Wrong Place, Wrong Time (Reese's Book Club Pick)

by Gillian McAllister

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

The butterfly effect as plot device: everything that surrounds us is interconnected, and even the smallest of movements can influence all that’s around. Turn the first page and set connections in motion.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK

“It’s perfection, every word, every moment. A masterpiece . . . One of the best books I’ve ever read.” —Lisa Jewell, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“Absolutely AMAZING. The plot is astonishing—original and ingenious. But it’s much more than that; the love Jen has for her son and her husband is beautiful. The stakes are so high because they’re so meaningful.” —Marin Keyes, internationally bestselling author

“A brilliantly genre-bending, mind-twisting answer to the question How far would you go to save your child?” —Ruth Ware, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“Daring, inventive, exhilarating, twisted. This is virtuoso storytelling. Please dive in. It’s the right place and the right time.” —A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“A work of such genius it leaves you in awe. Wrong Place, Wrong Time is impossibly clever, daringly original and heart-rending. Exceptional.” —Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of We Begin at the End

From UK bestselling author Gillian McAllister comes an astonishing, compulsively twisty psychological thriller about a mother who witnesses her teenage son stab a man and then seizes on an unconventional way to try to save him, deemed “clever, original, and so addictive it should come with a warning” by Alice Feeney, bestselling author of Rock Paper Scissors

Can you stop a murder after it’s already happened?

Late October. After midnight. You’re waiting up for your eighteen-year-old son. He’s past curfew. As you watch from the window, he emerges, and you realize he isn’t alone: he’s walking toward a man, and he’s armed.

You can’t believe it when you see him do it: your funny, happy teenage son, he kills a stranger, right there on the street outside your house. You don’t know who. You don’t know why. You only know your son is now in custody, his future shattered.

That night you fall asleep in despair. All is lost.

Until you wake . . .

. . . and it is yesterday.

And then you wake again . . .

. . . and it is the day before yesterday.

Every morning you wake up a day earlier, another day before the murder. With another chance to stop it. Somewhere in the past lies an answer. The trigger for this crime—and you don’t have a choice but to find it . . .

“Another ingeniously plotted genre-bender… McAllister succeeds in making us care, and the result is a tour de force.” — The Guardian

“This entertaining look at motherhood and memory will resonate with many." — Publishers Weekly

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063252356
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	05/23/2023
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	515
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

GILLIAN MCALLISTER has been writing for as long as she can remember. She graduated with an English degree before working as a lawyer. She lives in Birmingham, England, where she now writes full-time. She is the New York Times bestselling author of Everything but the Truth, The Choice, The Good Sister, The Evidence Against You, How to Disappear, the Richard & Judy Book Club pick That Night, and Wrong Place Wrong Time. She is also the creator and co-host of the popular Honest Authors podcast. 

Editorial Reviews

Absolutely AMAZING. The plot is astonishing—original and ingenious. But it’s much more than that; the love Jen has for her son and her husband is beautiful. The stakes are so high because they’re so meaningful.”  — Marian Keyes, internationally bestselling author

“A brilliantly genre-bending, mind-twisting answer to the question How far would you go to save your child?”  — Ruth Ware, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“A high-concept mash-up of different genres that transcends its wackadoodle premise with an affecting portrayal of a family careening toward crisis… But the science isn’t the point of this twisty book by a writer with a fine grasp of the subtleties of familial dysfunction. The story becomes unexpectedly tender as Jen moves further back in time, in awe of the youth she let slip by so easily, and shocked by how much she did not know.”
— New York Times

“Another ingeniously plotted genre-bender… McAllister succeeds in making us care, and the result is a tour de force.”  — The Guardian (UK)

"A work of such genius it leaves you in awe. Wrong Place, Wrong Time is impossibly clever, daringly original and heart-rending. Exceptional." — Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author

“It’s perfection, every word, every moment. A masterpiece . . . I had my mind blown apart. After I finished it, I sat with my mouth hanging open in awe. One of the best books I’ve ever read.”  — Lisa Jewell on Wrong Place, Wrong Time

"McAllister gives readers a chance to solve the crime from a refreshing new perspective while also providing elegant insights into how one creates one’s past and confronts “friendships and addresses and life phases that feel endless but never, never last.” Assured prose more than compensates for the pat ending. This entertaining look at motherhood and memory will resonate with many." — Publishers Weekly

“Fiendishly clever and flawlessly executed, Wrong Place, Wrong Time is a staggering achievement. I could not put this novel down—it’s just dazzling.” — Rosie Walsh, New York Times bestselling author of Ghosted  

“Genre-bending and totally original, I loved Wrong Place, Wrong Time. Convincing, heartbreaking and wonderfully written with a twist that made me gasp out loud. This is a tour de force!”  — Claire Douglas, bestselling author of The Couple at Number 9

“If Jodi Picoult wrote thrillers, they would look like this.”  — Rosamund Lupton 

“Almost unbearably tense … a granular exploration of secrecy and guilt — how they corrode, how they poison a psyche — in the manner of ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.’”  — New York Times on The Choice

From the Publisher

06/27/2022

In this intriguing time-travel mystery from British author McAllister (The Choice), happily married divorce lawyer Jen Brotherhood awakes on the morning of October 30, 2022, to find that her 18-year-old son, Todd, hasn’t returned home. She goes to the front window and watches in horror as Todd pulls a knife and stabs an older man who’s been following him. She awakes the next morning, after having witnessed her son’s arrest for murder, to find that it’s October 29, the day before the incident. Each succeeding morning, she finds herself further back in time—jumping days, weeks, and even years. She decides her mission is to discover what led to this act of violence and stop it from happening. McAllister gives readers a chance to solve the crime from a refreshing new perspective while also providing elegant insights into how one creates one’s past and confronts “friendships and addresses and life phases that feel endless but never, never last.” Assured prose more than compensates for the pat ending. This entertaining look at motherhood and memory will resonate with many. Agent: Zoe Sandler, ICM Partners. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

If Jodi Picoult wrote thrillers, they would look like this.” 

Rosamund Lupton 

Almost unbearably tense … a granular exploration of secrecy and guilt — how they corrode, how they poison a psyche — in the manner of ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.’” 

New York Times on The Choice

"A work of such genius it leaves you in awe. Wrong Place, Wrong Time is impossibly clever, daringly original and heart-rending. Exceptional."

Chris Whitaker

Fiendishly clever and flawlessly executed, Wrong Place, Wrong Time is a staggering achievement. I could not put this novel down—it’s just dazzling.

Rosie Walsh

Genre-bending and totally original, I loved Wrong Place, Wrong Time. Convincing, heartbreaking and wonderfully written with a twist that made me gasp out loud. This is a tour de force!” 

Claire Douglas