Dr. Deadly read Clare Mackintosh’s new release, It’s Not What You Think, and…wow.
The novel’s description introduces a woman who fears her partner is having an affair. What happens next – and what’s really going on – is far more complicated and dangerous.
Without giving away too much plot, I’ll say there are characters in the book who bring extremism to life. Through the riveting lens of a storyline that blends police procedural with psychological and domestic thriller, we see how dangerous (literally) a person’s thinking and behavior can become in the presence of intolerance, rejection of compromise, and openness to violence or other use of force.
There were moments in the book that sparked the thought, this seems a bit far-fetched! But then I sadly and soberly settled on: but things like this have happened. Things like this DO happen.
I admire that Mackintosh depicts the dangers without, in my opinion, lingering on overly preachy or judgmental exposition that could take me out of the story. The thoughts, dialog, and actions of the characters speak for themselves. At times it was heart-wrenching, because some of the themes are weighty, and the characters so sympathetic I felt an echoing sadness about their tragedies. If you like thought-provoking reads, this is one.
That led me to the title of this post: that crime fiction can illuminate something like extremism, how it gestates and spawns, and how people around it can react. Fiction does this best not by explaining or preaching, but by showing readers the experience of characters living in these situations. Mackintosh does that while also delivering a page-turner with dialog and prose that flow. It’s my new favorite Clare Mackintosh novel, and I was already a big fan.
It’s Not What You Think would make a fantastic book club novel, with the opportunity for so many questions of “what would you do if…” and “how would you feel if…” and perhaps more complicated questions about how societies function. There’s also increased appetite now for books with movie potential, and I think this could be a great one.
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