Then She Was Gone – Lisa Jewell

She was fifteen, her mother’s golden girl. 

She had her whole life ahead of her. 
And then, in the blink of an eye, Ellie was gone.

Ten years on, Laurel has never given up hope of finding Ellie. And then she meets a charming and charismatic stranger who sweeps her off her feet.

But what really takes her breath away is when she meets his nine-year-old daughter.

Because his daughter is the image of Ellie.

Now all those unanswered questions that have haunted Laurel come flooding back.

What really happened to Ellie? And who still has secrets to hide?

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Then She Was Gone is the first Lisa Jewell book I have read – and it was rather good.

Laurel’s 15 year old daughter Ellie had disappeared between her home and the library some 10 years earlier. Laurel’s perfect life was never the same after that. She never believed that Ellie had simply run away just before her exams. Ellie was a good student, seemed happy.

Laurel now lives alone, her grown up children living their own lives and her husband now with a new partner. Ellie’s disappearance had a devastating effect on the whole family and Laurel’s relationships with her husband and remaining children.

However one day a man enters a cafe where Laurel is having lunch. They exchange a few words and eventually Laurel goes on a date with Floyd. He’s polite, clever and charming and Laurel finds herself swept off her feet by him. He seems just perfect and Laurel is starting to enjoy life again. However when she eventually meets his young, rather precocious and unusual daughter Poppy she is struck by how much Poppy resembles Ellie at that age and she starts to question her daughter’s disappearance again.

But is the charming Floyd just too perfect? Is he hiding something? Laurel’s son’s girlfriend thinks he is. She says she gets bad vibes from him and that there is something dark and hidden beneath the surface. But Laurel doesn’t really approve of Jake’s girlfriend.

The story is told by several characters, including Ellie at the time she disappeared, and the person who was involved in that disappearance (who is revealed quite early on in the book).

It’s a pretty good psychological thriller/ family drama. It got quite ‘dark’ in parts and there are some very good twists. Although it jumps from past to present and between characters, it is well written and isn’t difficult to follow. The characters are good although you might not like all of them. Although the reader knows who was involved in Ellie’s disappearance from quite early in the book, there is a good build up of tension over time, and some quite disturbing and sinister twists making for a gripping story.  I  got very engrossed and really enjoyed it. It’s one of those that are hard to put down.

[My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a digital review copy]

Bloody January – Alan Parks

When a teenage boy shoots a young woman dead in the middle of a busy Glasgow street and then commits suicide, Detective Harry McCoy is sure of one thing. It wasn’t a random act of violence.

With his new partner in tow, McCoy uses his underworld network to lead the investigation but soon runs up against a secret society led by Glasgow’s wealthiest family, the Dunlops.

McCoy’s boss doesn’t want him to investigate. The Dunlops seem untouchable. But McCoy has other ideas . . .

In a helter-skelter tale – winding from moneyed elite to hipster music groupies to the brutal gangs of the urban wasteland – Bloody January brings to life the dark underbelly of 1970s Glasgow and introduces a dark and electrifying new voice in Scottish noir.

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Bloody January is the first in a new series of crime novels from debut author Alan Parks.  It’s a very good debut novel, set in Glasgow in January 1973.  It’s well written and it captures the time and place extremely well. McCoy’s Glasgow is a cold, dark, miserable place populated by violent criminals, drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes, the lost and the dispossessed. It certainly isn’t a nice, cosy detective novel. It’s gritty, dark and bloody.

It opens with Detective Harry McCoy making his way through Barlinnie prison having been summoned there (apparently) by an inmate, who tells McCoy that a girl called Lorna is going to be killed the next day in the city centre.

Despite managing to identify ‘Lorna’ while waiting to speak to her she is shot dead, in front of McCoy and his new sidekick Wattie, by a teenage boy who then shoots himself. Later that day, they find out the prisoner who told McCoy about the girl being killed has been found in the prison showers with his throat slit. No witnesses of course.

