Six people went in. Only one came out …

Book blurb

NOW..

My name is Matthew McConnell. You’ve probably heard my story.
I took five of my friends on a boat through the longest canal tunnel in England. 

YOU…

It takes two hours and twenty-six minutes to travel through that tunnel.
Six of us entered that tunnel but I was the only one to come out.

DON’T…

It was pitch black in there – I don’t know what happened to them. But I’m the only suspect. 
And if I don’t find out how they disappeared, I’ll be sentenced to murder.

My thoughts

I found this a well written book which has two mysteries at its core. The main one is did Matthew McConnell kill his five friends when navigating them through the longest canal in England? Everyone in the local town believes he did but no one knows what happened to the bodies even though the police supposedly did a thorough search of the scene – the canal including the water and another tunnel that runs parallel to it.

Matthew gets in touch with Robin, a journalist and author, whose wife disappeared. Robin is intrigued by what Matthew tells him – that Robin’s wife told Matthew to get in touch with Robin if he ever needed help. Robin wants to know what happened to his wife and so he visits Matthew in prison, where he’s awaiting trial, agrees to help Matthew in return for the information he has on what happened to his wife.

Robin doesn’t make any friends with his methods indeed for seemingly agreeing that Matthew is innocent. There are some gaping holes and conflict of interest in the police investigation in that the police’s lead investigator (SIO) is the father of one of the missing, presumed dead, young adults.

It is the SIO, a feared rather than respected character in the town, who has swayed much of the town to his own belief that Matthew is guilty of murdering his five friends. That there is little actual evidence to support this leaves the reader, at least me, wondering how the CPS would have agreed to the charge but no other avenues seem to have been considered and until Robin arrives few questions have been raised and virtually no publicity has been given to the story. With one exception – an online newspaper/blog.

It’s an interesting concept and an easy read, well written and it holds the attention. The truth of what happened does come out and both mysteries are resolved. There’s a good pace to the story but ultimately it does need the reader to be willing to accept some of its reasoning or shall I say the reasoning of the characters without too much question and if you’re happy to do that then you should enjoy the book.

Book: Purchased

20 Books of Summer

I have read Now You See Me as part of my 20 books of summer challenge.

My list of books being read for this challenge. 

20 books of summer has new hosts Emma of Words and Peace and you can read all about it on Annabel’s blog including all the rules and sign up. It’s a challenge I’ve always enjoyed and am sure I’ll continue to do so. 

The challenge takes place between 1 June and 31 August 2025

The Virtual Crime Bookclub

The Virtual Crime Book Club is hosted by Rebecca Bradley, author of the D I Hannah Robbins and D I Claudia Nunn series as well as standalone novels.

Rebecca is a great host and often gets the authors to come along and chat with us. You can find out more on Rebecca’s website.

Most book club episodes are recorded some not*. Those that are uploaded can watch on  YouTube. Be aware they may contain spoilers so, if you’re planning to read the book, it may be better not to watch them until you’ve done so.

*Note: this month’s book club is not available. However you might enjoy, as I have, Margot Kinberg’s exploration of this book which you can find on Margot’s YouTube channel.

Information

Published: Orion (13 June 2019) | ISBN-13‏ : ‎978-1409178118 | 286 pp

Buy: Amazon | Bookshop.org (affiliate link) | Your local library | Your local bookshop

Author

Chris McGeorge is a graduate of MA Creative Writing (Crime/Thriller) from City University London where he wrote debut thriller Guess Who as his thesis. He told stories from an early age, writing and drawing comics and then scripts and finally novels. He loves Golden Age crime and gets incredibly excited about anything a little out of the ordinary. In his spare time, he is an actor with Durham Dramatic Society.

His interests are broad – spanning film, books, theatre and video games. He is a member of the Northern Crime Syndicate, a supergroup of writers from Northern England.

He lives in County Durham with his partner and many, many animals including his hamster, Agatha Christie.

Chris McGeorge website | X (formerly Twitter) at @crmcgeorge (now archived) | On Bluesky

Books

Guess Who | Now You See Me | Inside Out | Half Past Tomorrow | A Murder At Balmoral