Following a Family Liaison Officer, Maggie, as she is assigned to work the case of a missing teenager, Rosie. Rosie’s parents have recently struck gold after winning the lottery; did Rosie go on her own will, was she kidnapped? Maggie must work with the family as the police tirelessly look for Rosie. Family is ripped apart, friendships are betrayed and one thing is made clear: money cannot buy you happiness. 

I have always been clear that I am a fan of an abduction story, usually I find myself interested in stories told through the perspective of the missing person but I really did enjoy the change of pace by having the main character a Family Liaison Officer. I do not know much about them so I did find that it absolutely brought some new life into an abduction tale. 

This one is a lot slower than what I am generally drawn to but I still felt like the author’s writing was fantastic enough to keep me in the moment without needing all the bells and whistles I usually love. The ending also genuinely surprised me. Davis did a fantastic job at setting up her red herrings and other twists to ensure that this one came out of left field. I was impressed!

Winning the lottery is everyone's dream. You know it will change your life but everyone thinks it will be great and things will never be the same, in a good way. Be careful what you wish for. Media attention. Begging letters from anyone you ever remotely met and from charities. Jealousy. You find you leave your old friends behind but can't make very many new ones because you don't know if they're sincere. Maybe someone thinks they should have won instead of you and decides to take revenge. Oh, wait, that's probably not going to happen. But in this book, it does. Rosie, the teenage daughter of Lesley and Mack has gone missing. They were big winners in the EuroMillions lottery and someone has it in for them which we know fairly early on in the book. What has he done with Rosie? Is she still alive? It's every parent's worst nightmare come true.

DC Maggie Neville is the Family Liaison Officer, one of two assigned to help. She's unattached but with a sister, a single mother of three children that Maggie helps out regularly. Maggie ends up getting more involved in solving the crime than she's supposed to, trying to untangle all the clues and figure out the truth and the lies in the stories of all the people interviewed that might have a connection to the crime. 

I thought the story was pretty good. Had some good twists to it, though some of them pushed credibility just a tad. I liked Maggie's character and the sibling dynamic which is shaded with the guilt of an old secret Maggie's been carrying. It didn't come out in this book but it seems there will be others. 

Thanks to NetGalley for the digital copy in exchange for a review.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

Mack and Lesley's 15 year old daughter Rosie goes missing from their garden while she is revising for her GCSEs. The family recently won 15 million GBP on the lottery and has moved to a big house in an upmarket village. Maggie is one of the family liaison officers assigned to the case. 

I read a lot of police procedurals, but have never read one from the perspective of the FLO, so this was interesting. Maggie manages to explain a good deal about the role of an FLO, although she does go a bit Indiana Jones towards the end to save the day single-handedly. There was quite a lot of back story about Maggie having previously been disciplined as an FLO, which made the book seem less like the first in a series, although I'm pretty sure it is - I sense a "will they-won't they" romance brewing.

I was very impressed. There are chapters from the perspective of a character clearly implicated in Rosie's disappearance, and his motivations made very good sense, especially in the light of his [steroid usage (hide spoiler)] and health. Various plot threads came together by the end, in a way which seemed fluid rather than forced.

I would be keen to read more by this author.