Loved this book and I'm sure I watched a series on tv based on the same storyline. Felt so sorry for the mum at all times

i really enjoyed this book from daisy pearce .it follows one womans quest to find out what happened to her daughter who went missing when she was 15 .it really tugs at your heart .

I know I’ll sound like a douche but I did not like Edie at all, like for me, she deserved what happened to her. I know I know, I’m evil.
But that’s the truth.
Thanks Net Galley for the ARC of this book.
It was okay.
It could’ve been so much better if the character is likeable.

15-year-old Edie Hudson goes missing.
Two decades later, her mother Samantha still doesn't know what happened to her daughter and can't find closure.
Meanwhile, Frances discovers that her husband William had known the missing girl.
When the two women meet accidentally, they quickly join forces to find out the truth behind Eddie's disappearance, but someone is not happy about it.

The story alternates between two different accounts, Samatha's and Frances'.
I found the two at first seemingly unconnected perspectives really intriguing, and as the story kept progressing, I was quickly drawn in.
This was a gripping read that had me madly turning the pages to find out what happened to Eddie.
The twist at the end was not so much shocking as it was surprising, but the story was fast-paced and suspenseful, and I didn't want to put it down. It was my first book from this author, but it definitely won't be my last.

This is the second book I've read by this author, and it's another great one! Told from alternating narratives of Samantha and Frances, it involves Edie, Samantha's daughter who disappeared 15 years ago, and Frances, who discovers this mystery and the surprising connection it has to her own life. She never heard about the missing girl before, due in part to the police and media writing Edie off as just another troubled runaway. Sure, she was a typical rebellious teenager, more so perhaps, but that doesn't mean her disappearance doesn't matter. And it soon begins to matter to Frances, also, when she discovers that her husband, William, was involved with Edie as a teen.

Frances and William revisit his childhood home due to his mother suffering a terrible fall while in the care of William's brother, Alex. It is while she looks through some old photos that Frances learns about Edie and how she disappeared one day in a graveyard and has never been found. She soon begins digging into the mystery, and meets Samantha along the way. Still heartbroken over her Edie's disappearance, she and Frances join together to discover the truth, whatever the cost. But will that only cause these women to lose more along the way?

I read this all in one sitting - I couldn't help it, I was unable to put it down! So many suspicious characters and motives, I just couldn't rest until I knew what really happened to Edie. It is definitely a mystery you will want to solve and you won't be disappointed!

Samantha seems to be the only person who still wants to find her missing daughter. It’s been twenty years after all, everyone assumes she either ran off or was killed. But Samantha is determined to uncover the truth and she finds help in an unlikely ally, Frances, a woman interested in what happened to Edie because Frances has found a photo of her husband with the missing girl

*** ARC provided by NetGalley via the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ***

This book is told from the perspective of Samantha (now & then) and Frances. Samantha is the mother of Edie who went missing age 15 and was never heard of again. This happened 20 years ago and Frances is thrown into the middle of this decades old story by her own curiosity after seeing a photo of her husband with Edie as a teenager.

The problem with this story is that Edie wasn't the type of child that was missed when she disappeared, in short, Edie was no angel. This, for me, is what makes the book stand out. The story of a forgotten 'bad girl', the media that painted her as a runaway and the mother unsure of how to feel when the daughter who scared her goes.

Good book, would certainly make me keep an eye out for this author in the future

Complex mystery with lots of strands. Unfortunately didn't really get going for me. Loads of suspects,not much to go on,slow unravelling.

This book packs a punch, a book always rates highly if it can grab my intrigue in the first chapter. Its rare but this book had it. I read 46% in my first sitting. Daisy has a way of description that gave me goosebumps. The story is clearly guided and the jumps back to past are clear with chapter names.. Now and Then.
This was my first read of Daisy Pearce and it won't be my last, I can't describe the talents used to just sprinkle intrigue and anticipation throughout the book. Not knowing what's going to happen, where is this going... These talents are priceless and this book has them all and will keep you reading... Matchsticks should come with this book as they are needed to keep going. I will sleep after this chapter just does not work out... I had to keep reading just one more.
Samantha and Francis are characters who have been described perfectly and each chapter being written in 1st person gives a sense and insight of each lady and their desperation in the missing child and the straying husband, the link between these characters is well developed and is the most intriguing part of the book.
A well written gripping thriller.


