All Of Us Are Broken by Fiona Cummins

 

As Christine Hardwicke and her children head north to visit family, little do they realise that they are on a collision course with a couple on a killing spree. Will DC Saul Anguish and Dr Clover March be able to get to them in time and prevent a mother from having to make the most difficult decision ever.

This is going to be an incredibly difficult review to write as I don't want to give away any spoilers at all. There is so much happening in All Of Us Are Broken, layer upon layer of narrative that all build up to a fantastic story, that even the slightest hint could change a readers perception of events.

Right from the very first chapter you know this is going to be a brutal story with cataclysmic results. We are placed right in the middle of mayhem and forced to witness a stark choice.

Before we learn of the decision that is made we cut to Christine Hardwicke and her children Galen and Tom. The family are setting off on the long drive to Scotland to visit family. We slowly learn that things are strained between Christine and her daughter. Fiona Cummins has used very ambiguous language to describe the family situation, even though I'd figured out the basics of what had happened it was still a shock when everything was revealed thanks to the subtle way the story developed.

At the same time as the Harwicke's are setting off a young teacher, through inaction, causes one of her pupils to be badly injured. Rather than face the consequences she walks out of school and makes contact with an ex-boyfriend. The ex-boyfriend is bad news and they bring out the worst in each other. The couple go on the run, their one aim is to become infamous.

From the opening chapter you know the two story-lines are going to converge but it's the way in which we jump from one setting to the next that really builds the tension. As we switch from the quiet and contained family suffering and trying to rebuild their lives to the mindless brutality of lovers on the run from the police. Amid all this is DC Saul Anguish and his darkness, his strange sense of morality.

It's the events that happen when the two story-lines finally meet that are the most shocking. Not just in the violence but in the decisions that have to be made and the bravery shown. I could feel myself holding my breath, dreading how things were turning out, almost wanting to stop time. Even when we reach the conclusion there is still a little bit of mystery to be revealed.

All Of Us Are Broken by Fiona Cummins will be published on 20th July 2023 in hardback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for a review copy.