All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham

EXCERPT: ‘As I’m sure you all know, my name is Isabelle Drake, and my son, Mason, was kidnapped one year ago,’ I say. ‘His case is still unsolved.’
Chairs squeak; throats are cleared. A mousy woman in the front row is shaking her head gently, tears in her eyes. She is loving this right now, I know she is. It’s like she is watching her favourite movie, mindlessly snacking on popcorn as her lips move gently, reciting every word. She’s heard my speech already; she knows what happened. She knows, but she still can’t get enough. None of them can. The murderers on the t-shirts are the villains; the uniformed men in back, the heroes. Mason is the victim . . . and I’m not really sure where that leaves me.
The lone survivor, maybe. The one with a story to tell.

ABOUT ‘ALL THE DANGEROUS THINGS’: One year ago, Isabelle Drake’s life changed forever: her toddler son, Mason, was taken out of his crib in the middle of the night while she and her husband were asleep in the next room. With little evidence and few leads for the police to chase, the case quickly went cold. However, Isabelle cannot rest until Mason is returned to her—literally.

Except for the occasional catnap or small blackout where she loses track of time, she hasn’t slept in a year.

Isabelle’s entire existence now revolves around finding him, but she knows she can’t go on this way forever. In hopes of jarring loose a new witness or buried clue, she agrees to be interviewed by a true-crime podcaster—but his interest in Isabelle’s past makes her nervous. His incessant questioning paired with her severe insomnia has brought up uncomfortable memories from her own childhood, making Isabelle start to doubt her recollection of the night of Mason’s disappearance, as well as second-guess who she can trust… including herself. But she is determined to figure out the truth no matter where it leads.

MY THOUGHTS: First off, I don’t class this as a thriller. Go into All the Dangerous Things expecting a thriller, and you will be disappointed. A more honest classification, in my opinion, is psychological drama. A slow-burning psychological drama.

The story is told entirely from Isabelle’s pov, over two timelines – the present and the past, encompassing her own childhood and her early years with Ben – so we are privy to her innermost thoughts, her doubts and fears. She has a lot of both.

Obsessed with finding her son, her marriage to Ben has broken down and she is sleep deprived. Isabelle has always had sleep issues. She was a sleepwalker as a child and is now an insomniac. Flickers of the memory of something that happened when she was a child, and a death she has always blamed herself for continue to haunt her. Is it possible that she has harmed her own son?

For most of this read I was thinking 3-stars, but the final twenty percent totally blew me away.

⭐⭐⭐.9

#AlltheDangerousThings #NetGalley

I: @stacyvwillingham @harpercollinsuk

T: @svwillingham @HarperCollinsUK

#contemporaryfiction #crime #domesticdrama #mystery #psychologicaldrama

THE AUTHOR: Prior to writing fiction full time, Stacy worked as a copywriter and brand strategist for various marketing agencies. She earned her BA in Magazine Journalism from the University of Georgia and MFA in Writing from the Savannah College of Art & Design.

She currently lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband, Britt, and her Labradoodle, Mako.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harper Collins UK, Harper Fiction via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review is also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

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