A chillingly clever psychological thriller with a stomach-flipping twist

Great for the authors debut. I loved this book and the characters, it was suspenseful and hard to put down. Was totally taken by surprise when reading about the taken child (don’t want to give it away). Reason for the 4 stars is the use of the F***’ word. I’m not a prude, but this word I s totally unnecessary in this type of story. I will try another book by this author and hope for the best.

Eight year old Grace had been begging her parents to start letting her walk home from school with her friends so they finally begin to let her. Grace's mother, Emma, had at first followed her daughter and hid to keep an eye on her as she walked but once she saw she was doing alright she let the girl make the trip on her own until one day Grace didn't come home.

Frantic with worry every searches every where for the little girl finding the last place she was seen was seen in a sweetshop with no other clues to her whereabouts. Soon the police and media are involved in the search for young Grace when ageing widow Maggie Sharples sees Grace's image on the news bringing back memories of her own granddaughter being kidnapped years before. For Maggie though the face she sees on the television is a bit too familiar to be coincidence.

99 Red Balloons is a thriller that takes the thought of every parent's worst nightmare and expand the story to yet another level blending the past and present together. The overall plot is one that is sure to keep a reader on edge with a little girl's life on the line when she can't be found but for me this one also seemed to be a bit confusing with so much going on.

The story is told with alternating points of views from various different characters all throughout the book which is where I think I struggled with keeping track. Some chapters are from the family then a lady watching the story unfold and even a little girl who had been taken. By the time it all wrapped up it made sense but during the early pages and the middle there were a few times the voices within the chapters just weren't standing out enough to remember who was who.

In the end I decided to rate this book at 3.5 stars. The intensity was there to keep me wanting to know how it would unfold but I had to sometimes stop and remind myself who was who and what situation I was reading so the flow could have been a bit better in my opinion.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

This would have a wonderful book if they had left out the F word. Why Mrs. CARPENTER did you see the need to spoil a good book with this language? I enjoy a good mystery but will not purchase any more of your books because of the language you choose to use.

The story is told from different perspectives. First, we have Stephanie, Grace’s Aunt who arrives at her sister’s house when Grace first goes missing. She ends up staying to support her throughout the ordeal. The second perspective comes from Maggie an aging grandmother living in Lancashire. Her five-year-old granddaughter Zoe went missing twenty some years ago. The story of young Grace reopens thoughts on Zoe’s disappearance. Carpenter then treats us to an unreliable narrator, that of a young girl. It creates a little unease as we don’t know if the voice is that of Grace or Zoe.

I found the voices of Maggie and of course the missing child to be the most interesting. I struggled to like Emma and her husband. Stephanie’s narration kept us abreast of the current missing case and cast doubt, but nothing distinguished her from the other characters. This I think was my only complaint. However, this story was more plot driven and I certainly couldn’t stop reading.

I had a million questions while reading and I love when I experience that edgy feeling of not knowing. I grasped at each red herring and began to question everyone. What were Stephanie and Emma’s husband up to? What secret is Emma keeping? Hints about the sister’s childhood came into play and left me wondering. While admittedly I did see the twist coming, watching all the pieces slip into place kept me flipping the pages until its completion.

8 year-old Grace has gone missing. Surveillance videos show that she was abducted from a sweet shop on her way home from school. Her parents and aunt are frantic and the search begins to find her before it’s too late.
Years earlier, another little girl, Zoe, also disappeared. She was never found, and additional family tragedy ensued as hope seemed lost that she ever would be.
How these two events are entwined becomes the basis of 99 Red Balloons, a suspenseful novel that keeps the reader wondering what’s going to happen throughout the story.
For a debut novel, the premise and outcome are well-thought out. The details themselves and presentation are a little more haphazard and confusing.
The initial, and to me, overwhelming problem, was that there were too many characters, too many names to keep up with. It seemed that new characters were added throughout the book, and because the narration changes with each chapter, it was hard to remember who was whom and why they were even narrating. About half-way through the story, I almost gave up and started over, because I was so confused with a couple of the characters, that I felt I must have missed some important explanation as to who they were earlier in the book. However, I kept on and finally sorted it out. I think the story could have been more cohesive and less confusing if two or three characters were eliminated altogether, as they really brought little to the story except as just another person to keep track of.
I disengaged with Emma’s character early on. I tried to tell myself that a mother whose child has been abducted probably has unpredictable behavior, but to me, Emma’s was bizarre. One minute she’s in pieces with worry and fear, and the next, she’s carrying on a cool, almost disinterested conversation. Not a character I cared for at all. Her husband also exhibited odd behavior – from loving to attentive to disinterested to angry to almost malevolent to humorous and finally, to just “normal.” I liked him at the beginning of the story. By the end, I considered him a real jerk.
I figured out the ending about three quarters of the way through, but this didn’t bother me, as I still wasn’t sure how the author would tie everything together. The ending was satisfying, even though the road to get there was a little circuitous and littered with too many people.
Overall, I enjoyed the suspense of the story and the twist of the ending. I rate it a solid three stars, leaning toward 3.5.
Thank you to NetGalley and Avon books for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

