Redemption Road By Lisa Ballantyne

[amazon_link id=”0749957271″ target=”_blank” ] [/amazon_link]’Redemption Road’ is the latest book by Lisa Ballantyne.

The crash is the unravelling of Margaret Holloway. Trapped inside a car about to explode, she is rescued by a scarred stranger who then disappears. Margaret remembers little, but she’s spent her life remembering little – her childhood is full of holes and forgotten memories. Now she has a burning desire to discover who she is and why her life has been shrouded in secrets. What really happened to her when she was a child? Could it have anything to do with the mysterious man who saved her life?

I’ve been fortunate that I’ve read some great thrillers over the last while and I’m now going to add ‘Redemption Road’ to that list.

The story is written in both the past and present tense in 1985 and 2013. and is seen from the perspective of the four main characters of the story, Margaret Holloway, Big George McLaughlin, Angus Campbell and Kathleen Henderson.

In 2013, Margaret Holloway is an involved in a horrific accident that nearly cost her, her life until a mysterious and scarred stranger pulls her from the wreckage of her car to safety. Wanting to thank the man for his bravery, Margaret goes in search of him, only to discover that he is now in hospital in a coma with no-one to look for him. But after the accident, Margaret becomes unsettled and find herself thinking about a part of her childhood that has been blocked from her memory and as she delves deeper into her past, she begins to discover things that she wishes she left buried away. Flashback to 1985 and we meet Big George, a man from a bad family who never got over his first love Kathleen leaving him and taking away their little girl Molly, one day he decides to find them and take them away to be the family that he always dreamed off but it all goes horribly wrong when he ends up kidnapping Molly and going on the run. Angus Campbell is a roving reporter and has a keen eye for a story and begins to follow the story hoping for the big exclusive whilst Kathleen Henderson has to deal with the heartbreak and despair of a missing daughter and hoping that she will be found safe and well.

The story is written through the eyes of an intriguing mix of characters who I found both interesting and insightful in equal measures. Margaret adds an injection of mystery to the story, as she discovers things about her past, we wonder what her role in the story is. Calm and with a caring nature, it’s occasionally difficult to read scenes with her, as she worries that she is having a breakdown and tries to hide her behaviour from her family. Big George is the black sheep of a feared family, he is quiet man who’s life is now in chaos after his easily thought out plan has fallen apart, now on the run with a daughter who’s terrified of him, he tries to reassure her and adapt to suddenly being a parent. He comes across as a gentle giant with a charming personality as he tries to form a relationship with his daughter but this becomes difficult under the circumstances. And finally there is Angus Campbell, a devoted Catholic with a bad attitude, who for his small stature constantly looks down on the world, particularly women. Hoping that Molly’s disappearance will give him his big break, he follows the story closely, sometimes too closely and regularly finds himself in hot water.

The story is a dark and gritty read that made for suspenseful reading throughout, the flashbacks and characters made it both emotional and intense as we see a father try to form some type of relationship with his daughter, whilst the world is against him. Cleverly written through the decades and set against the bleak backdrop of Scotland filled with poverty and violence, where women are domineered and men are feared, ‘Redemption Road’ is an eerily and unsettling read that makes for compulsive reading.

You can buy [amazon_link id=”0749957271″ target=”_blank” ]Redemption Road from Amazon [/amazon_link] and is available to buy from good bookshops.