Not everyone who is lost should be found…
22-year-old Olivia has been missing for one day…and counting. She was last seen on CCTV, entering a dead-end alley. And not coming back out again.
Julia, the detective heading up the search for Olivia, thinks she knows what to expect. A desperate family, a ticking clock, and long hours away from her husband and daughter. But she has no idea just how close to home this case is going to get.
Because the criminal at the heart of the disappearance has something she never expected. His weapon isn’t a gun, or a knife: it’s a secret. Her worst one. And her family’s safety depends on one thing: Julia must NOT find out what happened to Olivia – and must frame somebody else for her murder.
If you find her, you will lose everything. What would you do?
This clever and endlessly surprising thriller is laced with a clever look at family and motherhood, and cements Gillian McAllister as a major talent in the world of suspense and a master of creating ethical dilemmas that show just how murky the distinction between right and wrong can be.
Release Date: Aug 1, 2023
Publisher: HarperCollins
Imprint: William Morrow
Price: $14.99
DCI Julia Day loves her job as a detective in Portishead, England, and often puts her job first, which has caused a strain in her marriage. Julia loves her husband and daughter but is dedicated to her job. However, Julia did something a year ago that was out of character to protect her daughter, Genevieve. Julia’s latest case is a missing person’s case, and she is determined to find the young woman who seems to have vanished into thin air. However, Julia’s past mistake comes back to haunt her when an unknown man blackmails Julia to plant evidence in the missing person’s case, or he will reveal everything she did the year before. Julia has to make the difficult choice between compromising her integrity or protecting her daughter and her job.
This book has elements of a police procedural, but just as DCI Julia Day is not the typical detective, this story is more of a thriller than a procedural. The story does follow Julia as she searches for Olivia Johnson, but it is mainly about the moral dilemma Julia faces, as well as the dangerous situation she’s in. The story is told from multiple points of view, but Julia is the main character. The whole story is suspenseful, but about two-thirds of the way in, the big reveals start, and the book becomes hard to put down. Things get tense, and I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. There are a couple things that require you to suspend disbelief, but the story is so engaging I was able to overlook them.
This is a twisty thriller that gets better and better as the story progresses, with the surprises continuing until the very end of this intriguing thriller.
~ Christine
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