This is one of those books that when you pick it up you just don’t want to put it down. Alex Lake has created a brilliant, well plotted story. With believable characters that you can really relate to, and if you are a parent, you will feel empathy for the mother, father, brother and of course the girl gone missing herself.
On the 7th July 2006 Maggie left her home, she was only going a short distance to see her cousin, but as she crossed the park she was grabbed. When she woke up she was in a room with no windows, a room with not much in it, no bath, no toilet, there was a bucket type thing with a toilet lid on it, and a separate bucket with water to drink and to be used for washing.
The Coopers are an average normal family, Martin, the father, Sandra, the mother, Maggie the fifteen year old daughter, and James the fourteen year old son. The night that Maggie disappeared changed all of their lives, their hopes and dreams for the future. Nothing was the same.
Maggie has been held captive for 12 years in one room, she has seven days to save her son Max who will be 3 in seven days time, Maggie knows the man will come and take Max on his third birthday, she knows this because he has taken two other sons Seb and Leo from her on their third birthdays, she doesn’t know where they are, where did he take them? Maggie knows that she couldn’t handle Max being taken. She is marking off the days on the calendar, she has written to keep track of the days and years.
The story is told through the points of view of Martin, Sandra, James and Maggie, also the occasional chapter is D.I. Jane Wynne. Who originally took on the case and it’s haunted her over the twelve years. We go back and forth from the present which is July 2018 back to July 2006, there are sections at different times in between this for instance four years earlier, then the story goes to Maggie, or one of the other family members some of the time it is a chapter about each one of them, to show what is happening in their lives, how the loss of Maggie has affected or changed them. Like a domino effect that one action, has caused all the dominoes to fall one by one, changing all their lives forever.
Despite the timeline being written like this you never lose track of who it is, when it is, or what’s happening, which can sometimes be the case when stories are told from different points of view, with this book it works really well. We see how devastated the parents and James are when Maggie initially goes missing, we are also told of Maggie’s thoughts, she wonders how her parents are doing, are they still together, are they still alive, does James have a girlfriend, or is he married. Then we are back in the present and Maggie is crossing off another day as it gets closer to Max’s birthday.
I really enjoyed reading this, I love the family, I was rooting for them, for everything they go through. The effect this one thing had on them all as individuals. We know who has taken Maggie, so it’s not one of those books that there is the big reveal at the end. Which is surprising in some ways as that would have added more tension to the story. But I think the author did it this way to show that you don’t know what is going on behind a closed door, whether it’s your next door neighbour or someone you know from the past, or someone local. People are so wrapped up in their own lives now that we don’t have time to speak to neighbours, or notice anything different, or suspicious happening nearby. Although I think this person had worked it all out anyway, and was determined not to be caught, and enjoyed taunting DI Wynne, almost every year. I was in tears at the end and for the last few chapters my heart was pounding. I was so engrossed in the story.
We know these things can happen in real life, the documentaries are out there, where girls have been held for 10, 11 12 years and the parents have thought their child to be dead, but they have been held in captivity, or been trafficked,
As I was reading it I was thinking of how I would have coped if anything like this had ever happened to my daughter, and I don’t think I could have handled it, it’s one of those things that you hope will never happen to you.
A fantastic very well written book I certainly give this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. I also look forward to the next book from this author. I highly recommend you give this book a read.
I would like to thank netgalley and Harper Collins publishers for letting me have an ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest, fair and unbiased review.