#TheMissing #NetGalley #DaisyPearce #bookreview
#bonkersaboutbooks

Sadly, I wasn't super impressed with this book. I thought it had great potential, but in the end I was left feeling highly underwhelmed. The writing was fine, however, the characters were so unlikable. Not unlikeable in that way where you still love them and kind of question yourself for doing so. They were just boring and flat. The story really fell short for me too. It just wasn't blowing me away at any point. This one wasn't for me.

Told from two perspectives, then & now, about a missing girl. Samantha’s 15 year old daughter Edie goes missing, 18 years later Frances discovers her husbands connection to the missing girl. Very good book, kept me guessing til the end

Thank you NetGalley, publisher and author, for letting me have a copy of this book to read and review. Premise of this book was very interesting. A teenager disappeared years ago and her mom is still trying to find out what happened. Meanwhile a wife discovers her husband may be hiding secrets from her. Shockingly, the couples might have things in common. I was intrigued and excited to find out the possible link between the 2 couples. I wanted to like this book more than I did, sadly. I did not like the narration style of the author. I was so distracted by the use of, sometimes fancy, words to describe details about the characters and their surroundings. "slender curve of the moon", "her hair is a nebula about her drawn face".

From the beginning this one hooked me. I honestly didn’t want to put it down! I look forward to reading more by Daisy Pearce.

Psychological Thriller filled with thrills

This book is a testament to a mother's love and determination. Samantha has never gave up on her daughter, Edie, who went missing years ago. Although everyone else has forgotten, Samantha is a mama bear and will never forget. She will find a way to piece together and unravel the mystery of what happened to her daughter all those years ago.

What really happened to Edie? Is there someone who knows? Read to find out!

I enjoyed the pacing and the plot development in this story. I thought it was very rich in detail and the writing was excellent. What are you waiting for? Read this today!

The Missing is a story told in alternating perspectives by two women who’s lives are unknowingly intertwined. Samantha tells her story then and now, when her daughter went missing and 20 years later as she continues to search for answers. Frances lets her curiosity get the better of her when she finds out about a missing girl from her husbands past. In her search for answers, she encounters Samantha and the two become an unlikely pair. The final 1/3 of the book is filled with shocking twists that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

This book hooked me from page one. The plot was intriguing, the settings and the characters well developed. Edie is a character that stands out and makes the reader think about how people can have hidden faces or be misjudged by others. It was a great reading and I’d recommend this book.

When I began this book, I thought "oh no here we go again", as I believed it was going to follow the formula of so many 'missing teenager' books available at the moment. However, I quickly learnt that I was incorrect, as it delved deeply into the pain of a mother, who lost a particularly difficult child, and posed some serious questions about the effects of this on how the mother and society dealt with this loss. As I work with teenagers, I can allude that kids with issues such as Edie certainly exist, but a spotlight is rarely shone on the mental and physical effects this can have on their primary caregivers. In my opinion this is an excellent book, and it should hold an important place in modern thrillers, whereby books should be written that are raw and real, rather than 'thriller by numbers'.

I loved this thriller! I was immediately hooked within the first few pages. This book is chalk full of subtle red herrings which will keep you guessing from the very start.

The chapters flip between Samantha and Frances, which I enjoyed as slowly their story lines start to meld together and more pieces of the mystery become clear. The mother character Samantha, is so relatable and you could feel her extreme emotional pain throughout this story. Highly recommend for those in need/want of a good thriller.

Thank you to Netgalley and Amazon Publishing UK for a chance to review this arc in exchange for an honest review.

