Cover Image: I See You

I See You

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Member Reviews

Thanks so much to the publisher and to NetGalley for giving me access to this book. This is a good psychological thriller. I think that it was a little weak on the story line. It won’t be getting a strong recommend from me.

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DNF at 50 percent. After a very strong beginning, I lost interest in the characters and the plot was failing to pick up enough to keep my interest. Hoped for more twist and turns.

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Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

I suspected numerous characters of being the villain in Clare Mackintosh’s I See You—a sign of a well-done thriller/mystery in my book.

Zoe Walker sees her own face staring out at her from a newspaper classifieds ad for findtheone.com & she grows more worried when she notices that a recently attacked woman had her own classifieds ad before her attack.

Police officer Kelly Swift listens to Zoe’s fears, eventually becoming part of the official task force trying to determine who’s behind the classifieds & what women have been targeted & harmed as a result.

I love Mackintosh’s writing style, both in its confessional moments & its adrenaline-filled. I couldn’t wait to get to the end & find out the answers I was seeking.

I See You is a creepy, compelling thriller & I really enjoyed it, even as I felt disconcerted by what happened on the page.


CW: *Please be aware there are incidents of murder, sexual assault, stalking, & other acts of violence toward women mentioned or otherwise included in this book.*

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“With FindTheOne.com there are no blind-date nerves, there’s no stilted conversations over dinner. I’d argue it’s more honest than most online dating sites, with their airbrushed photos and their profiles full of lies. Salary range, hobbies, favorite foods…all irrelevant. Who builds a relationship on a mutual love of tapas? A match might be perfect on paper, yet lack the spark needed to set it alight.

FindTheOne.com cuts through all that rubbish; the pretense that anyone cares if you like opera or walks in the park. It means men can take their time. They can follow you for a while, engage you in conversation; see if you’re interesting enough to take for dinner, instead of wasting their time on a garrulous airhead. It means men can get up close and personal. Smell your perfume; your breath; your skin. Feel a spark. Act on it.”

I must admit to the guilty pleasure of reading a thriller. I like to read them scattered between translated or classical literature, simply for the ride. But, I don’t like all thrillers. I didn’t like Gone Girl, for example, and I wasn’t particularly taken with The Girl on The Train. However, I See You kept me engaged all afternoon.

It is based on the premise that a web site sells the details of women’s commutes to work, from which Tube line they take, to the carriage in which they sit, to the exit they use in heading for home. When Zoe discovers a connection between an advertisement on the Gazette and subsequent murders of the women pictured on each advert, the tension rises palatably until its surprising crescendo.

Try as I might, I could not guess the perpetrator. But, Clare Mackintosh does not forcibly manipulate either her reader, or the clues, into a neat little package. The resolution makes perfect sense and has been drawn carefully from the first chapter if one is mindful enough to see it.

If the reader will remember that it is not just the site, nor those who are drawn to it, but the mastermind behind it all. The mind that causes Zoe, and now me, to carefully observe her surroundings to see if anyone follows her with malicious intent.

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day. Never thinking that someone is actually watching her and her every move. One night looking through the paper on her way home she spots an advertisement, is that her grainy picture she sees in the ad?? FindTheOne.com, women start disappearing. Other women begin appearing in the same ad, a different one every day, and Zoe realizes they’ve become the victims of increasingly violent crimes—including murder. Is Zoe next????
Thank you #netgalley for the free preview of this title

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The pacing was a bit slow on this one, but I'm glad I stuck it out otherwise I would have missed on on a twisty thriller that was shocking and unexpected. I will definitely be looking out for more from this author.

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This book can best be described as creepy and unnerving. A very fast-paced page turner with twists at every corner. Just who can you trust?

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Thank you to NetGalley and Sphere for this free readers edition. In exchange I am providing an honest review.

Zoe Walker is taken by surprise. Her picture is in the advert section for dating and the like. Except she didn't sign up for any dating site and she can't figure out where the picture came from. It makes her uneasy. Her unease turns to fear when she sees another woman's picture in place of her's the next day and that same woman ends up dead the day after. Contacting the police she can only find one who will take her seriously but one is all she needs. Starting her own private inquiry alongside the police investigation Zoe uncovers more women who have shown up in the same advert section and then ended up assaulted or dead. Her police contact is able to persuade the investigation team to look into Zoe's findings more closely and what they uncover is terrifying and puts Zoe in danger. The race is on to uncover the man who is tracking women and selling their information to men who have all sorts of desires they are looking to fulfill. The longer this person remains in the dark the more chances there are for other women to be assaulted.

Creepy, creepy, creepy. So creepy to consider the probability of this scenario becoming real life. People are creatures of habit and this story exposes the dangers we all potentially place ourselves in when we stick to a routine and lose any diligence in being aware of our surroundings and who is close by.

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After last year’s triumphant I Let You Go, Clare Mackintosh has banished any fears of a sophomore slump with her second rock-solid thriller, I See You. Click on the link below to read the rest of my review.

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Great Book! I love thrillers that keep you guessing until the end. This book gave me that creepy feeling that someone was watching me while I was reading it. I liked the characters and the plot. Will definitely read more by this author!

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I started this one but couldn't get hooked. It was a DNF for me, unfortunately.

