Lisa Ballantyne seems to like writing in two timelines, but this makes her books more of a challenge for readers. In her new book, the current day follows Margaret Holloway, a teacher and mother of two, who nearly dies in a horrible pile-up on a British motorway when her gas tank is ruptured, only to be saved by a disfigured mystery man. Eventually, she finds him in a medically-induced coma at a local hospital and feels compelled to thank him for his kindness as she herself begins to come unglued, remembering things from her childhood. The other story is about the youngest brother of a Glasgow crime family (Big George McLaughlin), who desperately wants out, is deeply in love with Kathleen, and is rejected as a father when she gets pregnant. When he finally happens upon some money (illegally, of course), George goes to see her and their 7-year old daughter, Moll. By an unfortunate set of circumstances, George kidnaps Moll and goes on the lam. The two stories are brought together cleverly. The novel starts slowly, especially the storyline about the angry, devout writer Angus Campbell, but gains substantial momentum as events unfold. ( )

Generally, a really good read. I had high expectations, having read Lisa's "The Guilty One". This didn't quite meet up to those expectations. I found the chapters about Angus where sometimes unnecessary, though what I did think clever on the author's part was how she was demonstrating that one man with supposed morals and values could behave so appallingly towards his wife and children, in comparison to a man without those supposed values (Angus compared to Brenda McLaughlin).

I was genuinely suspenseful to find out who "burn man" was, though I had my own thoughts about who he may be, as the story unfolded.

Out of all the characters in the book, I felt the most for George. It was obvious he was not given the best start in life, and had an air of vulnerability about him.

Definitely worth a read. ( )

I really enjoy Lisa Ballantyne books.
( )

Lisa Ballantyne’s second novel, Everything She Forgot (published in the UK as Redemption Road), is a story of abduction, repressed memory and good intentions gone awry. In this novel the author skillfully weaves together two separate but intimately connected narrative threads. In December 2013 Margaret Holloway, a teacher in her mid-thirties and married mother of two, is involved in a disastrous multi-vehicle pile-up and is pulled from her burning car by a stranger who risks his own life and suffers serious injuries in order to save her. The man ends up in hospital in an induced coma, his life hanging by a thread, and Margaret, compelled by guilt and curiosity, becomes obsessed with learning as much about him as she can, with the goal of finding out why he would put himself in life-threatening danger for her sake. In 1985, 27-year-old George McLaughlin, the youngest member of the Glasgow McLaughlins, a notorious crime family with a reputation for brutality and ruthlessness, believes he has found a way to escape the business. Driving a stolen car and with a bag of cash in the trunk, he makes his way to Scotland’s north coast, to Thurso, where the love of his life, Kathleen, is living with the daughter that George fathered seven years earlier but was never able to get close to. In the naïve and short-sighted fashion that we learn is typical of him, George has devised a plan: he and Kathleen will be reunited, he will finally meet his daughter Molly, love will be rekindled, and the three of them will abscond and start a new life together in Penzance, where an empty cottage that George inherited from his deceased mother awaits. Not surprisingly, things don’t work out quite as George had hoped, and he ends up speeding away from the scene of a violent abduction with a hostile and weeping 7-year-old in the car, leaving behind several witnesses, a distraught Kathleen, and a police force mobilizing for a manhunt (and don’t forget the stolen car). The tale that Ballantyne relates from this frenzied beginning is engaging on multiple levels and crammed with enough detail and backstory to breathe life into the characters, settings and situations and endow it with more than a token degree of suspense. Back in 2013, the car accident has resurrected memories that Margaret had buried, memories that eventually lead to revelations and the solution to a mystery. However, the plot’s reliance on Margaret’s slowly returning recollections of a traumatic event from her childhood presents a problem because the reader will have figured things out long before she has. Indeed, Ballantyne has structured her novel so that its credibility rests almost exclusively on the relationship that develops between George and Molly while they’re on the road together, fleeing not just the police, but also George’s family and a tenacious self-serving reporter. It is here that Ballantyne succeeds in brilliant fashion, giving us a high-stakes chase amidst the gradually blossoming connection between two people that passes convincingly through stages of antagonism and suspicion toward a state of cautious trust, mutual affection and something approaching love. The story does have a few problems besides Margaret’s awakening memory. Readers will notice the author’s proclivity for sentimentality, particularly where Molly and George are concerned. As well, the moral world of the novel is lacking somewhat in depth, eschewing shades of gray in favour of stark black and white, where absolute good on one side stands in opposition to absolute evil on the other. Several characters depicted as unremittingly cruel and loathsome strain credibility, and readers may find some of the human-on-human cruelty depicted here gratuitous. Still, in Everything She Forgot aka Redemption Road, though maybe not up to the standard she set for herself in her stellar debut novel, The Guilty One, Lisa Ballantyne has crafted an enjoyable and diverting page turner, albeit one that comes with a few caveats. ( )

Fair, predictable story line. 7yo is abducted from school by her biological father, a bumbling but charming man, who panics and takes the child on a road trip. When they are found, he drives off in the van that bursts into flames and plunges into the sea. The story goes back and forth between 7yo Moll and now grown Margaret, who has forgotten that time. ( )