The Missing is a captivating thriller that has you hooked from the start. The chapters flip between two women who are unexpectedly connected by a missing girl. Samantha is the mother of the missing girl, and you can emphasize with her as she experiences ongoing grief for years. Frances is a married women who is interested in what happened to the missing girl, Edie.

I really enjoyed this book and was curious about what truly happened to Edie and I wanted to know why. I liked that this story was told in first person because it was easy to understand what the characters were experiencing throughout the book. The ending of this book was not as predictable as some thrillers tend to be in my opinion, which really sets it apart from other stories. Another thing I really enjoyed about this book was the true aspect of how missing people can be overlooked depending on their backgrounds. Edie wasn't a "good girl" and her disappearance didn't get attention by the media the way that "good-girls" do.

This book was captivating, touching, and thrilling. I'm looking forward to reading more titles by this author.

spoiler alert ** 3.5 stars

A good mystery that had me guessing to very near the end as to what had happened to Edie.
I was willing to suspect everyone and no one,she might have just been a runaway.
Good levels of creepiness provided by the local caretaker and the witchcraft.
No surprises at the end,but it took me a fairly long time to get to the answer.

The Missing made me sad, not to say it isn’t an incredible story but the feeling of sadness lingered long after finishing.
The grief that flows through the pages , the wonderful writing, the twists (oh my god the twists!!). Pacing is per fctm actually everything’s perfect! Read The Missing!

A strong five out of five book.

This started off really well, with such a well written, heartbreaking description of a mother's experience following the disappearance of her daughter. Alongside this there is an equally well written synopsis of a marriage in trouble due to the apparent misdemeanours of the husband. So far, so good.
However, it then seemed to lose something and I struggled to finish it.
Finish it I did though and overall I found it a decently rounded drama / thriller - bit 'made for tv' but an OK read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to preview.

A multiple POV thriller set in two time periods which was exciting to read. The book is centred around the disappearance of Edie, and we see the story through the eyes of Frances and Samantha. I found the book to be well-paced, full of great macabre description, and interesting plot developments. There are some contrivances, as with any thriller, I didn't connect with Samantha as much as I felt I could have, and felt there were a couple of subplots which weren't fleshed out fully/didn't feel resolved but on the whole this was a great page turner and it was written wonderfully well.

The Missing by Daisy Pearce is a fast-paced, engrossing thriller that will have you questioning everything you think you know until the very end.

Fifteen year old Edie Hudson has always had a somewhat problematic relationship with her mother, Samantha. When she goes missing from their small community, the case seems to be quickly forgotten by everyone but Samantha. Twenty years on a local woman, Frances, also has an interest in the case, and it is a personal one. She has discovered a photograph of her husband with the long missing girl. Alternating between 'then' and 'now', and between the perspectives of the two women, Edie's disappearance becomes an all-consuming obsession for Frances, a wife who is seeking answers, and her involvement provides hope for Samantha, a mother who has been plagued by guilt for far too long.

This is a twisty tale that will sweep you up in a compelling and unpredictable journey. You will be racing to find out what happened to Edie Hudson so many years ago.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for this ARC.

This was a great read start to finish. A missing girl and a mother who never gave up. Edie was never the worlds darling, she was a bully with aggression problems, so when she vanishes into thin air she is written off as a run away with out much of an investigation. Frances has married Edies ex boyfriend and when they visit his hometown she meets Edies mom... together they try to unravel the past and how the past is a part of Frances present.
Great characters, great plot and fast paced with lots of suspense. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you for the ecopy of this book. I will be posting a full review on Goodreads, Amazon, and Instagram! Many thanks.

The Missing by Daisy Pearce was one of those stories that I wanted to love, but for me, it fell a little flat. The storylines were easy enough to follow, but I wanted the mom of the missing girl to be able to move on. She never accepted her new reality and I guess if one ever had a child go missing, it would be extremely difficult to do. She found an unlikely ally in the wife of the missing's friend/boyfriend from high school. Soon, they both become obsessed with knowing what happened.
I appreciated the flow of the writing. It kept me reading until the end. I just wanted the mom to finally have her closure and it seemed like it took forever to get. Thank you to #netgalley #amazonpublishinguk for this advanced copy. The book is set to be published on June 9, 2020.

