If you wanted to write a solid by-the-tropes psychological thriller, Fatal Collision could be your textbook. It begins slowly, with recently widowed artist Nicki and her daughter Willow fleeing to the Pembrokeshire coast of south-west Wales to escape the stalker who lurks outside their home, leaving threatening notes and graffiti.
Arriving in a swirl of mist and shadows, the seacoast soon becomes a character itself, providing the two grieving women with sunlight and color, and rekindling Nicki’s artistic vision.
QUOTE: "The last of the mist disintegrated before my eyes … and where one illusion had bewitched me, another burst out in its place: the sea, under a cobalt sky, a dazzling expanse of ultramarine, sparkling and flashing with the light of a million suns and moons and stars. The light of a limitless universe, folding around me."
But even as Nicki and Willow become more integrated with their new neighbors and surroundings, including a wealthy and attractive father and son, they encounter disturbing stories about missing women, and realize that something is very wrong.
Nicki begins to investigate out of concern for her new friends and for her daughter. In most thrillers, the detective will be aided by a sidekick. For Nicki, that role is filled by the voice in her head of her dead husband Adam. Like many couples who’ve been together for a long period, she knows what Adam would have told her, and lets herself hear that. Instead of becoming a crutch, this inner voice lets her recover her own artistic voice and agency, giving her the support she had depended on when Adam was alive. But it also provides companionship, someone to joke and even argue with.
The pace and setting of Fatal Collision are perfect complements to the thriller action. As Nicki uncovers the various plots, the pace increases until danger, violence, and discovery race together, while the setting contributes to the perfect remote, rugged atmosphere.
My only complaints are minor. I wasn’t altogether convinced that the killer—a psychopath capable of meticulous planning and control—would actually have risked everything to commit the crimes for the reasons given, and I was equally unconvinced by the lack of any apparent relationship between husband Adam’s fatal collision of the title, and the deaths Nicki is investigating. Overall though, Fatal Collision is a terrific example of a classic thriller. It’s fast-paced, involves a truly evil villain, and offers a brilliant mix of action, limited violence, and suspense.
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Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2022
Top reviews from other countries
- Barb TaubReviewed in the United Kingdom on May 25, 2022
Fast-paced psychological thriller with brilliant mix of action, limited violence, & suspense
- VardaReviewed in the United Kingdom on August 13, 2022
Fun, fast and very well written
