You love your family. They make you feel safe. You trust them.
But should you…?
When fifteen-year-old Billy Wilkinson goes missing in the middle of the night, his mother, Claire, blames herself. She's not the only one. There isn't a single member of Billy's family that doesn't feel guilty. But the Wilkinson’s are so used to keeping secrets from one another that it isn't until six months later, after an appeal for information goes horribly wrong, that the truth begins to surface.
Claire is sure of two things – that Billy is still alive and that her friends and family had nothing to do with his disappearance.
A mother's instinct is never wrong. Or is it?
Sometimes those closest to us are the ones with the most to hide…

Cally Taylor is such an intriguing author to me! I've read her books since she released her rom-com Heaven Can Wait years ago, and since then she's written four more books, and switched genres, and now goes by the name C.L. Taylor. Heaven Can Wait is still one of my favourite books, but the genre switch has rocketed her writing to a whole other level, and I absolutely love her new thriller genre. I really enjoyed The Accident, I have The Lie to read, and I've just finished The Missing (hence why you're reading this review).

The Missing centres on the search for a young boy (well, teenager actually) Billy whose gone missing. Six months have passed since he disappeared and his mother Claire and the rest of the family are still none the wiser about where Billy went, what happened to him or even if he's still alive. The whole family is in disarray. Claire is suffering from blackouts, her other son Jake is drinking like there's no tomorrow, and Claire's husband Mark is quite a shifty fella. All Claire wants is to know what happened to her son, but as she closes in on the truth, is she really ready for the fallout?

The Missing is one of those books you just devour. It absolutely races along, at an outstanding pace, and suddenly you're halfway through the book and you're just as invested in Claire as to what happened to Billy. Interspersed through Claire's narrative are WhatsApp messages, between two people, and it helps to build the story of Billy's disappearance, letting you in on little clues and hints. Full disclosure: I pegged it fairly early on, in fact, I was actually expecting something else entirely, because surely it wasn't THAT? Well, yeah, it was. I was still surprised though, because like I said, there's part of me that thought that really wasn't what it was. 

This is very much one of those books where you don't trust anyone, because the whole family are suspicious. Though, saying that, I actually trusted Claire. Yes, she has her blackouts, or her fugues, as it's known, but I didn't find her that unreliable a narrator. I actually believed her absolutely. It was the rest of the family who gave me the heeby jeebies, and I was actually suspicious of Claire's best friend Liz for AGES, because she was just too darn friendly. I genuinely thought she would appear like a really bad villain at some point - sorry Liz! Honestly, I suspected everyone at one point or another, and it really messed with my head, especially as I had my own opinion, that I was like 75% sure of, but the way everyone was acting just made them all suspects. I really enjoyed the book. It was so well-paced, so well-plotted and I just flew through it. Cally really gets into the nitty gritty of her characters lives and this was such an enticing, enthralling read. 

Lisa Lutz has long been a favourite author of mine. She seems to have that skill where she can write any genre and still write an awesome book. Her Spellman books are my favourites (although we have a LOT to talk about in regards to Isabel and Henry and the next generation of Spellman books?) and I was so intrigued to see how different The Passenger would be. It is obviously vastly different. In fact, I probably wouldn't have known the same author wrote both books, if Lisa's name wasn't on the front, but that's not a bad thing and I appreciate that Lisa just writes what she wants, and doesn't have to publish under fifty different names to do so (because keeping track of pseudonyms is NOT FUN as a reader). If one of my fave authors writes a book under a different name I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT IT, but that's a whole other blog post.

The Passenger is such an intriguing novel. Because I knew Tanya/Amelia/Debra/she of the many names was she of the many names, I wasn't sure if she'd be a reliable narrator or not, but actually Tanya (she opens as Tanya, so we'll stick with that) is a pretty decent narrator, and I never once disbelieved her or felt she was telling fibs. You know as soon as you start the book that it's the kind of book that will have you on edge - any book where the main character must shed her identities like a snake skin, and with such alarming regularity, is clearly in PLENTY of trouble, and boy, Tanya doesn't half get herself into some sticky situations, starting with her now-dead-husband Frank. She does what any sensible, paranoid person would be and she runs, and as such we get to witness an amazing cross-country journey, as Tanya tries to outrun all of her old lives and identities.