A mother teenage daughter went missing two decades ago is desperate – understandably – for answers. But she’s not the only one who wonders about the case and a photograph could lead to a dangerous, life changing revelation. A tautly written read that made you empathise with Samantha, the missing girl’s mother.

Oh what an incredible book. An absolutely brilliant story. I totally devoured this. It’s hard to describe the plot without spoiling it, I loved the title and cover of the story, requesting for this reason. And I’m so glad I did. A brilliant psychological thriller. A stand out from the rest. Highly recommended xx

This was an interesting mystery but reading it fell a little flat for me. Though the storyline was good, I just had trouble getting into it and I couldn't put my finger on why. It took me a while to finish it because I wasn't motivated to pick it back up. It centers on Samantha, whose 15-yr-old daughter Edie went missing 18 years ago. Samantha is still searching for answers, but doesn't get a ton of support from those around her. Enter Frances, the wife of the guy who was dating Edie at the time; Frances stumbles upon a picture of Edie and wants to find out more. Frances and Samantha end up forming an unlikely friendship, and eventually figure out what happened all those years ago.

I felt sorry for Samantha but was somewhat frustrated that after all of these years, she was still asking the same questions- I wanted her to either move on or at least find new ways to investigate what happened. There were also things that she never fully looked into until Frances came along, which seemed hard to believe when her entire being revolved around figuring out what happened to her daughter. Frances, on the other hand, was someone I never really felt like I got to know- I think I liked her but didn't feel like I understood her. .

The ending was a surprise and was pretty action packed when the mystery is solved. The pace of the book picked up greatly at that point.

All in all, I like being surprised and thought the ending of this book was good, but didn't fully immerse myself in this book.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for sharing this book with me.
This book took me a while to get into the story. I found the beginning very confusing. It started to get interesting after half the book and then it was impossible to stop reading. Very interesting the development of the story.

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for an Advanced Release Copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

For the first few chapters I was turning the pages quickly and eagerly, both stories sounded so intriguing and promised a decent thriller that I was so excited to read and interested as to how the two stories will connect. I was really connected to the mothers experience and heartbreak and I thought the content was very relevant with the marriage troubles, I can imagine that this type of issue is becoming more common each day.

However I feel that it lost its way. Whilst the two stories did come together and in an interesting way, I felt that the novel became too heavily focused on the first story and the heat surrounding the marriage troubles fizzled away, which was I thought was quite exciting as the character began investigating to begin with. That could have been built up and held out for longer with more thoughts on her emotions, I thought. There were moments where I felt that this was becoming a bit of a YA story so far as the rattlesnakes were involved and it was never quite explored as to why these girls had the hold they did on their teachers and parents. It just sounded like kids getting away with what they wanted to without any consequence.

I found myself quite irritated at one characters comment about them being ‘lactose intolerant’ - it added absolutely nothing to the story and I didn’t understand (as someone that is) what it was meant to convey about the character and why the author put it there. The character was literally just arranging to meet for coffee.

The ending was unrealistic in line with the rest of the story in my opinion, I personally think the wrong characters were chosen. There were many red herrings in the novel and I didn’t expect the ending to be as it was (and the chase was a good element) but I didn’t believe that the people involved where to blame and I didn’t buy the reason why.

Overall, I felt it was a bit of an average read. It’s a shame because I felt it was on the right path but just took some turns that didn’t work.

Solid story. I liked this book a lot.

I don't want to give too much away, as to keep the suspense for future readers, but this had me riding a whirlwind of theories and still managed to shock me.

The narrative is told on Samantha's and Frances' "then and now" perspectives. Their paths cross over a comon subject: Edie's (Samantha's daughter) disappearance 20 years earlier.

