138 Main Street by Gavin Bell review: 'thrilling'

Gavin Bell’s new thriller, 138 Main Street, follows many strands of a nationwide investigation into a serial killer-cum-terrorist holding the country to ransom by killing people who live at identical addresses in towns and cities across America. This lively idea promises a genuinely thrilling chase, involving cops, the FBI and a twisted bad guy.

Our main character, Zoe Hill, is called from her local police force to assist the FBI with this major case that has captivated and terrorised the country. Both out of her depth but also holding her own, complete with some small Clarice Starling parallels, Hill is competent and unobjectionable.

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She is joined by a motely crew full of the standard thriller archetypes, including an English analyst named Brodie, who you can tell the author enjoyed giving the many “Britishisms” he comes out with (“’You don’t have Main Streets in the UK?’... ‘We have some. In England we have High Streets, mostly’... Walker repeated the term. ‘High streets. Fancy.’”)

The cardinal sin of thrillers is when the author digs too deep into the lead detective’s psyche, slowing down the plot and making the reader feel as if they’ve just been submerged in custard. Fortunately, this book does not fall into this trap, leaning almost too much the other way. We move very quickly from point to point, not lingering for a moment to look around. This means that although it’s not quite possible to feel any sort of emotional attachment to one character in particular, that’s not really what we’re here for. We’re here for the action, the chase, the shocks, and this book doesn’t disappoint.

The few cliched moments are offset by some surprising twists and false leads, and again, although our lead detective makes some jumps that seem utterly impossible, and the FBI miss some clues that seem almost too obvious, these small plot holes fade to insignificance as we move swiftly along. Whenever you think you’re heading one way, you are promptly redirected and head along another path, which keeps you eagerly turning the pages.

The flow of the narrative is sometimes knocked off course with the persistent jumping around. The movement between the lead players works well and keeps the reader guessing, but we also jump across the country in order to examine the knock-on effects of the killer’s crimes, with people living in 138 Main Street in various towns packing up and heading off. These are people that we don’t see again, so these passages are slightly jarring. You’re not supposed to know, as the book progresses, which ones are going to be relevant and which ones aren’t, but this technique, apparently there to add even more mystery, is not quite successful.

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There are a few moments that are relatively clunky, but although this book isn’t reinventing the wheel it does what it sets out to do well. The plot is original and engaging, and it moves quickly and furiously with an Agatha Christie-worthy body count and an explosion rate that would make Michael Bay proud. The characters are likable and inoffensive, and some of the twists will come as a complete surprise without seeming out of place. The motive for the killings is politically interesting and relevant, and the rise in public support for the killer at times feels frighteningly realistic, offsetting the somewhat unbelievable take on how the authorities deal with the attacks. This is not the kind of book you pick up for pinpoint accuracy, though, but for a page-turning rollercoaster, and with 138 Main Street, a rollercoaster is what you get.

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