Leo and Viv’s Friday night starts out like any other. A bottle of wine, a takeaway from their favourite Chinese restaurant, a movie, then an early night.
But when Leo wakes up, he finds he’s not in London anymore; he’s naked and alone in an unfamiliar bed, in an anonymous hotel, on the other side of the world. Viv wakes up to a ringing phone. It’s Leo – he claims that he’s in Australia, despite the impossibility of it. An emergency passport is arranged.
A return flight to London is booked, but before Leo can make it onto the plane, there’s a flicker in the corner of his vision, and he wakes up in another bed, in another hotel room, in another country.
Disoriented, Leo soon discovers he’s not alone. Someone with access to a groundbreaking technology and an axe to grind is beaming a group of individuals around the globe – and hunting them down, one by one, committing perfect, untraceable murders.
As Leo fights for his life, back in London, Viv is struggling to understand what’s happening. But as her investigation deepens she starts to unearth secrets from Leo’s past. Dark secrets. Secrets that might be enough to make someone want to kill him. And the more she learns about Leo, the less she seems to know and the less certain she is that her husband is a man worth saving.
Robin Brookes grew up in Sydney, Australia and now lives in Brighton, England. She has worked as a playwright, copywriter and bookseler. The idea for The Arrival came about after Robin heard, and misunderstood, the science behind the 2022 Nobel Prize for Physics. It is currently in development as a feature film.
My thoughts: This is a very clever story, you’re as at sea as Leo and Viv to begin with, as they try to make sense of how Leo has woken up on the other side of the world, 24 hours away by plane, just seconds it seems to them.
As the story unfolds, and Viv investigates how someone could be controlling where Leo finds himself, from Australia, to North Korea and beyond, you learn they face a dangerous and angry foe, intent on revenge for the sort of incidents that fester and become larger the longer you dwell on them. They’ve had access to an incredible new technology, and they’re using it to carry out their outsized revenge plan, despite it not officially being able to transmit people, just objects.
Viv is determined to get her husband back before she gives birth, and Leo must stay alive long enough to make it home, unsure who his enemy is, or what they’re capable of.
Tense, gripping and really enjoyable, this is a brilliant thriller with an ingenious plot.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own
