Blog Tour: I Could Be You by Shelia Bugler

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I Could Be You by Shelia Bugler
Published by Canelo on January 23rd 2020
Genres: Psychological Thriller
Pages: 384
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: NetGalley, Publisher
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A life has been taken. But whose life is it?
On a stifling hot day, former journalist Dee Doran finds the crumpled body of her friend at the roadside. Katie and her little boy, Jake, have been a light in Dee’s otherwise desolate life – now a woman is dead and a child is missing.

Katie has been keeping secrets for a long time. Years earlier, she fell for the wrong person. But he was in love with someone else; who he couldn’t have but couldn’t keep away from. When jealousy and desire spilled over into murder Katie hid the truth, and has been pretending ever since.

As Dee assists the police with their enquiries she’s compelled to investigate too. She realises Katie wasn’t who she claimed to be. Lies are catching up. Stories are unravelling. Revenge is demanded and someone must pay the price. The question is: who?

Don’t miss this explosive crime thriller perfect for fans for Alex Marwood and Fiona Barton.

The impact a child can have on your life can be profound and everlasting.  Even if that child isn’t yours.  A child can lighten up the darkest of lives.  They have an infectious way of melting even the coldest of personas.  A child and their impact have a way of shaping your life, usually for the better.  Family isn’t always determined by blood, it is the connection that we make with a kindred soul.  What happens when that tie is severed?  It feels like we are literally missing a part of ourselves.  It’s an irrevocable wrenching of the heart.  I instantly signed up for this blog tour for its intense cover and a synopsis that is dripping in mysterious intrigue. 

Reading I could be you can be described as looking into the mirror and for the first time being able to see something more than just you.  All your flaws, past mistakes and your vision for the future are suddenly flashing before your eyes.  There’s a figure in the background threatening to be revealed in all its glorious technicolour but what exactly will revealed?  It fogs your mind, makes you forget.  Your memories feel like a freezing fog, keeping you in the now and happy to keep you oblivious. 

The opening is a friend’s, or family members worst nightmare.  That is exactly where it should stay.  Seeing someone you care about is harmed and no-one felt the need to stop and help.  A crushed buggy and no sign of the precious little 2-year-old boy that you doted over, you babysat and most important of all, you loved, as if he were her own.  It’s poignant, heart-breaking and left me imagining my own pain if it were one of my own boys.  The impact of what has just happened finally enters my foggy brain and I’m left feeling bereft just like Dee.  Her pain is apparent, and she starts losing her direction. 

I was unable to prise this book from my hands and Sheila Berger knows just how to punch you in the feels.  She forces you to dip your foot into the water and she sends you swimming from one raw emotion to another.  It leaves you feeling wrecked and disorientated, but you know the only way is forward. 

I could Be You deals with difficult tropes, but they are handled with dignity and tact.  The grief of a missing child is a wrought cage of emotion.  We see this nearly every day in the newspapers.  Press releases.  Emotional reaching out.  Trauma lingering.  Sheila Bulger gives this type of grief a form – it’s ugly but realistic and it inflicts a severe whiplash with its intensity. 

Dee’s young friend is found on the side of the road apparently being ran over in a hit and run.  The buggy is beside her and it’s empty.  Her friend, Kate, would have had her son with her, wouldn’t she?  Just where has the little boy gone?  The police are called, and they start gathering evidence and information and it is quickly discovered that nothing is as it seems.  It becomes very twisty and my head needed to be straightened several times during my read of I Could Be You. 

When Dee discovers some mistruths surrounding her death she sets out to rebirth the Journalist in her.  She gets help from her cousin, Louise who is still a Journo.  Together they plot to get to the bottom of Katie’s past and any missing links to where the little boy could be.  The story is told in the present and we have flashbacks to Katie’s past which strengthens the plot.

I Could Be You was brilliantly eerie.  It was a true psychological thriller that has tons of pace and atmospheric brilliance.  You need to push forward to decipher the twists.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

My new crime series launches in January 2020. The series features jaded journalist Dee Doran and the books are all set in my adopted home town, Eastbourne. I Could Be You is the first in the series, and it’s available now for pre-order from Amazon, Kobo, and Apple Books.

‘Imagine a collaboration between Anne Tyler and AM Homes.’ Ken Bruen.

‘One of the rising stars of Irish literature.’ Clare People.

‘Propulsive action and stirring plot twists abound in this compelling thriller… one of those books you’ll read in one sitting. Thoroughly entertaining!’ Wendy Walker, Sunday Times Bestselling author.

‘A beautifully written and atmospheric page-turner that is also a totally absorbing read… I loved it.’ Abbie Frost, author of The Guesthouse.

‘A brilliant read – twisted, cleverly plotted and one hell of a page-turner.’ M J Lee, author of Where the Truth Lies.

Sheila Bugler website