As a massive fan of psychological thrillers this book did not disappoint. I kind of stumbled on it while checking the kindle daily deals and didn’t read any of the reviews or synopsis, bought it purely on the eye catching cover. And as it turned out the eerie image was a great precursor to the chilling story.

I thought this was a cracking debut novel -Elisabeth Carpenter has really hit the spot with a twisted psychological thriller that explores family ties and lies. ‘99 Red Balloons’ is a thriller that takes every parent's worst nightmare and blend the past and present together.

Eight year-old Grace has gone missing. Surveillance videos show that she was abducted from a sweet shop on her way home from school. Her parents are frantic and the search begins to find her before it’s too late...
Years earlier, another little girl, Zoe, also disappeared... She was never found however there are marked similarities.
How these two events are entwined becomes the basis of ‘99 Red Balloons’.

The overall plot is one that is sure to keep a reader on edge with a little girl's life on the line. The story is told with alternating points of views from various characters all throughout the book which is my only criticism as I struggled to keep track at times. By the time it all wrapped up it made sense but during the early pages there were a few times the voices weren’t distinctive enough to remember who was who.

That being said, I really enjoy a story that keeps you guessing and this one just keeps the surprises coming. The final twist threw me and had me thinking after I'd finished the book. Certainly a quick, suspenseful eerie read...I recommend.
I am a verified purchaser in AUSTRALIA

This is a British thriller about two abducted little girls, with their stories intertwined throughout the book. One was just recently abducted while the other was taken years ago.

At times it was difficult to keep the different stories straight because this is told from varying points-of-view. I liked the beginning of the book a lot, the ending even more, but the middle was kind of boring and muddled.

It was difficult to really identify with many of the characters, too, but I especially liked Maggie's character, a grandmother in the story.

This story tells about a parent's worst nightmare but I couldn't get myself too upset or outraged based on the way the story was told.

So this was just an okay read to me.

I received this book from Avon Books UK through Edelweiss in exchange for my unbiased review.

99 Red Balloons, the English version of the 1983 Nena hit 99 Luftballons is not the only German influence Elisabeth Carpenter took from her own youth to her latest crime fiction thriller. RAF bases and an elderly couple that has a peculiar way to become foster parents to replace their lost child Stephanie. In the UK two girls went missing some decades apart. The first one, Zoe, of only five years old, leading to headline news and years of police investigations. The second one just recently, a girl named Grace, starts as a classic police interrogation of relatives.

Family secrets, a multitude of characters and their relationships are presented to the reader in short chapters, with Grace’s whereabouts in intermezzo chapters as a parallel narrative. with alternating protagonists. Only the family can solve this drama by coming to terms with their past. The actual police involvement is rather pushed back in this book. Cops just do their work and are in the right place, as is the legal process of catching Grace’s kidnapper.

The twists and short bites of the 99 Red Balloons story kept me engaged. Yes, I had to note down family ties to keep my mind in sync with Carpenter’s storytelling pace. Expect captivating psychological developments, traces of Stockholm Syndrome and the effect of renaming a person. Will paranoia be the new normal, just as the original 99 red balloons could cause paranoia in East Berlin?

A great debut thriller by Elizabeth Carpenter about a school girl named Grace abducted from a sweet shop in England . She believed the man was sent to pick her up by her mom . It doesn't look good! The police aren't finding any clues. The family get together to support each other. Graces parents Emma and Matt , her aunt Stephanie and her 13 year old son Jamie , and the widowed grandmother. The family Liasion Officer Flo and PC Nadia Sharma stay to assist Graces family that are heartbroken. In another town in England a woman named Maggie is upset when she sees the news about Grace . Maggie's granddaughter Zoe was abducted 30 years ago . The loss destroyed the entire family. Maggie's son Scott turned into a drug addict. Maggie's husband died from grief. Maggie's son inlaw David left to search for his daughter and Maggie's daughter Sarah committed suicide. We get the insight from all family members. We learn of Maggie's tragic story of her missing granddaughter, secrets and surprises. Great storyline! This book was hard to put down ! I couldn't wait to find out what happened to Grace and Zoe ! I highly recommend this book if you like a good psychological thriller. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher Avon Booksuk for the digital copy in exchange for my honest review. Will post on Goodreads, Instagram, Netgalley, Twitter and the store .

