While Nobody Is Watching ~ A Review

Michelle Dunne’s ‘While Nobody Is Watching’ was published last June. To celebrate the anniversary, today sees a book birthday blitz. It is my great pleasure to be involved; read on for my review.

Synopsis

A semi-inflated football and a curious little girl.
They called it peacekeeping. For Corporal Lindsey Ryan it was anything but.
It’s been three years since that bright day in the Golan Heights and the explosion which killed two and changed the survivors forever.
Now Lindsey deals with the many problems of the city’s troubled youth, to distract her from her own. But as damp days turn to night the kids return home, or somewhere like it, and she returns to her own private war. One that exists solely for her.
Certain that she’s being watched and certain that she’s losing her mind, Lindsey battles with the demons of post traumatic stress, while a very real threat edges ever closer until she finds herself face to face with someone who wants nothing more than to finally help her to die.
And it’s the last person she ever could have seen coming.

Blue helmets and blurred lines – While Nobody is Watching delves into the dark world of PTSD and a battle scarred soldier struggling to find a place in her new world.

Available to buy here.

Review

From the frantic opening, to the final words, this book gripped me. Drawing on her experience of active military service, Michelle crafts characters who burst in three dimensions from the page. Not just physically, but emotionally too. These are people who trust one and other with their lives, both in and out of the military. The sort of people who you want on your side.

Lindsey is a relatable central character, trying to forgive herself for an incident which she cannot forget. Through her role working with young people of Cork, Lindsey finds connection. Renewed meaning to life. But her past haunts her by night, and day. And knowing that someone is watching her increases the stress.

I found myself slowing towards the end, as I didn’t want the book to finish (I hope there might be a sequel one day!) I was immersed in the lives of Lindsey, her friends and colleagues. I was guessing with Lindsey where the next threat might come from. And rooting for the safety of Lindsey and those she cares about, including Frank, her German shepherd dog.

Crafted with intelligence, empathy, and compassion, While Nobody Is Watching is an excellent read. Michelle creates vivid imagery of the back streets of Cork and the people who call them home. A thoughtful, suspenseful psychological thriller, this book has joined my ‘recommended highly’ list.

About The Author

Michelle Dunne wore a Blue Helmet in South Lebanon with B Company the Irish army and the UN, probably in that order.

She now lives in Cobh with her husband, daughter and a cast of characters waiting to be written about.

Michelle was one of those sporty types growing up, all bony elbows and knees, and as she lived on an island, it stood to reason she’d spend her first couple of decades taking in the salty, seaweedy air at the local rowing club (not the serene looking, posh rowing, but the other kind, undertaken by hardy fishermen).

This was where she learned just about everything she ever needed to know about anything. They brought home the County’s, All-Ireland’s were won, but the banter on the bus was always the real prize. From there it made sense that she’d leave town and join another club/asylum and found herself wearing a blue helmet somewhere in South Lebanon.

She’d become attached to the UN, but more importantly, to B-Company, the boldest, brightest, bravest the Irish army had to offer. She called them lots of other names too, but only to their faces. As tracer rounds lit up the sky above her and artillery rained down, she learned the words of every patriotic Irish song ever written and how to smile, laugh, and joke about things that would otherwise have you curled in a ball, rocking back and forth in the corner of the room.

Once her eyes had been opened and she returned to Irish soil, Michelle was promoted and following a spell back at college, is now a part of a company providing physiotherapy and staff training in nursing homes and hospitals all over Munster. A slower pace, but still an unruly bunch when they want to be. She’s back living on the island of Cobh with her husband Dominic and their daughter Emily and the hundreds of colourful characters waiting to make their way onto a piece of paper.

While Nobody is Watching is Michelle’s third book, which draws from her military experiences and the types of relationships that form within its ranks.

Michelle Dunne | Facebook | Twitter

Many thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for hosting this birthday blitz, and offering me the chance to review While Nobody Is Watching. Thank you to Michelle, and Bad Press Ink for gifting me a copy of the book, in return for an honest review. All views expressed are my own.