Caller Unknown

Author: Gillian McAllister
Genre: Psychological Thriller
336 pages
Publisher: William Morrow, 2026

Synopsis
Simone’s holiday to Texas was meant to be some much needed bonding time with her teenage daughter, Lucy.

On their first night in the desert, Simone wakes to find Lucy missing and a mobile phone in her place. The phone Lucy has been taken and, in order to get her back, Simone must commit a crime.

As Simone is prepares to follow the kidnapper’s instructions, she feels certain that there is nothing she wouldn’t do to save Lucy. But becoming a wanted woman is just the start…

My review
Caller Unknown by Gillian McAllister is a psychological thriller with a promising setup but, for me, a frustrating execution. I really enjoyed McAllister’s Wrong Place Wrong Time and Famous Last Words, so I was excited to pick up this advanced copy. She usually delivers creative, fast-paced thrillers with protagonists I can root for, but this time was different.

The premise hooked me right away. Simone, visiting her eighteen-year-old daughter Lucy in Texas, wakes up to discover Lucy has been kidnapped. What follows is a whirlwind of frantic decisions and escalating danger. It’s the kind of “what would you do?” scenario that instantly pulled me in. How far would I go to get my child back?

Unfortunately, the story quickly went from gripping to unbelievable. Simone and Lucy make one reckless choice after another, when realistically, the obvious solution would have been to turn themselves in or at the very least, contact the embassy. That possibility gets dismissed in a single line, which made it hard to take their ordeal seriously.

Where McAllister usually balances strong character development with a taut plot, this book leaned too heavily on Simone’s internal monologues. Instead of heightening the tension, her rambling detours slowed the pace and broke my connection to the story. Simone’s fixation on Lucy often felt more unhinged than compelling, and neither character’s actions rang true.

I’ll continue to pick up McAllister’s novels in the future, but this one missed the mark for me.

Many thanks to NetGalley, William Morrow, and Gillian McAllister for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

My recommendation: a fun read heavy on plot, short on character development.