Five year old Anna disappears from outside her school, she has vanished, no one saw anything, the police are at a loss, her parents are beyond grief - their daughter is lost, perhaps dead, perhaps enslaved. One week after she was abducted, Anna returns home. She has no memory of where she has been, and this, for her mother, is just the beginning of the nightmare.
The kidnapping takes up quite a bit of the beginning of the story. It’s written in the third person and we learn that Anna is going to be returned home unharmed. But why take her in the first place?
On the day of Anna’s disappearance her mother Julia was running late at work, her phone had no charge. But why did the teachers at the fee paying school just let her wander off without checking that her mother was there to collect her? Julia is roasted by the press for being a bad mother. At the beginning of the story she seemed cold, referring to the breakdown of her marriage in an almost “oh well that’s that” matter of fact way. But as the story progressed we saw a warm person and a strong, loving mother.
In theory a missing child should unite parents but Julia’s weak husband offers no support and his domineering mother, Edna, never misses an opportunity to interfere and undermine Julia.
As Anna started to remember small details I picked up on one of them and started to figure it out.
It is an excellent chilling psychological thriller, well written with well crafted complex characters, a unique plot and plenty of suspense. My only criticism is I thought a small part of the ending was ridiculous.
Sounds intriguing! I hate it when I make it all the way through something, whether it's a book, movie or TV series, and then am disappointed in the ending.
ReplyDeleteIt was only a minor thing, just me thinking 'I don't think that would have happened'.
DeleteSounds like my kind of book.
ReplyDeleteIt was a book club choice and I'm glad we read it.
DeleteIt’s disappointing when a good book has a poor ending.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't so much a poor ending just a little thing that I picked up, but my book club girls didn't think anything of it, so probably me being ultra picky!!
DeleteI am always on the lookout for my next book read, so thanks for this recommendation Polly. While I'm not yet certain when this one will make my read list as there are so many others on my library "wish" list, it's always good to hve reserves. Lately library downloads of e-books and audio books have become my go-to reads and listens.
ReplyDeleteHello Beatrice, this isn't a nice read because of the subject content. It was a book club choice, but once I started it I wanted to continue.
DeleteHello matee nice blog
ReplyDelete