She Treads Softly: Don't Look Back

Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Don't Look Back

Don't Look Back by O J Mullen
6/2/26; 328 pages
Boldwood Books

Don't Look Back by O J Mullen is a recommended domestic drama where the fallout from a bad decision results in a disintegrating marriage, among other things.

By all appearances, Gavin and Jess Sterling are a successful couple who live in a beautiful home and have a successful business. The two are partners with David Hastings in their trucking company, GJD Transport. When Gavin notices that the owner and advisor of the investment firm he is with has been found dead, right after he invested all of his and Jess's savings in company stock he recommended, Gavin immediately looks up the stock. It has plummeted to nothing and they are wiped out.

The problem is that Gavin didn't tell Jess what he did and now has to tell her that he has lost everything. Obviously it didn't go well. Then with no provocation, their business partner, David, calls up and tells Gavin he heard a rumor and wants to make it clear that he is not interested in selling GJD. As equal partners, the three, Gavin, Jess, and David, all have to agree to any sale. Suddenly, it occurs to Gavin that if they sold GJD it would solve all of his problems, setting into motion a series of bad decisions.

The initial set up of the plot showed real promise that was subsequently quickly diluted by a glacially slow pace. This is not a thriller. It is a domestic drama where a independent decision destroys a marriage and leads to increasingly bad decisions. There are several twists which work to various degrees of success in the novel that are teased in the synopsis and do serve to increase suspense. One of them begins with Gavin trying to find a financial buffer by selling one of his classic cars. Another is someone wanting to buy GJD. A third is a totally unbelievable development.

Most of the focus is on Gavin, his drinking, and his increasingly bad, futile decisions. Jess is a sympathetic character, but underdeveloped and unrealistic. Gavin's decision is a betrayal to everything they were supposed to be working toward as a couple and all of his excuses and denial can't overcome that fact. He destroyed the future Jess thought they both wanted. Both Gavin, who is depicted as a volatile and foolish feckless liar, and David, who is set in his ways and quick to anger, are wholly unappealing characters.

Don't Look Back will appeal to those who enjoy dramas following a couple after an action from one of them tears their world apart. Thanks to Boldwood Books for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.