What the blurb says: “A rainy day. The deafening squeal of brakes. By the side of the road, a boy, dead from a hit-and-run. A mother bereaved. Jenna flees—her life, her trauma, and her grief—catching a bus to Wales where she starts a solitary life in a seaside village.There, she keeps to herself in a ramshackle cottage, working to heal and hesitantly befriending the neighborly townspeople. Slowly she starts to cope with her grief and—inspired by the sand and waves—begins to explore the art she gave up with her past life, even beginning to consider a better future. But then the shocking twist comes, and the reader no longer knows what to believe. A sensational front-page trial becomes the centerpiece of the second half, and a menacing new character emerges.”

Opening with a hit-and-run incident which leaves a five-year-old boy dead, this hard-hitting psychological thriller grabs you by the throat and keeps you pinned until the very last page.

Jenna has left everything behind to make a new life for herself in Wales. At first she stays inside the remote cottage she’s rented, not engaging with the community, and reliving the horror she’s been through, unable to see a way through her grief. But as the months pass, she gradually begins to forge tentative relationships and starts to believe that perhaps it is possible to continue living. That’s the moment the past catches up with her with terrifying consequences.

Meanwhile, Detective Inspector Ray Stevens hasn’t given up on getting justice for the little boy killed in the hit-and-run. Although his superior officers have told him to move onto other cases, and his wife is getting increasingly irritated by his lack of support in helping resolve the problems their son is having at school, he continues to work the case supported by Kate, the newest Detective Constable in his team. As his home life becomes tenser, and the case remains a mystery, Ray and Kate get increasingly closer as they spend more and more time investigating the details in secret.

With brilliantly drawn characters, and a hard-hitting emotional core to the story, this is a truly gripping novel. From the hauntingly atmospheric winter at a Welsh seaside town, to the claustrophobic terror of Jenna’s inner demons, and the tenacious determination of Ray and Kate to bring justice to a case no matter how long it might take, this is a thought-provoking book.

Beautifully written, and with a twist that will have you gasping out loud (it did me!) I Let You Go is an utterly compulsive read, and one that will stay with you long after you’ve read the final page.

Undoubtedly one of my top reads of 2015 when it came out in the UK, I Let You Go is published in the US by Berkley Publishing on May 3rd.

I LET YOU GO is out tomorrow. You can buy it from Barnes & Noble here or from Amazon.com here

Find out more about Clare Macintosh via her website here and follow her on Twitter @claremackint0sh