by Vikki Wakefield
SYNOPSIS
What happens to a family when a child goes missing?
In a busy street market, Abbie lets go of six-year-old Sarah’s hand.
She isn't a bad mother, just exhausted.
But when she turns around, her daughter is gone.
Six years on, Abbie is in love and getting married. But her fragile peace is constantly threatened: not knowing what happened to Sarah.
Then she receives a phone call from a man claiming to know what happened, but if Abbie tells anyone she’ll never find out the truth.
After You Were Gone is an edge-of-your-seat thriller that poses the question: How far would you go to find your child?
REVIEW
After leaving home at a young age and finding out she was pregnant, Abbie spent years trying to prove to her family that she could cope, that she could be a good mother. When her daughter Sarah was six years old, she took her to an outdoor market. Tired of dealing with her mood swings and constant whinging, when Sarah disappears Abbie decides to play her at her own game and doesn't bother to look for her. But then Sarah doesn't show up, and six years later, Abbie is still paying for that mistake. They never found her daughter and it has plagued every aspect of her life since. Then completely out of the blue, Abbie receives a phone call. Someone knows what happened and if there's any chance her daughter could still be alive she has no choice but to play along.
I honestly don't know why I keep making myself read thrillers based around child abductions. Since having my own children I can barely bring myself to keep turning the pages, but by the time I realise this I'm too invested to stop! That was certainly the case with After You Were Gone, the sense of loathing Abbie felt towards herself, the constant 'What if's?' and the guilt she was feeling were so real that I felt drained just reading about it.
One of the most successful things in this book was that it showed the impact a child abduction has on extended family and friends as well as just the parents. It's easy to forget that one person's grief can overshadow so many other events and relationships and this was a real focal point of this story. On top of this was the insane tension built around the phone calls she received and tasks Abbie was being forced into doing. I was honestly screaming at her in my head to tell somebody what was going on as her home life spiralled and she risked losing even more than she already had.
After You Were Gone is raw, stressful and full of emotion. It's the definition of a unputdownable thriller, so clear your schedules before starting this one. Perfect for fans of Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier and The Quiet People by Paul Cleave.
Thanks to Anne Cater @RandomTTours - No Exit Press @noexitpress and Vikki Wakefield @VikkiWakefield for the opportunity to read and review.
Genre: Thriller / Mystery
Publisher: No Exit Press
ISBN: 978-1915798022
Pages: 358pp
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