Adele Parks has written some wild thrillers the past few years, from I Invited Her In to Lies Lies Lies and last year’s Just My Luck. This year’s offering has a unique twist sure to please Parks’ fans and garner her some new ones.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links, see disclosures for more detail.
About the Book:
HAPPY. MARRIED. MISSING.
Leigh Fletcher: happily married stepmum to two gorgeous boys goes missing on Monday. Her husband Mark says he knows nothing of her whereabouts. She simply went to work and just never came home. Their family is shattered.
Kai Janssen: married to wealthy Dutch businessman, Daan, vanishes the same week. Kai left their luxurious penthouse and glamourous world without a backward glance. She seemingly evaporated into thin air. Daan is distraught.
DC Clements knows that people disappear all the time – far too frequently. Most run away from things, some run towards, others are taken but find their way back. A sad few never return. These two women are from very different worlds, their disappearances are unlikely to be connected. And yet, at a gut level, the DC believes they might be.
How could these women walk away from their families, husbands and homes willingly? Clements is determined to unearth the truth, no matter how shocking and devastating it may be.
My Thoughts:
I gave this book 3 stars
Solid read, I liked it but didn’t love it.
The beginning was kind of a slow build up, but at 37% there was a “wow” twist. Then it kind of went around in circles for a long time, finally ending in a very ambiguous open ended way that wasn’t entirely believable, yet was predictable at the same time.
This story has one of my favorite catnip tropes: people missing without a trace. Two women disappear and their husbands report them missing. The police detective starts to work on these cases knowing that people disappear all the time, and the more she uncovers about the cases, it seems like these women might have walked away on their own accord. But did they?
In the end, I didn’t have complete buy-in with the explanation for everything. Yet overall, there’s still something compulsively readable about this book, so I’m glad I read it even though I didn’t love it.
About the Author:
Adele Parks was born in Teesside, North-East England. Her first novel, Playing Away, was published in 2000 and since then she’s had 20 international bestsellers, translated into twenty-six languages. She’s been an Ambassador for The Reading Agency and a judge for the Costa. She’s lived in Italy, Botswana and London, and is now settled in Guildford, Surrey, with her husband, teenage son and cat.
Social Links:
Instagram: @adele_parks
Twitter: @adeleparks
Facebook: @OfficialAdeleParks
