Review: Anything You Do Say by Gillian McAllister

Anything You Do Say by Gillian McAllister
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Well this has certainly got me wondering which path I would choose if I found myself in this situation.

                                             The Blurb

For the whole of her adult life Joanna has been a avoider.She would much rather ignore a situation than face it head on and deal with it.

Then one night Joanna hears footsteps on her way home from a night out.She has just had a bad experience with a man in a bar and she is sure that it is him following her.Hearing the steps speed up Joanna turns and pushes with all her might,sending her pursuer tumbling down the steps and leaving him lying motionless on the floor.

Now Joanna has to do the thing she hates most - make a decision,fight or flight? truth or lie? right or wrong?
                                       
                                       My Thoughts

This thought provoking,moral dilemma is voiced entirely by Joanna with the chapters alternating between conceal and reveal.The conceal chapters follow Joanna as she struggles with her guilt and how the changes in her behaviour affects her relationships with the people she cares about.In the reveal chapters you follow Joanna`s arrest,trial and what happens after she is released from prison as well as how the situation affects the people she cares about and the way that they treat her throughout the whole ordeal.The author has obviously done a lot of research into brain injuries and also the British judicial system but the story is not padded out with pages and pages of unneeded complicated information or a long drawn out trial.

No one is ever going to be the same after going through an ordeal like this and it was fascinating to witness how Joanna`s character changed as both parts of the story unfolded.

I can't honestly say I enjoyed one part of the story more than the other but I was definitely routing more for the reveal Jo than I was for the conceal Jo and I really felt so much sympathy for Jo`s husband Reuben during the conceal chapters.It's a thought provoking story of lies,secrets,relashionships,forgiveness,guilt and making the right decisions.This would be a very good book to be read by a book group,it would definitely raise some interesting discussions.I mean after all what would you do.....conceal or reveal?.

Many thanks to Penquin UK/ Michael Joseph for a arc of this book via Netgalley in exchange for a honest review