As a portrait of gritty urban life and family dysfunction this bleak novel has a lot going for it. The story of a family in melt-down with a cast of unsavoury characters, it tackles some serious issues – abuse, domestic violence, drugs, alcohol, dementia – but the dysfunction is so unremitting and so persistent that ultimately the book lost its edge for me. The characters lurch from one crisis to another with no respite and no reflection, and they are all so feckless, so consistently making bad decisions that I lost patience with the whole sorry shower of them. The story is told from multiple perspectives, which is effective in allowing everyone a voice, but for me their voices all sounded similarly self-obsessed and if the chapters hadn't been headed with the name of the character speaking it would have been hard to differentiate them at times. The frenetic nature of the narrative doesn’t allow the reader to really get inside the characters’ minds and I would have appreciated more reflection and less action. However, that said, I stuck with it and felt that the author had achieved her aim in showing us a slice of contemporary life at a particular time and place.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.
Thank
This was an enjoyable novel to read to while away a weekend.

If you like lots of twists and turns that you need to follow along in a novel, you will enjoy this. I read as an escape and to relax and unfortunate, this book made me put in more effort in keeping track of all the characters and relationships. Great book, just not what I needed when I read it.

The main characters of this novel set in Edinburgh, are married couple Andrew and Rachel who have two kids and they are meant to be enjoying their fresh start in a new city, but all too soon Rachel falls into bad habits and begins to indulge in parties and getting a little too friendly with some other students (one in particular!) on her course at the local Uni.

Several parties, deceptions, infidelities and shocking twists later, Rachel is neck deep in an affair with a drug addict called Ryan who in some mysterious way has a connection with "Billy". When Rachel sees Billy's number on a library book all hell seems to break loose.

A lot of dark and gritty subject matter but I found this book very readable.

ALSO - I called the number on the front cover and you get to listen to a rather strange but cool message that's totally linked to the story! What a great gimmick!

All of the characters in this novel have quite a dark side and could be described as selfish, if not vindictive, but this makes the nasty shocks that come all the more palatable.

If you like your books dark and bleak with nasty shocks, you'll want to pick up this one!

It's a well told twisty book peppered with surprises here and there so definitely pick this up and prepare to be well entertained. Happy reading!

Rachel and Andrew are married with two children, Abi, 15 and Callum, 7. The couple moved from Oban to Edinburgh for a fresh start. This has not proved altogether successful.
Rachel is very unlikeable, a full-time university student, has addiction problems and lusts after fellow addict and student, Ryan.
Andrew is weak, self-centred and only slightly less hopeless as a parent than Rachel.
However, even though the two main characters are flawed, there are traits about them that make them fascinating and utterly compelling to read about.
Between Rachel, Andrew and the other supporting characters it makes Call Billy a must read.
Thanks to NetGalley for a Kindle copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Andrew and Rachel are married with children Abi (15) and Callum (5). Rachel is into parties and takes courses at the University. A party is thrown by the family and many students, friends their age with parents begin to arrive.
However, Rachel is interested only when Ryan arrives. Liz, Rachel's mom, forgot her purse and comes back to the house the following day. At this time, Andrew tells Liz that her husband, Carl, abused Rachel and her sister. This becomes an awful shock to Liz who soon has a series of mini-strokes, causing her to go haywire. At uni, Rachel sees Ryan meet up with Billy. Who is he? I suppose since Rachel introduced herself to Billy and took his phone number - on her arm - someone. (?) Rachel sleeps with Ryan and when he sees the phone number for Billy, he goes quite insane. He beats Rachel up so badly that she is hospitalized. Regardless, Rachel admits her feelings for Ryan and moves to her friend Dawn's yucky basement. India, their niece, visits with her parents and stays there to work with Andrew, David and their boss. Rachel knows that Ryan is having relations with others but will do whatever it takes to have a part of him. (Ryan shows Rachel how illegal drugs can intensify the mood.) Although Rachel goes back to her family after the hospital, she eventually returns to Dawn's basement with her daughter, Abi, who now is dating wilder Ash. Rachel brings home a selection of men, quits school, drinks and does drugs. Liz moves in with Andrew and his family and we are treated to a bit of humor on the staircase. Andrew, somehow, moves on with Megan. Still martried, he proposes to her and she accepts.
David makes a shady deal with fake soil samples for half a million dollars so a theme park can be built. Andrew finds out and has the "real" samples evaluated.
All of the characters are selfish, if not self-indulgent. For good measure a bit of wry humor is thrown in. The final chapters really make this book! Surprises are on the way!