The Missing

I raced through this plot; it was addictive, full of subtle plot twists and buzzing with possible suspects.

We join the story at the six month appeal for missing son Billy. With an angry dad (Mark) and a drunk brother (Jake), it’s hard not to think Billy’s disappearance was an inside job… but then there’s extracts from WhatsApp conversations with some randomer who Billy has been sleeping with.

The majority of the plot is seen through Claire’s eyes – the mother – who’s suffering greatly. Claire begins to have random lapses of memory loss and finds herself in some unusual locations. Is she somehow connected to the disappearance?

Whilst Claire tries to understand what’s happening to her, events unfold and secrets are revealed. Claire becomes a detective in her household and work (albeit she barely manages a day back in the office) and begins to question her husband, her son, his girlfriend (Kira) and her boss. She discovers that Mark hasn’t been truthful about a drunken night, Jake failed to admit to his mother the fight he had with his brother the day he went missing and, Stephen (Mark’s step brother) seems to be drinking away his problems also…. they’re all hiding something but is it relevant?

I loved the number of secret reveals throughout this book and was impressed by how long it took me to put together the pieces. Due to Claire not being the most stable main character, she became a useful tool to baffle the reader further as you weren’t quite sure if to trust her…!

The use of social media conversations worked perfectly in this book, allowing the reader to connect with missing Billy and discover a side to him that even his family didn’t know.

This is a very modern psychological thriller which focuses on the family of the missing and deciphering how each character was connected to the day Billy vanished. Taylor has perfected the art of throwing clues at the reader, muddying it all up again and then sending the reader off in a slightly different direction; it worked perfectly in this story allowing the ‘blame’ to be cast in several places before settling on the truth – which hadn’t even entered my mind! It’s definitely worth a read, I also managed to pick it up in The Works in the ‘3 for £5’ paperback deal… such a bargain!

Until next time, Chloé x