There is not much to go on to link the deaths. No obvious connection but McCoy has contacts in the criminal underworld and his enquiries eventually lead him to the home of the very wealthy Dunlop family. Despite his suspicions he might have, he is ordered to stay away from the Dunlops. The whole thing reeks of corruption and the possibility that the rich and well-connected are above the law.

Like many fictional detectives, Harry McCoy is somewhat flawed. Possibly more than most. He is potentially an alcoholic, uses recreational drugs, frequents prostitutes and associates with criminals. I’m not sure if I’ve read a book where the main character seems to get so many ‘doings’ or severe beatings and yet still manages to keep his job and continue to solve cases. There are strong references to problems in his past but we don’t know the whole story. He’s known gangster Stevie Cooper since they were boys and gets information and contacts through him but at what cost?

‘Wattie’ has been transferred from another area to experience big city police work, and is assigned to McCoy to shadow him and learn the ropes. He’s young, bright and keen. McCoy didn’t want to be lumbered with someone but had no choice in the matter. Wattie has really been thrown in at the deep end with three deaths on his first day out with McCoy.

Harry McCoy doesn’t have many redeeming features and yet there is something interesting about him. I’m hoping this is just the first book in the series and that perhaps in time he will get his act together and start to sort out his personal life.

An excellent violent, dark, crime novel.

[My thanks to NetGalley and Canongate Books for providing an advance copy of this title]

How Hard Can It Be? – Allison Pearson

Kate Reddy is counting down the days until she is fifty, but not in a good way. Fifty, in Kate’s mind, equals invisibility. And with hormones that have her in shackles, teenage children who need her there but won’t talk to her and ailing parents who aren’t coping, Kate is in the middle of a sandwich that she isn’t even allowed to eat because of the calories.

She’s back at work after a big break at home, because somebody has to bring home the bacon now that her husband Rich has dropped out of the rat race to master the art of mindfulness. But just as Kate is finding a few tricks to get by in her new workplace, her old client and flame Jack reappears – complicated doesn’t even begin to cover it.

This is a coming of age story for turning fifty. It’s about so much more than a balancing act; it’s about finding out who you are and what you need to feel alive when you’ve got used to being your own last priority. And every page will leave you feeling that there’s a bit of Kate Reddy in all of us.

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How Hard Can It Be? is a real treat and you may find yourself laughing out loud and crying in equal measure.

Kate Reddy is not without a few problems – teenagers and their problems (do you even know what a ‘belfie’ is?); an old house in need of upgrading and almost constant attention from Piotr the builder; a ‘drop out’ husband trying to find himself by studying mindfulness; ageing and ailing parents; trying to get back into work after years away; a big birthday (50) looming; and the menopause is approaching along with the forgetfulness that often accompanies it.  Modern parenting is definitely not easy.

She had once been a successful fund manager and now really needs to get back into the workplace and start earning to support the family. To give herself a chance of getting a job she knocks a few years off her age (and the ages of her children) and gets a bit creative with her CV.

She ends up getting a job at her old workplace where no one recognises her, the company having changed hands twice while she’s been away and her old colleagues long gone.  Her boss and colleagues are all so much younger and less experienced but she keeps quiet about her earlier successful career there.

Of course it seems her boss is trying to set her up to fail.  She gets the difficult clients and there are clashes with work and family life (and a few dilemmas).  It’s definitely not easy juggling work and the demands of family life and trying to keep everyone happy.

I think everyone will identify with at least a part of Kate.  I celebrated the big birthday long ago (and the big one after that). I was never really a career person; my children are grown up with children of their own and yet I can still recognise and sympathise with Kate’s predicament.

It’s brilliantly written and very funny but also quite sad.  Kate is a wonderfully vivid character, in fact all the characters (good and ‘bad’) have their parts to play.  It’s a really good, entertaining read.  I loved it.
How Hard Can it Be? was published on 21 September 2017.

[My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a review copy]