Around Town

Bookends: Caller Unknown by Gillian McAllister

British author Gillian McAllister takes her thrilling twists and turns to southwest Texas

August 16, 2026

Caller Unknown

by Gillian McAllister

William Morrow, 2026

Simone and her daughter, Lucy, take a break from rainy England to explore the arid plains of Texas on a girls’ trip to celebrate Lucy’s upcoming college freshman year. When Simone wakes up in their cabin on the first morning, she knows something doesn’t feel right; call it mother’s intuition.

She soon realizes that Lucy is missing from her bed, her shoes still by the door. As panic starts setting in, she spots a phone on the bed that doesn’t belong to either woman. When it rings, caller unknown, Simone picks up to hear a distorted voice instructing her to check the messages. The message says, “We have your daughter. If you go to the police, we will kill her. Be prepared to do a deal.”

And so begins the nightmare that leads Simone from Texas to Mexico. The only other person who knows anything about the kidnapping is Damien, Simone’s husband back home in England. In opposition to his pleas to go to the police for help, she keeps to the instructions, taking enormous risks that could land her in jail for the rest of her life. But as most mothers know, there is no fear that could be any greater than the prospect of losing a child, so the kidnappers have chosen a target that they may have underestimated.

Few writers can deliver intricate twists and turns as effectively as Gillian McAllister.