A good read but I don't think it was on a par wither her first two books ( )

A fast-paced, and really well written, intelligent thriller. Keeps you guessing right till the end. Nothing is what it seems! I'm usually pretty spot on with plot twists, but this one had me stumped a few times.

I found the sub-plot between Simon and Charlie a tad irrelevant. I understand they are recurring characters in Hannah's books, so I can see how the continuation of their relationship might be of interest to long-time fans of hers, but for me, a first time reader of her work, they didn't appeal to me as characters. I found their awkward relationship detracted from the intensity of the rest of the plot. ( )

This is the third of Sophie Hannah's crime fiction books, once again set in and around Spilling. Sally Thorning is a busy working mother. A year ago she reached breaking point and instead of taking the work trip her family thought she was going on she booked into a spa hotel for a rest. While there she met a man named Mark Bretherick and had a brief fling with him. Now his family have been murdered and Mark is on the news, but although all the names and details are the same, the man on the news is not the Mark Bretherick she met. Sally's confusion as to what to do about this leads her and her family into danger.

The story reunites Waterhouse and Zailer as investigating police offices and we have more insights into their relationship, still as disfunctional as ever, but adding a continuity to the three books and leaving the ending open for the fourth.

I enjoyed this book and got through it in less than a day. Hannah's novels put me in mind of Nicci French's books but slightly more confused in plot. So much goes on in this book that relies on coincidence and mistaken or misleading identity. One of the characters seems to be everywhere at once and I had to go back and reread some of it to see where I had missed the bit that would have made it make sense. But, some of the characters were likeable, the story moved quickly and although some of it didn't ring true (Stacey arriving at Charlie's house for the most pointless and forced reason ever being the worst for me.) ( )

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'The Point of Rescue' is Sophie Hannah’s third psychological thriller and simply confirms what was obvious from the previous two - she is a more than talented author. Those who know her work as a poet will not be surprised by her ability to write with sensitivity and a real ear for the rhythms of the language, what becomes apparent in these three books, however, is her equally formidable ability to plot and to create and sustain realistic characters.
Sally Thorning harbours a secret, a year before the novel begins she had a week long fling with Mark Bretherick a man she met in a hotel where she should never have been staying in the first place. Her secret threatens to surface and destroy her happy marriage when it is reported that Bretherick’s wife and daughter have been found dead. Sally knows that this is the family of the man she had her affair with, all the circumstances are the same - all that is except for the man who is identified as Mark and he is a totally different person. At first her ‘only’ problem seems to be whether or not she should tell the police what she knows and risk the story of her affair coming out. However, her situation rapidly worsens as it become apparent that her meeting with the man who claimed to be Bretherick was not accidental and certainly not unrelated to her physical similarity to the late Geraldine Bretherick.
In the mind of the false Bretherick Sally has become a substitution. She has, if you like, been translated into Geraldine. And translation is the nub of this novel. Is it ever possible to completely transliterate, whether it be in respect of language or of a personality? Is it possible that the translation will not always be apparent to the discerning eye? And when it is recognised for what it is, a partially accurate replacement, what then is the status of that translation, how will it be treated, what respect will it be accorded? Where Sally is concerned, it seems the answer is very little.
While each of the main story lines in Hannah’s novels has been free standing the settings and the police personnel remain the same and those who’ve read the previous two books can be reassured that the relationship between Simon Waterhouse and Charlie Zailer continues to develop. Develop, not grow. I’m not certain that grow would be the right word; it suggests something far healthier than the tortuous dance that these two are involved in. I’m normally a romantic, but I can’t think of any relationship less likely to be successful should they ever try to set up anything permanent. I’m sorry, because I like them both, but as a couple they are surely an emotional accident waiting to happen. However, the way in which their situation is left makes it clear that there must be a fourth novel on the way and that can only be a very good thing for the reading community.