I See You

Book Review

“I see you. But you don’t see me.” The villain of Clare Mackintosh’s novel, I See You, says that. This villain is one who sells the profiles of women – fairly attractive ones though he knows that attractiveness is a subjective attribute – to prospective buyers. It is a remunerative online business which gives a profile picture of the woman along with certain details like how she looks, her approximate age and where one can find her usually. Many of the women eventually become victims of assault, rape and even murder. It would appear that there are too many men without anything much to do except stalk women.

The story is narrated partly by Zoe Walker [first person narrative] who is shocked to see her photo in a newspaper advertisement which merely mentions a website and a phone number. Soon Zoe discovers that she is one of the many women whose profiles are available online to potential clients. The other half of the story is narrated by Kelly Swift, a police officer [third person narrative]. Kelly’s twin sister was herself a rape victim which motivates her to take Zoe Walker’s fears seriously enough.

The novel is a psychological thriller. It manages to keep the suspense alive and interesting enough till the end. It is set in London, a city with underground railway with its regular commuters who have fairly consistent travel habits. The commuters are people with smartphones which keep them too busy to notice anything around. Stalkers have an easy job in such an ambience.

The setting is credible and even the characters. But the plot is tenuous. While one can understand a criminal exploiting the commercial potential of providing profiles to stalkers, it is a little difficult to accept that too many men are stalkers. Once we can suspend our disbelief in that regard, the plot becomes acceptable enough. Yet the novel has little more to offer than a superficial suspense thriller.

The author was a police officer and part of the CID for some time. That has helped her create credible characters. But not an appealing plot though there are some interesting twists in the end. I wonder why this book made it to the best seller list.

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