Marissa Irvine believes her son Milo is on a post school playdate with Jenny’s son Jacob and duly arrives at 14 Tudor Grove to collect him only to find the front door opened by a complete stranger. Thus begins every parents nightmare. Jenny is in France on business and has no knowledge of any arrangements and over the next few days suspicions fall in several places. The story is told from several perspectives including Marissa and Jenny which works very well. What I thought was intriguing was how Andrea Mara looked at how gossip spreads and the different views people had on what had happened. Whenever there is a crime reported on in the news, people always have opinions on the people involved, openly sharing their thoughts and feelings. It can get very nasty on social media when this happens. Andrea Mara explores this very well in her book, and I liked how it increased the tension.

We'll consider it sealed without the usual formality,' Atticus said, when he saw me preparing to spit. El tema en sí no es novedoso: la desaparición de un menor, pero sí la manera de estructurar la historia y crear una trama estable e inteligente. El inicio es algo lento para mi gusto, pero entiendo que es la presentación de los personajes y su desarrollo emocional en la trama. A partir de la segunda parte es imposible soltar el libro y en la tercera, mejor tener tiempo porque querréis leerla del tirón. Clues are dropped here and there like breadcrumbs by the author as the story unfolds, and I was prepared for red herrings, but still I was kept guessing to the end. The author manages to maintain a level of tension and intrigue throughout. You stand on a crowded tube platform in London. Your two little girls jump on the train ahead of you. As you try to join them, the doors slide shut and the train moves away, leaving you behind.

About this book

When she squinted down at me the tiny lines around her eyes deepened. 'There's some folks who don't eat like us,' she whis¬pered fiercely, 'but you ain't called on to contradict 'em at the table when they don't. That boy's yo' comp'ny and if he wants to eat up the table-cloth you let him, you hear?' Thanks to NetGalley & Bantam Press for an eARC of this book. The following review is my honest reflection on the text provided. Have you ever been punched in the face by a book? Well, I've been repeatedly and unapologetically punched in the face by this one and I have to say I loved every minute of it!

The Irvines, who are quite well off await a ransom demand that never comes and Marissa’s anguish is palpable. Jenny is feeling guilty as it is her nanny who is to blame and the local gossip mongers are vicious in their assessment that Jenny didn’t do her due diligence in choosing this nanny even though she did. Jenny does what she can to help the Irvines to assuage her feelings of guilt but there is no progress. I'm afraid our activities would be received with considerable disapprobation by the more learned authorities.'

Los secundarios tampoco tienen desperdicio. El trío de padres que critican en las puertas del colegio a la entrada y salida son para echarles de comer aparte. En más de un momento pensé que si la Sarah se mordiera sin querer la lengua, se envenenaba fijo. Corrosiva es poco. Adeline, la suegra de Jenny es otra que también destila veneno por todos sus poros. When I passed the Radley Place for the fourth time that day –twice at a full gallop – my gloom had deepened to match the house. If the remainder of the school year were as fraught with drama as the first day, perhaps it would be mildly entertaining, but the prospect of spending nine months refraining from read¬ing and writing made me think of running away. Jem and I were accustomed to our father's last-will-and¬testament diction, and we were at all times free to interrupt Atticus for a translation when it was beyond our understanding. Tres mujeres forman el reparto principal: Marisa, Jenny e Irene. Además, hay bastantes personajes secundarios que harán las delicias del lector. Nos podemos encontrar desde personajes que odias hasta otros que anhelas en tu vida. Es muy variopinto el reparto y tiene cierta similitud con la realidad. Hay muchas Sarahs en el mundo.

Walter stood where he was, biting his lip. Jem and I gave up, and we were nearly to the Radley Place when Walter called, 'Hey, I'm comin'!' What a cleverly crafted story this is. Focusing on four different women, we are slowly drip fed snippets of information revealing the secrets at the heart of ordinary lives. The story is extremely well written and told from different characters perspectives. The characters are complex. I was hooked from the first chapter, hoping that Milo would be found safe and sound. Filled with red herrings, I found this book hard to put down. I highly recommend this book. By the time you get to the next stop, you've convinced yourself that everything will be fine. But you soon start to panic, because there aren't two children waiting for you on the platform. There's only one. Atticus said the Ewells had been the disgrace of Maycomb for three generations. None of them had done an honest day's work in his recollection. He said that some Christmas, when he was getting rid of the tree, he would take me with him and show me where and how they lived. They were people, but they lived like animals. 'They can go to school any time they want to, when they show the faintest symptom of wanting an education,' said Atticus. 'There are ways of keeping them in school by force, but it's silly to force people like the Ewells into a new environ¬ment —'The premise of this book was both tantalising and unnerving for me as a parent of young children (one of whom is a four year old boy just like the young child at the centre of this novel).