From the bestselling author of Do No Harm comes a brand new look for Jack Jordan's chilling thriller My Girl that you won't want to miss.
Paige Dawson: the mother of a murdered child and wife to a dead man.
She has nothing left to live for... until she finds her husband's handgun hidden in their house.
Why did Ryan need a gun? What did he know about their daughter's death?
Desperate for the truth, Paige begins to unearth her husband's secrets.
But she has no idea who she is up against, or that her life isn't hers to gamble - she belongs to me.
It's my pleasure to be sharing my review of My Girl as part of the Jack Jordan blogathon today. Many thanks to Tracy Fenton from Compulsive Readers for inviting me and Simon & Schuster for my digital copy of the novel.
My Girl, Jack Jordan's second novel has recently been republished by Simon & Schuster with an eye-catching new cover which is absolutely gorgeous but only hints at the extreme darkness awaiting in this short but dramatic thriller.
The book is divided into three parts, with the first the longest and the easiest to discuss without giving away any spoilers. The character-driven plot here follows the apparently inexorable decline of Paige Dawson who is relentlessly drinking herself into prison, an early grave or both. It's impossible not to feel enormous sympathy for her; her daughter was murdered ten years ago and with Chloe's killer never found, Paige's husband, Ryan killed himself two months ago. As a grieving mother, Paige is addicted to pills and drink, her behaviour increasingly sordid and risky. To complicate her life still further, she begins to notice strange things happening in her house. When she unearths a gun and a burner phone among Ryan's possessions, she attempts to discover what her husband had been doing prior to his death but only finds herself in more trouble. With her life headed towards rock bottom, she reaches out to the detective who had been in charge of the investigation into Chloe's disappearance and murder but he, understandably, assumes the chilling incidents she describes are due to memory problems brought about by her alcoholism. Paige is evidently a broken woman who is spiralling out of control and with two incidents in particular underlining just how dangerous her behaviour has become, readers are left with more questions than answers.
The breathtakingly dark second part of the book explains almost everything and is therefore the most difficult to review! The focus moves from Paige but still the first-person narrative told from the perspective of another character discloses shocking revelations about this tragic family's dark past. While Paige's degradation makes for sombre reading, the dreadful acts perpetrated here are especially harrowing to imagine, although the worst happens off the page and is therefore never gratuitous. The third part of My Girl brings together the storylines for an intense, emotional climax to the novel.
There is at least one unanswered question at the end of My Girl which may frustrate some readers, although it could be argued that life is like that sometimes. There are also a few scenes which perhaps stretch credibility to its absolute limits. However, even at this early point in Jack Jordan's writing career, his talent for bringing characters vibrantly to life is impressive and this is a suspenseful, compelling thriller throughout.
Check out what other bloggers taking part in the blogathon have said about My Girl, details are below.
About the Author
Jack Jordan is the global number one bestselling author of Anything for Her (2015), My Girl (2016), A Woman Scorned (2018), Before Her Eyes (2018) and Night by Night (2019). His thriller, Do No Harm, was an instant Times bestseller and shortlisted for the Most Recommended Book in the DeadGood Reader Awards. Coined the thriller of the summer for 2022, it was described as “relentlessly tense” by Sunday Times Bestseller Lesley Kara, and “Chilling and perfectly paced” by New York Times Bestseller Sarah Pearse. The idea for Do No Harm came to Jack after undergoing a minor medical procedure where he had to be sedated and trust strangers with his welfare. After the anaesthesia wore off, Jack began scribbling his notes, wondering to himself just how iron-clad a surgeon’s oath is, and what it would take to break it…
Conviction, was published in June 2023 and featured in Cosmopolitan’s ‘best new books out in June’ round-up, it was also chosen as one of the June featured books by Magic Radio’s Book Club and the audiobook was selected for Fingerprint Award at Capital Crime 2024.
His most recent book, Redemption was published in June 2024.
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