Eight year old Grace is allowed to walk home alone from school really only a short distance from her classroom. She decides to stop at the sweet shop to buy some candy. Coming out she is enticed by a stranger to get in his car so that he can take her to her mother. Familiar scene, and yes he is a kidnapper and drives her away. Her mother Emma becomes completely overwrought as Grace's disappearance lengthens into days and than weeks.
Elisabeth Carpenter sets up a an excellent portrait of the emotions that Grace's family moves through. Ms Carpenter also introduces other factors whose bearing on the case is unknown and to be discovered. Why has Grace's father and Emma's sister exchanged a large amount of e-mails, and why does Emma's mother take a long time to join the family in the search?
And a separate set of circumstances provides more mystery. Maggie Taylor, an elderly widow sees a familiar face in the newspaper. A face that jolts her memory into remembering another kidnapping that took place two generations ago. Is there any connection between that kidnapping and the one that grabbed Grace? 99 Red Balloons is Ms Carpenter's first novel and as well presented as it as certainly marks her as an up and coming author. Looking forward to future books by her.

Every mother’s nightmare. A child missing. Gone.

Grace is only eight years old. She has just started to earn her parents confidence in her to come home from school by herself. The candy shop just around the corner is her favourite stop. But one day she never comes home. Her parents are devastated. The entire neighbourhood is in the search for the little girl.

In the meantime, family secrets arise on the surface. Grace’s mother is on the edge of her nerves. But it seems that there is more than a friendship between Emma’s husband and her sister. Is there a hidden affair?

An old widow is grieving alone for her daughter and granddaughter. Her granddaughter has disappeared many years ago. Soon after the disappearance, the marriage of her daughter is falling apart and she kills herself. But a recent photo of missing Grace with her family in the newspapers triggers something familiar. Someone looks exactly like her longtime lost daughter. Someone who has the same age as her granddaughter if she was alive.

A little girl is being trafficked in a car. A little girl is told a lie that her mother is waiting for her in a new home. The little girl doesn’t know the man who is driving her. All she remembers is the song “99 Red Balloons” playing on the radio.

A child missing is everyone’s worst nightmare. The author tells the story from different perspectives and creates some very shocking twists. Elisabeth Carpenter has written a psychological drama that kept my hair stand on end. She wisely connects three different stories into one. As a reader, I assumed the connections, but boy, I wasn’t even close! Nothing could prepare me for the outcome! It was hard for me to believe this was a debut for this author! Highly recommend for all thriller and psychological drama fans!

A great debut thriller by Elizabeth Carpenter about a school girl named Grace abducted from a sweet shop in England . She believed the man was sent to pick her up by her mom . It doesn't look good! The police aren't finding any clues. The family get together to support each other. Graces parents Emma and Matt , her aunt Stephanie and her 13 year old son Jamie , and the widowed grandmother. The family Liasion Officer Flo and PC Nadia Sharma stay to assist Graces family that are heartbroken. In another town in England a woman named Maggie is upset when she sees the news about Grace . Maggie's granddaughter Zoe was abducted 30 years ago . The loss destroyed the entire family. Maggie's son Scott turned into a drug addict. Maggie's husband died from grief. Maggie's son inlaw David left to search for his daughter and Maggie's daughter Sarah committed suicide. We get the insight from all family members. We learn of Maggie's tragic story of her missing granddaughter, secrets and surprises. Great storyline! This book was hard to put down ! I couldn't wait to find out what happened to Grace and Zoe ! I highly recommend this book if you like a good psychological thriller. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher Avon Booksuk for the digital copy in exchange for my honest review. Will post on Goodreads, Instagram, Netgalley, Twitter and the store .

