‘Trust Me’ by Gemma Metcalfe

Published by HQ Digital,
19 March 2017.
ISBN: 978-0-00-822976-4

Trust me is a debut psychological suspense. Unusually, the story is told from the dual viewpoints of two people over a phone conversation. 

           

Lana works for a call centre in Tenerife and is desperate to make a sale in order to keep her job. When she randomly calls Liam's number the last thing she is expecting is for the person answering to admit he is about to commit suicide. Desperate to stop him, Lara keeps him talking. 

           

The action takes place over the course of the next hour or so when both parties start to reveal the secrets that have brought them to their current situations. Lara is on the run. Liam cannot see a way forward. Both have children and it is the protection of their children that is the connecting thread. As the two begin to open up, their backstories are revealed and we quickly learn that Liam has never got over the loss of his wife and daughter. He has since remarried but it is not a happy marriage and the saving grace is his adopted brain-damaged son, Elliot. Lana owes people money. It's difficult to say too much more than that without giving the whole story away.

           

This well-paced story runs back and forth between the present day telephone conversation and the events leading up to it. The device works well. The threat that Liam will go through with his suicide attempt creates the tension underlying this plot. Liam has a small window of opportunity before someone comes home and finds him and his attempt will fail. The reader is conscious of the ever present ticking clock. Helpless to help in any other way she does the only thing she can, keeps him talking. Even though it is clear she will loose her job when she hangs up the phone. 

           

With this kind of book, despair could have been overpowering and the book unreadable. But Gemma Metcalfe has managed to create likeable characters (especially Liam) who you want to come through it. Liam has made bad decisions but is a genuinely nice man who I really wanted to survive. A really enjoyable book.

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Reviewer Christine Hammacott

Gemma Metcalfe is a Manchester born author who now lives in sunny Tenerife with her husband Danny and two crazy rescue dogs Dora and Diego. By day, Gemma can be found working as a Primary school teacher, but as the sun sets, she ditches the glitter and glue and becomes a writer of psychological thrillers. An established drama queen, she admits to having a rather warped imagination, and loves writing original plots with shocking twists. The plot for her debut novel Trust Me, is loosely based on her experiences as a call centre operative, where she was never quite sure who would answer the phone...

Christine Hammacott lives near Southampton and runs her own design consultancy. She started her career working in publishing as a book designer and now creates covers for indie-authors. She writes page-turning fiction that deals with the psychological effects of crime. Her debut novel The Taste of Ash was published in 2015.