Watcher’s POV was too short and actually it didn’t have anything to say, it wasn’t even thrilling! Sara was involved with her personal life! So there was less about Anna and her missing! The characters’ personal life was a bit too much in this story for me! But it was unpredictable! The next day, the news of Anna Ballard, one of the girls on the train, missing was on the TV broadcast. Ella heard the news and guilt crept into her instantly like never before. She should’ve done something that night. What would have happened if she didn’t stay still? First, I had a really hard time with the characters. The characters intrigued me in the beginning with the story and how things were progressing, but as I got further and further in, I couldn’t find a character that I liked or related to. There were so many point-of-views that I found myself confused and having to restart. At which point my emotions begin to change and I am wondering instead how I came to be this out of touch, this buttoned up. This woman who evidently has not the first clue about young people. Or anything much. In the end this one was simply one of those books that to me was just an alright read that hadn't really grabbed me as much as I prefer. It wasn't that I didn't like it but more of one that I will find a bit forgettable once moving on from it since nothing really popped out to me or became overly exciting in my opinion. Perhaps other will enjoy it a bit more than I did with the style in which it was written though.One year passed and Anna was still missing. The mystery of her disappearance is up until then uncovered and everyone from Anna’s circle hid secrets. It could not get any worse as Ella started to receive threatening letters. The ending. As usual, it is always nice to feel that I am wrong about the villain. This book gives me that. However, it feels like the author rushed to reveal the villain and did not give enough time to give more plot about it or explore his character. Final Thoughts