Book Review: "The Prisoner" by B.A Paris

I have read a few of B.A Paris' books over the years including The Therapist, Behind Closed Doors and the even more thrilling, The Dilemma. I think that The Prisoner for me was an obvious choice when it came to which book I would take away with me for train journeys. I thought that this would also be a brilliant opportunity to reconnect with one of my favourite modern thriller writers since the last books I had read by her were very engaging.

The Prisoner is about a woman called Amelie and it starts when she is trapped in a situation which we believe is a kidnapping by some psychopaths who are trying to get to her and her husband because of their name and wealth. We are taken back and forth through Amelie's past and present to find out exactly how she ended up here. We are drip-fed information such as: how she was once homeless, how she married a millionaire and how she came to be shut away in a room with barely any light whatsoever.

After a while, as you carry on reading, you start to unearth some weird clues about Amelie's marriage and at first, you think that maybe this will be one of those stories like Gone Girl where she kind of does it to herself in order to make her husband feel bad. But then it carries on some more and you know that isn't the case. You don't know how much of what Amelie is saying is the truth but really, she is the only one you can trust. In the end, you have to give up your guessing game and allow your mind to piece together what has happened. It is so important to pay attention to Amelie's past and who she was around in order to see the bigger picture of what is happening in the story.

Some interesting characters such as the husband, Ned, and some of Amelie's friends in her early days crop up here and there - making the story seem more fragmented. One criticism I do have for this book though is that the character of Amelie doesn't really have a tone of voice. She speaks in an almost too-narrative-like style where it feels like we are still somewhat outside the story. She feels almost too comfortable talking about her past and it does push the reader out a little bit. Another criticism I would add is that the ending is rather predictable - but that might just be because I have read so many thrillers that you can barely surprise me anymore.

B.A Paris' construction of a story is pretty unrivaled at the moment. The back-and-forth nature of the narrative drives the reader insane with trying to piece the puzzle together and mostly, coming to the wrong conclusions. Though the narrative style might be lacking a little bit, I feel like the other characters and their developments in different parts of the story make up for this in ways that are underrated by many reviewers.

I would have liked though, more information on the husband and his back story instead of him just cropping up through another character. Maybe in the near future, B.A Paris can write another book told from the perspective of Ned instead of Amelie and then we will see some real action. I just felt uncomfortable because I did not feel as if I knew him enough when the ball to the story started rolling. It seemed a little bit pushed-in and though it was a good story, I would have enjoyed maybe about 50-60 more pages of something tangible like reasons, backstories etc. It would have made the book just a tad bit more terrifying even less predictable - especially if there was something like a sob-story in his past or something.

It is dark, it is thrilling and it is pretty much what you would expect a modern day thriller to be. However, there are a few touch-ups this book could have gone through before making it to the bookstores, especially where tone and development may have been concerned. On the whole though, it was an enjoyable train-read - nothing too heavy and interesting enough to keep me reading.