Laurel Mack's life upends irrevocably the day her 15-year-old daughter Ellie left home to study at the library and never came back. Her marriage crumbles, and she emotionally distances herself from her other two children, but the closure she seeks never arrives. Ten years later though, as she embarks on a new relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe, so does the unpleasant memories from the past bubble up when Ellie's remains are unexpectedly discovered, and to her shock, realises Floyd's nine-year-old daughter Poppy bears a startling resemblance to her own. Psychological thrillers exploring subtle variations of the missing-child-grieving-single-parent motif are dime a dozen, but Lisa Jewell, to her credit, sets up the mystery intriguingly well, bolstered by a storyline that adeptly passes the narrative baton from one character to the character, ratcheting up tension as it gets progressively disturbing. The only seam in this rather seamless work is that none of it feels truly surprising. Or perhaps it's just me, in part due to the sheer number of missing children books I've read over the past few years.
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