My Rating ~ Five Stars

RELEASE DATE: 12 July 2022

Format: E-ARC

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

Pages: 358

Blurb

When actress and model Allison Langley leaves her former rockstar husband, Christopher, in the middle of the night, it’s all her Oak Hill neighbors can talk about. The gossip comes to an abrupt halt when five-year-old Billy Barnes goes missing on his walk home from kindergarten.

Billy’s mother, Rachel, blames herself for being at work and letting her only child walk alone. Cassidy, Billy’s teenage babysitter, was also late to arrive on the afternoon he disappeared and blames herself for his disappearance.

As the clock ticks down, police are unable to find any trace of Billy, forcing Rachel to ponder the enemies she’s made in their well-off suburb. Could it be one of her neighbors who stole her son? Would they abduct Billy to hurt her? How easy would it be to take a child while the parents or nannies are distracted?

When another child goes missing, the town is put under a microscope as the police try to get to the bottom of the disappearances. Will they be able to find the two children, or will it be too late? What secrets lie at the heart of this tragedy, and how far will one go to keep those dangerous secrets buried?

Review

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books, for providing me with a copy of this book, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review!

This is a book about our perception of people we think have the perfect life. About never knowing the private struggles someone might be going through, no matter how rosy things seem on the outside.

When Allison and Chris move to an idyllic town, they catch everyone’s eye. The actress and musician with an enviable marriage. No-one knows about their fertility struggles though.

Cassidy is a baby sitter with a secret. One that may have cost her her future and a little boy his life.

Rachael was never really comfortable letting her 5 year old boy walk to school alone and she should have trusted her instinct. She also shouldn’t have lied to the police when she said there were no issues in her marriage.

When Billy goes missing, the small town is left reeling, and pointing fingers at each other to assign blame. This is not the sort of thing they’d expect to happen where they live.

This was such a gripping mystery. It was one of those books I walked around reading while I was doing everything else, I just had to know how it ended! Told from several points of view, the story is cleverly woven together to reveal all of the back stories, casting suspicion on just about everyone.

I’ve been having a bit of a slow reading month, with not much really grabbing me, so I’m glad I ended it on a fast paced twisty thriller like this one!