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You never know when someone is watching you is the concept of this nail biter of a novel. Fast paced, and a rapid page turner. Such a surprise ending as you think you know who it is stalking our main character but boy will you be wrong. Can’t wait to read more by Claire Mackintosh.

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Amazing. Doesn’t disappoint. Highly recommend. Can’t wait for the next book

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My Highly Caffeinated Thought: A a suspenseful, thrilling, and completely absorbing read.

I SEE YOU is one of those books that grabs you from page one and doesn’t let go until long after you have finished. I am still freaking out about this book. The way in which the author has written this story will give you chills as you discover each twist and turn within the plot.

Not only do you enter the minds of Zoe and Kelly, but there are also glimpses of the perpetrators’ psychosis as well. Looking back, what I loved the most was the dark physiological element as well as the deliberately malicious actions behind choosing the women of FindTheOne.com. Honestly, the book is an utter mindf**k, and I loved every page. I cannot wait to read Mackintosh's third book!

Audio Book Note: I originally had the opportunity to listen to this book after I read the ARC. The narrator ,Rachel Atkins, embraces all the emotions that play out within the pages of this book. She breathes new life into the characters and gives them a voice.

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Zoe Walker, completely by chance, sees her picture in a newspaper, the London Gazette. It's especially disturbing that her picture is included in what appears to be an advertisement for a dating site, or possibly a sex chat line.

It's not long before she learns hat another woman whose picture was also used in one of these ads, for the same website, FindtheOne.com, had her keys stolen from her bag when she fell asleep while riding public transit. Yet another featured woman is killed.

Her son and daughter, and her partner, insist the picture isn't really her, but she continues to be afraid.

Meanwhile, PC Kelly Swift, still trying to rebuild her career from the time when she lost control and assaulted a prisoner, starts out investigating these crimes from the other direction. She investigated the case of the stolen keys, and is the officer the victim in that case calls when she thinks someone has been in her house. When Zoe also calls her, and convinces her there's a series of crimes here, she wants to keep investigating--but she's a British Transport Police patrol officer, not a detective.

Both women are very determined, and not easily discouraged.

Mackintosh very effectively builds an intricate plot, with the clues all there for the reader, while keeping that evidence easy to overlook.

We also get anonymous sections from the viewpoint of the criminal, which are fascinating and chilling and give nothing away.

As the story progressed, there were several points at which I thought I had identified the bad guy, and I was wrong, and the ending was not at all a cheat.

This is a bit darker than my usual taste, and in the content warning category, it should be mentioned that there are sexual crimes recounted.

Overall, though, definitely recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via Netgalley, and am reviewing it voluntarily.

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Every work day Zoe Walker takes the tube to go to work. Fighting the commuting crowds and trying to make as little contact as possible. Every day it’s the same type of grind but all commuters do it and you see people immersed on their phones, books or even napping. One day though, Zoe sees a picture of a woman who could be her double on a newspaper advertising a chat line.

That’s kind of creepy to her but her family doesn’t seem to think it’s that big of a deal. When she tries to find out more information on the website she runs into a black hole almost and can’t find any real information. She tries to go about her life and enjoys her teenage children and how well things are going with her boyfriend but in the back of her mind she still feels like someone is watching her.

When she finds another photo on the same advertisement and realizes the woman’s picture matches those of a recent crime victim, Zoe is really scared and contacts the police. Luckily Kelly Swift is a police constable who is trying to make a name for herself and won’t let the issue die and as she continues her investigation it seems like Zoe may have stumbled upon a criminal organization.

There were quite a few things to really like about this book, mainly how the author takes something so mundane as commuting to work and makes you think about the people you encounter on your daily work commute. We get so used to our routines, never altering them, and a lot of times not paying attention to our surroundings. The other area where I think the book pulled you in was by casting a lot of doubt among all of Zoe’s circle. Could someone she knows be involved with this scheme?

Great tension and good use of red herrings. Unfortunately, there was one thing I didn’t quite like and I can’t go into it without spoilers. Still this was a very solid read, kept my interest and I would definitely pick up another book by this author.

Source: Advance review copy

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While I would love to have loved this book, I found it, unfortunately, quite slow and just did not keep my interest up at all.

The characters felt stiff as was the dialogue. Nothing to like here.

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I hope your daily commute isn't as creepy as poor Zoe. She feels like someone is stalking her, but everyone tells her she is imagining things, even after she sees a picture of herself in the want ads! As the suspense built up in the story, I had a hard time going to sleep because I could see how all of these events could happen. The book definitely earns a high rating on the creepiness scale.

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'i see you' is a tautly written thriller, racing between events and points of view quickly enough to leave you breathless and but not so fast that you won't want to keep searching for the answers.

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I usually don’t read thrillers because there’s always a point in the book (usually at the beginning) when I figure out who did it or the plot twist, so I rarely take my chance on this genre, that said I did see a bunch of good reviews for this book and lots saying that is was really entertaining so I decided to give it a chance.

I have to say I was surprised at how much I enjoyed reading it, at time things seemed to go really slow but most of the time things were pretty fast paced and new mysteries were being uncovered, we also have two narrators that are more than just about the mystery of the book, they are normal women who also have to be there for their family and that have things in their past that are threatening to come out because of the events that happen in the book.

I did figure who was behind it all but it did take me more than half the book so that’s good!

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