Cut Off: Quick Reads by Mark Billingham

Cut Off: Quick Reads by Mark Billingham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's the moment we all fear: losing our phone, leaving us cut off from family and friends. But, for Louise, losing hers in a local café takes her somewhere much darker.

After many hours of panic, Louise is relieved when someone gets in touch offering to return the phone. From then on she is impatient to get back to normal life.

But when they meet on the beach, Louise realises you should be careful what you wish for...

The premise of this story really got me, I thought this was going to be right up my street. We all live in a digital age now and so when you lose your phone it does feel you have lost a part of you. I couldn't wait to get into this little thriller.

Unfortunately I thought it was a bit of a let down, it began really strong and I was interested in everything that was going on. I just felt it took a wrong turn, the 'woman' we don't know and have no idea what her intentions are or why. The ending was a massive disappointment, it was if you were just 'cut off' as the book suggests.

I know this is only a short story, however I have read many short stories, which have had the characters develop well and the plot has been good. Unfortunately it was almost like Billingham thought, oh I need to end this now and just stopped writing to wrap things up.

This was the first time I have read a book by this author and unfortunately I would not pick up another on the strength of this.

It was O.K and passed an hour or so but not brilliant.