Eight year old Grace is allowed to walk home alone from school really only a short distance from her classroom. She decides to stop at the sweet shop to buy some candy. Coming out she is enticed by a stranger to get in his car so that he can take her to her mother. Familiar scene, and yes he is a kidnapper and drives her away. Her mother Emma becomes completely overwrought as Grace's disappearance lengthens into days and than weeks.
Elisabeth Carpenter sets up a an excellent portrait of the emotions that Grace's family moves through. Ms Carpenter also introduces other factors whose bearing on the case is unknown and to be discovered. Why has Grace's father and Emma's sister exchanged a large amount of e-mails, and why does Emma's mother take a long time to join the family in the search?
And a separate set of circumstances provides more mystery. Maggie Taylor, an elderly widow sees a familiar face in the newspaper. A face that jolts her memory into remembering another kidnapping that took place two generations ago. Is there any connection between that kidnapping and the one that grabbed Grace? 99 Red Balloons is Ms Carpenter's first novel and as well presented as it as certainly marks her as an up and coming author. Looking forward to future books by her.

Every mother’s nightmare. A child missing. Gone.

Grace is only eight years old. She has just started to earn her parents confidence in her to come home from school by herself. The candy shop just around the corner is her favourite stop. But one day she never comes home. Her parents are devastated. The entire neighbourhood is in the search for the little girl.

In the meantime, family secrets arise on the surface. Grace’s mother is on the edge of her nerves. But it seems that there is more than a friendship between Emma’s husband and her sister. Is there a hidden affair?

An old widow is grieving alone for her daughter and granddaughter. Her granddaughter has disappeared many years ago. Soon after the disappearance, the marriage of her daughter is falling apart and she kills herself. But a recent photo of missing Grace with her family in the newspapers triggers something familiar. Someone looks exactly like her longtime lost daughter. Someone who has the same age as her granddaughter if she was alive.

A little girl is being trafficked in a car. A little girl is told a lie that her mother is waiting for her in a new home. The little girl doesn’t know the man who is driving her. All she remembers is the song “99 Red Balloons” playing on the radio.

A child missing is everyone’s worst nightmare. The author tells the story from different perspectives and creates some very shocking twists. Elisabeth Carpenter has written a psychological drama that kept my hair stand on end. She wisely connects three different stories into one. As a reader, I assumed the connections, but boy, I wasn’t even close! Nothing could prepare me for the outcome! It was hard for me to believe this was a debut for this author! Highly recommend for all thriller and psychological drama fans!

It was a complex and therefore ambition plot, but could have been structured better. Many reviewers have said it was hard to follow and that's not because of the complexity. In places, certain information needs to be given just a little sooner in order for what you are reading right now to make sense. Another problem was pacing. The author tried to build suspense by dragging out one character's answering of a question by another character. It's not a good technique for building suspense; it's just tedious and exasperating. Halfway through the book I wanted to return it to Audible but felt I had read too much. So I finished it and was joyous when it was over. I must say it was a pretty decent FIRST NOVEL. She is talented, and I liked the humor in a few spots, and maybe future books will be better. :)

Told from alternating viewpoints, it took me a minute to figure out all the players in this psychological thriller.

An eight year old girl doesn't come home from school. As her family frantically try and figure out who did this and why.

Not far away, Maggie has already lost her husband, dear friends and her daughter and is still not over the abduction of her granddaughter. When she sees a picture of Grace in the news, she feels a strong connection.

This was a very twisty tale full of secrets, crimes and stolen children. Will they get Grace back? Is this family even a family?

There was quite a bit of tension in the story, as one would expect when a child goes missing. It was a good story. I just felt there was a lot more that could have been said about the individual characters.

Would I read it again? No. But give it a try and let me know what you think!

Netgalley/Avon August 24th Release.

Two girls go missing, decades apart. What would you do if one was your daughter?

When eight-year-old Grace goes missing from a sweetshop on the way home from school, her mother Emma is plunged into a nightmare. Her family rallies around, but as the police hunt begins, cracks begin to emerge.

What are the secret emails sent between Emma’s husband and her sister? Why does her mother take so long to join the search? And is Emma really as innocent as she seems?

Meanwhile, ageing widow Maggie Taylor sees Grace’s picture in the newspaper. It’s a photograph that jolts her from the pain of her existence into a spiralling obsession with another girl – the first girl who disappeared…

Wow, this is a good suspenseful read. It can be hard reading about harm done to a child. However, this book does not overdo it with the hard, gritty details. The writing is done very well enough to give you some insight to what happens to little Grace after she's been snatched away from her family. This is my first novel read by Elisabeth Carpenter and it certainly will not be my last. Overall, the plot was nicely woven out. There was one story line that was not quite flushed out and did not go in the direction you thought it might go. I felt connected to the characters. I felt all of the emotions as if I wanted to jump right into the book with them.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing my copy via NetGalley. It was truly a pleasure to read and provide my honest thoughts.

