Caller Unknown by Gillian McAllister @gillianmauthor @williammorrowbooks @wmmorrowbooks @readwithjenna #CallerUnknown

the setup…
Simone Seaborn and her husband Damien operate a posh London restaurant. Their daughter Lucy spent the summer at a camp near Fort Davis, Texas before starting university in the fall. Simone flies in to meet her for a week of camping and alone time and they stay at a lodge that night. The next morning, Simone wakes and finds Lucy gone with only a cell phone in her place. It rings, displaying “caller unknown,” and the voice on the other end demands she meet at a location for instructions. They will kill Lucy if she contacts the police. Thus begins a strange and dangerous odyssey where Simone has to comply and use her wits to get her daughter back.

the heart of the story…
Simone and Lucy are unusually close and she’s having a tough time letting her go in the first place. Simone made some choices I’m not sure I would have made but it was always putting her life second to Lucy. It’s told from her point of view and that of someone only identified as “the kidnapper.”

the narration…
Juliet Rylance was the storyteller and effectively captured Simone. But her lack of voice distinctions for other characters made it difficult sometimes to tell when the conversations shifted.

the bottom line…
This was a complex study of a unique mother-daughter relationship always in the background of the terrifying journey to rescue Lucy and the associated catastrophic events. It was harrowing and unpredictable with a twisty ending. I got swept up in the drama, never knowing where it would lead.

Book Info

• Release Date: May 5, 2026
• Narrator: Juliet Rylance
• Audio Length: 11 hours, 10 minutes
• Publisher: William Morrow

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