You Can't Catch Me

This is a story, perhaps even a cautionary tale for some, about grifters and financial scams with a group of people the reader isn't sure they can trust. Initially, I was drawn to this story due to its grifter story line but felt myself pulled in even further by the main character's childhood experiences.

This book had all the right parts - cool backstory and a premise that had the potential for some great twists with the relevant topic of stolen identities. Things started off well and I was intrigued. We meet the various Jessicas, a romance is in the works and the big 'trap' was set but the pacing became inconsistent, particularly with the addition of Jessica One's backstory and the unnecessary romance. I found her childhood fascinating (easily my favourite part of the book) but switching between the current story and the past disrupted the pacing and building tension. Soon, the grifter story line became a bit convoluted and too far-fetched to be believable.

This book had a unique premise and good individual parts, but as a whole it didn't come together for me. I wanted more tension, less serendipitous connections and while the twist was good, I just didn't believe it - if that makes any sense. This could easily be a 'it's me, not you' kind of thing. This book has received rave reviews from many a reader so I'm definitely an outlier on this one.

My Rating: 3 stars

Author: Catherine McKenzie

Genre: Suspense, Canadian

Type and Source: Trade Paperback from public library

Pages: 400

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada

First Published: June 9, 2020

Opening Line: There's no real time of day in airports, only 

morning and drinking time.

Book Description from GoodReads: A riveting new novel of suspense about a disgraced young journalist caught up in a grifter’s game, and the trail of identically named victims she uncovers, from the instant bestselling author of I’ll Never Tell and The Good Liar.

Assumed identities. A con game. Unwitting victims.

After being fired from her investigative journalism job for plagiarism, Jessica Williams is looking for a break from the constant press coverage. She decides to escape for a week to a resort in Mexico boasting no connections to the outside world. While waiting at the airport for her flight, she encounters a woman with the exact same name, who she dubs Jessica Two. Drawn together by the coincidence, they play a game of twenty questions to see what other similarities they share, and exchange contact information.

A week later, Jessica returns home and discover that large cash withdrawals have been made from her bank account. Security footage from the bank confirms her suspicions—Jessica Two has stolen her money. She goes to the police, only to be told that the crime is a low priority. Frustrated, she meets up with a trusted old friend, Liam, who is an investigator. When the two Google “Jessica Williams,” they get thousands of hits—Jessica was the most popular girl’s name in 1990 and Williams is almost as ubiquitous as Smith. Convinced that this isn’t the first time this scam has been run, Jessica is determined to catch the imposter, and writes a Facebook post hoping to chase down some of Jessica Two’s other victims. When she gets a number of responses, she sets a plan in motion to catch the thief, encountering a string of identically named victims along the way.

Then, the threatening messages start arriving.

Filled with incredible twists and turns, You Can’t Catch Me is a tantalizing, character-driven exploration of how far people will go to get revenge.