We have a few unique characters, their distinct traits well explored enough to peak our interest and make us suspicious of each and everyone one of them. I think the author threw some misleading hints on there, to keep us guessing. Or maybe I was just reading too much into it.

I was soooo wrong about where this was going most of the time. A good mystery for sure.

Thanks NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK, for sending me this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Wow! It’s going to take me a while to recover from this book - in a really, really good way!!

This story was packed with a punch and a half! I devoured it and was thinking about the story even when I didn’t have the book in my hands... and when that happens, YOU KNOW IT’S GOOD! There were so many characters involved - suspicious, crazy, and vengeful ones, and twists and turns at every chapter.

The Missing is about a rebellious 15-year-old girl named Elizabeth (Edie), who leaves home one day and never returns. Her mom, Samantha, stops at nothing, even decades later after she goes missing, to figure out what happened to her. Is she dead? Is she missing? Is she living in another town with a new family?

Meanwhile, Francis, the wife of a man that supposedly has a connection to Edie is introduced.

When Francis and Samantha accidentally meet, the two stories collide, turning it into a whirlwind of psychological craziness!
Some of the characters in the story were not likable and that’s what made me like them more. I had a genuine hate for some of them but that was the whole point in my opinion!

It was a gripping page turner that was suspenseful and fast-paced. This was my first novel written by Daisy Pearce and it definitely won’t be my last!

If you like psychological thrillers, go get this book on pre-order ASAP!

This book just was not for me. From the beginning I just could not get into the story - it felt very flat and forced. It didn’t hold my attention and the characters were all pretty unlikable. There weren’t any real big surprises and the ending was pretty ho-hum. I really enjoy a good mystery/thriller but this one just didn’t pass muster.

Wow, I am speechless! Told in back and forth points of view of both Samantha and Frances and also in two time periods, The Missing does such a great job at portraying the feelings and emotions of two women in two different situations. The grief Samantha is feeling is perfectly coupled with the uncertainty that Frances feels in her marriage. Both women were strong and resilient in their own ways, and I loved it.

The use of imagery in this book had no business being as good as it was. I could read a whole novel just on Daisy Pearce describing a morning sunrise. It was absolutely stunning.

The twist at the end of the book didn’t WOW me, but I didn’t care. I really really enjoyed this book and hope you’ll all give it a go when it comes out!

I haven't read anything before by Daisy Pearce but I will start to after enjoying this book. The book was well written and intriguing. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy of The Missing.

Unfortunately, I agree with other reviewers who found this book a little jumpy and slow-moving. I just wasn't hooked, and that made it harder to continue reading. However, the premise of this book really intrigued me and I'd be open to reading something else by the author.

Thank You to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for this ARC!!

Teenager Edie Hudson was nobody’s little darling, which made vanishing all too easy. Two decades later, she’s been forgotten by everyone except her mother, Samantha. When she meets Frances, she at last starts to hope for answers.

Because Frances is obsessed with the mystery too, after finding a photo of her husband with the girl who disappeared.

What really happened all those years ago? And just how dangerous could it be to find out?

Initially I found the book too dense but since premise of this book really intrigued me I went on reading. I just couldn't rest until I knew what really happened to Edie. The book gets better half way through since by then the author provides us with many suspicious characters and a sense of creepiness with witchcraft!!

While the ending did not have a wow factor, it was still surprising.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The story is told from two different perspectives: Frances and Samantha. Frances is an unemployed woman who finds out her husband is cheating on her with a random woman on the internet. She is extremely disappointed that he is cheating, but more so, disappointed that the reality of her becoming a mother is slowly dwindling. Samantha's plot line takes place (mostly) about 20 years before Frances. She is the mother of a rebelious teenager, Edie. When Edie goes missing, Samantha's sanity begins to unravel. Little do Frances and Samantha know that they are both familiar with someone who can crack the case on Edie's disappearance, but it may cost them their lives.