3 1/2 ⭐️‘S
This book was told in multiple POV’s and had many twists and turns, unfortunately I figured it out fairly early on. That rarely detracts for me (unless it’s extremely obvious and poorly written, which this book was not!) as then I’m anxious to find out if I’m right?. The story was written well, but was a tad bit slow at the get go. I wouldn’t exactly label it a thriller, but there was definitely enough to keep the reader turning pages. With great characterization, this book was filled with heart wrenching scenes and I wish the ending had been just a few pages longer.

The subject of a child abduction is always going to be a tough one to deal with but in this story it is handled really well.  The story starts off with a bang straight away and you are immediately thrown in to the chaos of the search for the missing girl.  The book has two main sets of characters and the story weaves between them all so you do have to check which character you are reading about as it isn't always that clear. 

I did enjoy it, but the problem that this book has sadly is that the theme of a missing or abducted child is currently being used so much that this one didn't really hit the heights of some of the others but it is still a good solid read and I have given it 4 stars as it does have a twist that keeps you guessing until the end.

The first few chapters are very engaging indeed, I was hooked straightaway and felt that the book was going to be amazing. However, the jumping between the characters was a little tricky to follow in places, and the book did tail off at the end too much for my liking. This market is tough at the moment, with a lot of good books out there in this vein, so it's a tough challenge. For a debut it's good, and I would read this author again.

I received this book from NetGalley - many thanks - all opinions are my own. The cover is amazing by the way, and makes you want to read it straightaway.

This is for the kindle edition. What a fabulous thriller this is, I enjoyed every page. There are loads of twists and turns right to the end. Eight year old Grace is missing. Her mum Emma, dad Matt and Aunt Stephanie are desperately trying to find her. Thirty years ago, Five year old Zoe went missing and was never found. The story is narrated mainly by Grace's Aunt Stephanie and Zoe's grandmother Maggie. What do the two cases have in common with each other? Read on!

I would like to thank NetGalley for an advance copy this book. I'm here giving a fair and unbiased review after reading.

This book sucked me in right away. I admit at times I had to go back and check names and histories since there was a lot going on, but I enjoyed it immensely. As a matter of fact, my family and I were touring Yellowstone and instead of admiring the scenery, I was buried in this book.

Pros... I really liked the characters and the mystery kept me guessing. I really felt like I was in it with these characters. My heart ached for Maggie and I worried right along with Stephanie. Plus there were so much backstory and questions of the past that I was kept hanging on for quite a while which is somewhat unusual for me. Once I'd figure something out I would realize there were still questions I needed answers to. These kinds of books are so exciting and hard to put down.

Cons... Even though all the main questions were answered and the mysteries solved, I still felt like there was so much more I wanted to know. I guess it's the nosy person I am, but in a standalone I don't like feeling like I could use a sequel or a few more chapters. Also, I felt like there was a senseless death that added nothing to the story. It felt unnecessary and just another way to ramp up the angst level in a book that already had plenty.

All in all I really enjoyed this book and will be reading more from this author in the future.

I ended up really enjoying this debut novel! I was sucked into the story from the very beginning and flew through the book in just a couple of days. I thought the writing was pretty strong for a debut author and I also thought the pacing was right on point. I always really enjoy multiple points of view in a story and thought that for the most part they were done pretty well in this one. There were a few times I was a little confused and had to reread a section because I wasn't sure whose point of view I was reading from. But most of the chapters were labeled and pretty straight forward, so I do think they made for a more well rounded story. I can't give this book a solid five stars because I did find the "big" twist a little predictable. I read so many books in this genre that it takes a lot to really surprise me anymore. But I do think there will be a lot of people who are shocked when they pick it up. Overall I thought this was a solid thriller and I would recommend it to most people. I will also be keeping my eye out for other books that this author writes in the future.

The plot was clever and intriguing. The layout of the book is way too confusing with chapters narrated by too many people and no indication as to who the narrator was so you had to make a stab at guesses. Had characterisation been better, then the narrators would've been obvious but at several points in the story I was totally bemused as to who was who and what was happening.

3.5 stars

As the story opens a schoolgirl is abducted from a sweet shop in England, having been led to believe that the man in the woolly hat was sent by her mom. As the man drives the girl away, the song 'Ninety Nine Red Balloons' - which she likes - is playing on the car radio.

