Review: C.J. Tudor’s `Other People’ is deliciously creepy

In her third novel, British author C.J. Tudor takes a darker, more sinister riff on the “Strangers on a Train” motif. Deliciously creepy, “The Other People” tackles grief, obsession, justice and revenge in a tight, solid plot that is full of realistic twists, melding the mystery with aspects of the supernatural.

It begins when Gabe Forman, running late for dinner, is positive he sees his 5-year-old daughter, Izzy, peeking out the grimy back window of a stranger’s car. He tries to chase it but loses the car in traffic. His real nightmare begins at home when he is confronted by the police who tell him that his wife, Jenny, and daughter were killed by an intruder. Now, three years later, Gabe relentlessly drives England’s M1 highway, searching for Izzy. He finally may have a break when an enigmatic stranger leads him to the murky waters of a hidden lake where the kidnapper’s abandoned car has been dumped.

Meanwhile, a terrified woman named Fran Tudor is constantly on the run with her child Alice, their lives uprooted in an instant when Fran spots an unrecognizable car or a stranger looking too long at them.

The connection between Gabe and Fran is an underground group called The Other People that helps crime victims find justice when legitimate methods haven’t worked. But The Other People’s benevolence has a price – refusing to reciprocate can be fatal.

Tudor’s expert storytelling in “The Other People” realistically links the relentlessness of Gabe and Fran in a tight story that is as terrifying as it is emotional while looking at how grief and obsession can eat at one’s soul. The Other People’s mission promises justice, but delivers only delusion. Tudor delves deep to show Gabe’s complicated history and how it affects his every move. At first, Fran seems like an out-of-control woman on the edge of a breakdown, but Tudor skillfully illustrates the complex motives that drive Fran.

With its occasional dips into the supernatural, “The Other People” sometimes threatens to spin out of control. But Tudor’s tight rein on her story makes the improbable seem realistic.

Oline H. Cogdill, The Associated Press