If I'm being honest, that summary is probably more interesting than the actual book itself. I wanted to love this book so badly, but I struggled to consistently read it. I would go through spurts where I would read for 30 minutes to an hour and be totally immersed in the story line, but I never got excited to pick up the book and read it. I did enjoy Pearce's dark writing and how she was very descriptive, even grotesque at times, because it set the tone for the book. It definitely reminded me of a Lisa Jewell novel in this sense. The last 25% of the book I was totally invested and flipping pages quickly, and I was definitely shocked by the ending. The end of the novel felt the most put together.

I had difficulty with staying interested in the book because there were many time jumps and the chapters were extremely long. When my Kindle says it will take me 20 minutes to finish a chapter, I often only read one chapter, which is definitely a personal preference and not of fault of the author. The different time jumps did make it difficult to follow. There were a lot of time jumps which made it difficult to follow the plot, especially when I was unsure how Frances and Samantha were connected until about 30% of the book.

Unfortunately, because I really only liked the ending of this book, I have to give it a 2 or 2.5 out of 5 star rating.

The Missing centres around Samantha, whose daughter Edie went missing two decades earlier. The papers said 15 year old Edie was “no angel”, it made her disappearance all to easy to ignore. When a chance encounter with Frances occurs Samantha’s hope is reignited in finding her daughter.
Frances is also compelled to find answers too, after finding a photo of her husband with the girl who went missing.
I was totally engrossed by this. I was berating myself for not being able to stay up all night to get through it in one sitting. The characters were flawed and it made them that much more real. I felt like I was right there with them, feeling their desperation for the truth. I had so many theories going through this, none of them right. The pacing was perfect, the plot unfurled beautifully and all the little details enriched the writing. This was my first Daisy Pearce book and it most certainly won’t be my last.
The Missing is available from the 9th June.
Thank you Netgalley and Amazon Publishing for my copy to review!

This book was a bit too dense to be a "thriller"! Too much detail ... too much going on. If it were a bit less dense, it would have been a much more enjoyable read. All of the characters were unlikeable - including Edie who goes missing at age 15. The way it's written, you have absolutely zero empathy for her and her mother, who spends 20 years waiting for her daughter to come home.

The plot had a decent twist - but could have been so much more powerful with less verbosity.

Thank you to Daisy Pearce, Amazon Publishing UK and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. This review was also published on Goodreads.

A suspenseful whodunnit, told in alternating flashbacks and present day scenes. I really appreciated how Edie was portrayed as a difficult child and found all the main characters to be realistic and multi-faceted.

Thank you netgalley and publishers for the opportunity to read The Missing in exchange for my honest review.

This was a VERY good mystery. The author did a great job confusing the reader. This story is about a girl gone missing , and 20 years later had never been found. Is she dead? Did she run away? Who last saw her? These are all questions that we as the reader must ask ourselves. The story goes back and forth between two characters both past and present versions of themselves, which adds the the depth of the storyline.
Psychological thrillers always do a phenomenal job of misleading the reader over and over, and this story did just that. Her mother has been searching for her for twenty years with the hope that she is still alive, diffing up clues from her past and holding on to the hope that she is off somewhere living a new life. However, there are hints that she may actually have done something to her daughter that caused more than just a chip on her shoulder. I give this book high ratings, mainly because it was very well written and a difficult ending to uncover!

I really loved this novel, I love the idea of writing about a cold case. I enjoyed the flashback from past to present and found it simple to keep up with great read!

Frances opens a box of worms when she finds a photo of her husband William with Edie, a girl who went missing when she was 15. Was Edie William's girlfriend? What does he know? That's the question not only for Frances but also for Samantha, Edie's mom who has never gotten over the loss of her daughter. This goes back and forth in time and between Samantha and Frances, which adds to the story. You, like me, might guess some of the answers these women seek but not all of them. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A quick read.

The Missing is told in two points of view. Samantha - the mother of Edie Hudson, a teenager who disappeared years before and Frances - a woman who becomes obsessed with solving the mystery of Edie’s disappearance.