**********

Stephanie arrives at her sister Emma's house to find her sibling near hysteria. Emma's 8-year-old daughter Grace hasn't arrived home from school, and none of the neighbors have seen her. The police arrive to hunt for the child, but Grace can't be found anywhere. DI Lee Hines and DS Rachel Berry question Grace's relatives about where the girl might go, but the family doesn't believe Grace would wander off on her own.

As time ticks by - and the situation looks dire - Graces's family draws together to support each other. This includes the parents, Emma and Matt; Aunt Stephanie and her 13-year-old son Jamie; and the widowed grandmother. When the police leave to continue their search elsewhere, the Family Liasion Officer (FLO) - PC Nadia Sharma - stays to assist Grace's relatives.....who are falling apart.

Across England, in another town, a seventy-something woman named Maggie is disturbed when she sees the news story about Grace. Maggie's granddaughter Zoe was abducted 30 years ago, and the loss destroyed the family. Maggie's son Scott turned into a drug addict and criminal; Maggie's grief-stricken husband Ron died; Maggie's son-in-law David left to search for his girl; and Maggie's daughter Sarah became an alcoholic and committed suicide.

Maggie's lived alone since then, and has continued to follow news stories of vanished children. Maggie always sends a card to the parents of missing kids - with her name and address - in case the current police investigation turns up news of Zoe....who's never been found.

Most of the story is told in the alternating voices of Stephanie and Maggie. There are also sections narrated by an abducted child, and glimpses into the thoughts and behavior of a kidnapper.

In Stephanie's chapters we get insight into a frightened family trying to deal with a dreadful situation. As days pass, family members blame themselves and each other; can't bring themselves to shower or change clothes; drink too much; ignore the food dropped off by neighbors; and generally fall into despair. Stephanie has the added responsiblity of looking after her son Jamie, who gets a break from the suffocating environment by visiting his dad and going to school.

We also learn that Emma is not Stephanie's biological sister. Emma was adopted at the age of 10 after being rescued from an abusive home. Nevertheless, the siblings have a very strong bond and are devoted to each other. Still, Stephanie and Matt (Emma's husband) have a secret between them, which causes added tension in the already strained household. This is exacerbated by the presence of PI Sharma - who's always around.....listening.

In Maggie's narrative she describes her family tragedy; her continuing depression; her day to day activities; and the discomfort she feels with local people - who seem to exude pity. Maggie also talks about her friend Jim - a caring man who comes by regularly to check up on her. When Maggie and Jim see a photo of Grace's family in the newspaper, someone looks familiar.

In the chapters recounted by the child she seems drugged and sleepy during a long car journey - and frightened by her situation. She continually asks when she'll see her mommy.

And finally we see a nervous abductor trying to keep a child calm while he disguises or hides her, to keep from getting caught as he crosses borders. (Uh-oh!) I wanted to know what this was all about.

The police investigation continues behind the scenes, and the family is kept updated by the detectives and the FLO. But the cops don't divulge everything they find out until the book's climax, which is appropriately dramatic.

I don't want to give away spoilers so I'll just say the author has a deft touch with misdirection and the story has some big surprises.

The narrative is proabably an accurate depiction of how families react when a child goes missing. If you've ever mislaid a kid temporarily - in a store or park - you've probably felt a little of this. I found the story compelling and was anxious to discover what happened to Grace..... and what secrets people were keeping.

I'd recommend this engaging book to fans of psychological thrillers.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Elisabeth Carpenter), and the publisher (Avon) for a copy of the book.

Bit too formulaic for me, with disjointed chapters and had to really try and work out who was telling the story. Not a great start either as when trying to backtrack an 8 year olds movements, her junior school would surely not lock the gates so early! There are usually staff/cleaners on the premises. Parts of the book also made me uncomfortable (in a good way), with good descriptions of family relationships. For that reason I would read her next novel.
Debut novel, and thanks to Net Galley for allowing me to review it.

A fabulous debut novel! Very cleverly constructed so that the suspense and pace is perfect for the story. Lots of twists and turns, one in particular gave that 'gasp out loud' moment. Elisabeth Carpenter has a wonderful talent for characterisation, each having a distinct voice and depth that made them believable. Maggie was my favourite - what a beautifully drawn character she was! Definitely an author to watch, and I look forward to what she writes next.

Two devastated families, both searching for their missing Daughters. The emotions, secrets and lies of the individuals involved in this situation gives you the background to an unexpected fascinating twist.

An unputdownable read.

Thank you Netgalley, Elizabeth Carpenter and Avon for allowing me to read and give my own unbiased review.