On the day of Alec Salter’s fiftieth birthday party, his wife, Charlotte, vanishes. Most of the small English village of Glensted is at the party for hours before anyone realizes she is missing. While Alec brushes off her disappearance, their four children—especially fifteen-year-old Etty—grow increasingly anxious as the cold winter hours become days and she doesn’t return. Then Etty and her friend Morgan find the body of Morgan’s father—and the Salters’ neighbor— Duncan Ackerley, floating in the river. The police conclude that Duncan and Charlotte were having an affair before he killed her and committed suicide.
Thirty years later, Morgan Ackerley returns to Glensted with his older brother to make a podcast based on their shared tragedy with the Salters. Alec, stricken with dementia, is entering an elder care facility while Etty helps put his affairs in order. But when the Ackerleys ask to interview the Salters, the entire town gets caught up in the unresolved cases.
Allegations fly, secrets come to light, and a suspicious fire leads to a murder. With the podcast making national news, London sends Detective Inspector Maud O’Connor to Glensted to take over the investigation. She will stop at nothing to uncover the truth as a new and terrifying picture of what really happened to Charlotte Salter and Duncan Ackerley emerges.
Release Date: Mar 19, 2024
Publisher:Â HarperCollins
Imprint: William Morrow
Price: $12.99
The latest by Nicci French is a very engaging book. Charlotte Salter, wife and mother, disappears from the English village where she lives. The police, as well as Charlie’s husband, brush off her disappearance. However, her children, especially her daughter, are certain their mother wouldn’t have abandoned them. The case grows cold, but is revisited 32 years later in a podcast. The two brothers doing the podcast have a personal stake in the outcome – their father, a family friend of the Salters, was suspected of killing Charlie before his own death. Many secrets come out during the interviews for the program, but when a killer strikes, Charlie’s case is also reexamined. This time, the detective in charge of the investigation is determined to get answers.
The question of what really happened to “Charlie” Salter is important, but the book also examines how her disappearance affected her family in the immediate aftermath, but also how it changed their lives going forward. The already dysfunctional family starts to fall apart in ways that couldn’t have been foreseen. I felt terrible for Charlie’s daughter Etty and the toll these events took on her. The book has an air of sadness, and it’s heartbreaking to see what happens to some of the Salters in the years following Charlie’s disappearance. The book also has some of the most apathetic and incompetent police officers I’ve ever seen. Thank goodness for DI Maud O’Connor, who is brought in from London to investigate a suspicious death. Maud thinks the death could have ties to Charlie’s case and is able to uncover a surprising solution to the crimes.
I really liked this book, although there are some pacing issues. Some parts of the book move slowly, but then there are a few twists that keep the story moving. As soon as Maud O’Connor enters the scene, things pick up and I was fully engrossed in the story. I think the book is part mystery, part domestic drama, and part character study and one that I truly enjoyed.
~ Christine
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