I felt like there was an awful lot of backstory at the beginning of this book. As I got further into the book, I understood why this was needed, however; it meant I found the book hard to get into.

The two points of view got confusing, especially at the start, I found it hard to remember which part was whose and it jolted me out of the story a lot. I also found it hard to distinguish between Samantha and Frances’s POV which got quite disorientating.

I loved the friendship Frances and Samantha struck up. Samantha seemed like she’d been lonely for so long, as everyone around her insists that she just needs to move on from her daughter. Frances seemed to get that that wasn’t possible for her, that she couldn’t move on until she knew what happened to her daughter.

The ending wasn’t much of a surprise - more of a ‘oh it all make sense now’ kind of ending. I wasn’t disappointed but neither was I crazy about it either. Saying that - the writing was what really shone about this book - lyrical and beautiful. It kept me reading until the end.

Marriages aren't always what they seem and neither are people. Who can you really trust? Who should you really trust?

This book is told from two points of view: Frances, who seems to have a deeply troubled past and is married to William who "rescued" her although might be having an affair now, and Samantha, whose 15-year-old deeply troubled daughter vanished without a trace 20 years earlier. Frances and William are in his hometown because his mother, who lives with his closeted brother, has a severe fall, and while there, Frances discovers that William was dating Edie when she disappeared. Can Frances help Samantha finally get some answers after all these years of purgatory?

I really liked the friendship that develops between Frances and Samantha. It's nice to see a friendship between two women that isn't torn apart because of a relationship with a man or because of jealousy. I also really liked that there was just enough backstory for us to understand the motives of most of the characters even if we lack full explanations.

This was definitely a quick, fun read to start off the summer, although maybe not as heart-pumping suspenseful as it could have been for a thriller. I would have liked a bit more teasing out the whodunnit, since most (but not all) was easily guessed very early on.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of the arc. It has not influenced my opinion.

3.5 starw rounded up to 4

Fifteen year old Edie Hudson disappears without trace. It's now twenty years later and Samantha (Edie's mother) still does not know what happened to her daughter. Frances is interested in what happened to Edie. She discovered that her husband, William knew Edie. Thrntwomwomen accidentally meet and join forces to try and find out what happened to Edie.

The story is told from Samantha and Frances's perspectives. There seemed to be quite a lot of backstory at the beginning of the book but the more you read the more you understand why this was necessary. The story flips between then and now. I liked the friendship that developed between the two women. The ending was a surprise. There's some good twists to keep you interested.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Amazon Publishing UK and the author Daisy Pearce for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Two women thrown together over the disappearance of fifteen year old Edie, The Missing is quite a slow-burner to start with but picks up pace towards the end.

Told from the perspective of both women from both then; when Edie first went missing, and now, The Missing is well written but I found it quite flat. It's not that I disliked it, I just didn't find it particularly enjoyable and I wasn't really intrigued as to what had happened to Edie.

Single mum Samantha is a chain-smoking loner with her own anger issues making her account unreliable. She is clearly disillusioned against the truth of her daughter's behaviour and personality, trying time and time again to quiet the voice in her own head which tells her how she really felt about Edie and her disappearance. Her behaviour is erratic and obsessive as she claws for the truth.

Frances has a past we don't really learn about in anything more than brief snippets of details or memories. There's no real explanation of her past and I didn't feel it really added much to her character. I felt like she was the character I liked the most but unfortunately her story isn't nearly as detailed as Samantha's.

There are a few different "suspects" in this book and it feels very slow as Samantha works her way through each of them to try and figure out what people know.

I wasn't a fan of the long chapters in this book. I personally felt quite frustrated to turn the page to a new chapter only for my kindle to tell me "time left in chapter: 52 minutes"! I think they made the book feel more of a slog and given the breaks in each chapter, could definitely have been chopped down to smaller chapters. The book is quite a heavy read with desperate, depressed Samantha's accounts taking up the majority of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Daisy Pearce and Amazon Publishing UK for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.