#BlogTour - Never Look Back by A L Gaylin AudioBook Tour

She was the most brutal killer of our time. And she may have been my mother…

When website columnist Robin Diamond is contacted by true crime podcast producer Quentin Garrison, she assumes it’s a business matter. It’s not. Quentin’s podcast, Closure, focuses on a series of murders in the 1970s, committed by teen couple April Cooper and Gabriel LeRoy. It seems that Quentin has reason to believe Robin’s own mother may be intimately connected with the killings.

Robin thinks Quentin’s claim is absurd. But is it? The more she researches the Cooper/LeRoy murders herself, the more disturbed she becomes by what she finds. Living just a few blocks from her, Robin’s beloved parents are the one absolute she’s always been able to rely upon, especially now amid rising doubts about her husband and frequent threats from internet trolls. Robin knows her mother better than anyone.

But then her parents are brutally attacked, and Robin realises she doesn’t know the truth at all…

I have to confess that Alison (A.L.) Gaylin is a new author to me and, intrigued by the synopsis, particularly the podcast reference, I was expecting something in the vein of Matt Wesolowski’s excellent Six Stories series in which the plot is essentially driven by the podcast element. NEVER LOOK BACK is a more conventional, though no less entertaining, crime novel in which Quentin Garrison’s Closure podcast is the starting point for a psychological thrill-ride with more twists and turns than a really twisty-turny thing. Garrison’s podcast investigates the 1970s murder spree of Gabriel LeRoy and April Cooper, crimes which echo Bonnie & Clyde, Badlands and Natural Born Killers, crimes which have long impacted Quentin’s family and, unknown to her until Quentin tracks her down, that of Robin Diamond.

The writing is excellent, the plot races along and the characters are believable and relatable. The story is told from the viewpoints of Quentin and Robin in present day and in the letters April Cooper wrote to the daughter she hoped to have someday. And the letters reveal a story that is much more complex than the reported ‘facts’… The audiobook is narrated alternately by male and female voices and the female in particular is convincing and sympathetic, especially as April. I thoroughly enjoyed the novel and the narrators really bring the dialogue to life. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Compulsive Readers and Orion Book for the opportunity to review NEVER LOOK BACK.