All the Dangerous Things: The gripping new psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of A Flicker in the Dark

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Thank you so much to the publisher, Minotaur Books and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. Teaming up with true crime podcaster Waylon Spencer, Isabelle investigates her son’s case. But Waylon has motives of his own and as long-forgotten memories of Isabelle’s past resurface, doubt begins to cloud her sleepless nights. The reason I pulled this up from a 3.5 to a 4 was because of the lens placed on the human element of the person. We who are shaped and mutate through our good and bad experiences, and sometimes unrecognisable but certainly different from our earlier decades. I do think this was intentional from the author if you read the authors notes, but it was very good. In this book, Willingham creates a really creepy and unsettling thriller out of the subject of sleepwalking. How is it I never realised how creepy sleepwalking can be until now? Both for the sleepwalker themselves and for those around them. Isabelle Drake’s toddler son Mason was kidnapped a year ago. She hasn’t slept since. The case is now cold, with no clues and no leads for the police. Even her marriage is over, not being able to stand the strain of a missing child. Isabelle tries to keep the investigation active by speaking about Mason at true crime cons. At one such event, she bumps into a crime podcaster who wants to highlight Mason in his next show. But as they proceed with this, Isabelle starts questioning her own memories of what happened that night.

Isabella hasn’t had a full night’s sleep in a year, she stumbles through one day after another, hoping that some clue will be found to lead her to Mason’s abductor. She has been giving speeches, begging for anyone who attends to come forward with some information. It isn’t the money that she makes that she cares about, it’s the names of the people who attend. Isabella is spending all of her waking time making lists and charts of people who attend, known criminals in the area, trying to find a link somewhere to her missing son. In the present day – the police and the family are no further forward, and Isabelle begins to tell her story of the sleepless nights and anguish she feels because there are still no suspects, no answers and no one is any nearer to finding Mason. The portrayal of different female characters was very good. All of them felt genuine, authentic, but flawed and complex. Yet I didn’t find myself rooting for any one of them which is unusual given the subject matter – missing child, working mother, spurned woman etc.. and the reason was because Isabelle wasn’t very likeable – nor were any of the other women for that matter. We meet Isabelle a year after her son Mason was taken from his bed in the middle of the night, and despite the efforts of the local police department together with a well meaning public, no clues have led to them discovering what happened to her little boy.Definitely some poetic justice, though Isabelle doesn’t seem as sure as Waylon that Ben actually did it. Her husband has moved out, and moved on-so when Waylon Spencer offers to feature her on his True Crime Podcast, she has nothing left to lose.

However, Isabelle’s childhood – may provide some of the answers. Specifically, the untimely death of her sister Margaret who was drowned at a nearby lake. A trauma and loss that Isabelle still experiences especially during her insomniac nights, when she feels Margaret’s presence ever closer and the thoughts of her sister haunts her longed for peace and search for answers. The locations and settings add another dimension too as they perfectly match the events, creating a terrific atmosphere and heightening the tension and increasing intensity.For her though, she just couldn't understand how Ben seemed to move on after Mason. He gave up on him. Isabelle can't do that. She's not going to chalk it up as a loss and move on. Her son could still be out there. She refuses to see him as gone forever. I wouldn't describe this as being fast-paced, it was more of a steady pace with great tension throughout. Each chapter fills in more and more of the puzzle and it was really hard to put it down. The book is very fast paced and the reveals to the different parts of the mystery come at regular intervals that allowed me to remain engaged with the story rather than getting bored. I'm glad I gave Willingham another chance and will be interested to see what she comes up with next.

Isabelle is the typical contemporary thriller protagonist: a woman obsessed with an idea and who assumes herself to be correct while everyone around her has to be wrong. Clichéd to the core! I didn’t understand why she felt that only she could find out what happened to Mason, and yet she was so determined to sabotage her chances of doing so by taking one stupid decision after another. I might have enjoyed this better had I been able to connect with Isabelle. A bereaved mother’s year of sleepless nights is turned even more dire by percolating revelations about her past and present.Content warnings: Insomnia and sleep deprivation; disappearance; murder and attempted murder; mention of death by suicide; death and grief; depression; psychosis; postpartum trauma; night terrors; mention of pregnancy loss All the Dangerous Things Book Review / Summary

Finally, I must mention the characterisation. These are without doubt, flawed, complex people who are all portrayed well so they feel authentic and they are what makes this such a powerful and thought provoking psychological thriller. I highly recommend this and I can’t wait to read what the author comes up with next. Since that time, Isabelle and her husband, Ben, have split. Isabelle knows the stats, it's not unusual for people who have lost a child to split up. Narrated solely by Isabelle, the narrative alternates between the present and 1999, when Isabelle was a child. Isabelle is an unreliable narrator, and since she doesn’t sleep, her memory is murky, and her obsession with finding Mason has her struggling to separate reality from fantasy. Though she hasn't slept since her son disappeared that wasn't always the The mystery/suspense feels very guessable but has enough surprises and twists to keep you on your toes. A couple of the twists are nice but many of them were just silly. Some were farfetched.Detective Dozier comes by and tells Isabelle that no old man lives in the house with the view of her yard. Just Paul Hayes, a guy on parole for minor drug infractions. We are nothing but what we choose to believe, but it’s all a mirage, bending and warping and shimmering in the distance, changing its form at any given second. —Stacy Willingham, All the Dangerous Things