I actually really enjoyed The Passenger, it's intriguing to read of someone who literally couldn't care less about changing her identity at the drop of  a hat, who is so fine-tuned to doing it, it's like blinking to her. I was mostly just deadly curious as to what started the whole thing, and why someone named Ryan was trying to get in touch, and what the story was. It was a pretty freaking good story, actually, I put bits of it together, but never the whole thing. Tanya has certainly lived an interesting life, and the characters she meets on the run after Frank's death is insane. Blue literally confused the life out of me - very much the unreliable one. I legit had no idea of her motives, ever. NO IDEA. I still don't, quite frankly. She was a weird one. I liked Domenic, but the old softy in me is always happy with a hint of romance/spark/chemistry/whatever, even if he ended up a bit ehhhh worse for wear, shall we say.

The Passenger is one of those books you just can't put down. Tanya is such an intriguing narrator, with the kind of life people dream of, but actually isn't as interesting as it sounds. It actually sounds like a real hassle, and I would be literally terrified of ever leaving a room if I lived Tanya's life. But I loved that she just got on with it, and it made for a fascinating, gripping story. This is such a good thriller, I would recommend it to all. Lisa Lutz is one of the finest fiction writers around, and this is a high calibre thriller.

The body of the head teacher of an exclusive Devon school is found hanging from the rafters in the assembly hall.
Hours earlier he’d received a package, and only he could understand the silent message it conveyed. It meant the end.
As Exeter suffers a rising count of gruesome deaths, troubled DS Imogen Grey and DS Adrian Miles must solve the case and make their city safe again.
But as they’re drawn into a network of corruption, lies and exploitation, every step brings them closer to grim secrets hidden at the heart of their community.
​And once they learn what’s motivating this killer, will they truly want to stop him?

In all my time reading books, I've never read a book that comes with a health warning, but apparently, The Teacher is not for the faint-hearted. It's quite graphic, don't get me wrong, and I've read of people who have put the book down, but I actually didn't think it was as bad as it was. About 16% in there's a fairly graphic scene, and thinking back on it, it kind of makes me want to puke, but the rest are sort of left to your imagination. So if you can get past that first scene, you'll actually have no bother with the rest of the book. But if you're prone to squeamishness, this book probably isn't for you.

I actually thoroughly enjoyed The Teacher, it's a first class thriller, and it took ages for me to understand why we were reading from so many different points of view, and who all the players were in the novel. But once you understand what's going on, it's the most amazing read! Honestly, it's truly such a clever novel and Katerina Diamond is a wicked good storyteller, and I love her flair for the dramatic and gruesome. Not only was it such a good story, full stop, but it leaves you with the worst moral quandary ever. Actually, I was entirely satisfied with the ending, but that's all I'll say because spoilers, obviously. This is one of the rare thriller novels to not be let down by its ending. 

This was honestly so good. I had no idea where Abbey came into the novel, and when I did, I was gobsmacked. Gobsmacked. Ditto Parker, whom I loved. And I feared for the ENTIRE novel for his dog, Sally. ENTIRE NOVEL. If anything was to make me put the book down, it would have been dog torture, and it literally terrified me. Their story was amazing, though, and surprised me completely. The coppers on the other hand were awesome. I loved DS Grey and DS Miles. I'm hoping this is the start of a BEYOOTIFUL partnership (and maybe more?!?!?!) where they solve crimes in their own, amazing, enjoyable way. 

The Teacher is a must-read. (As long as you're not squeamish, and if you are squeamish, I'm afraid you're missing out on an amazing book.) This was so not like any other thriller I've ever read before, and reminded me just a touch of the earlier Rizzoli & Isles novels by Tess Gerritsen. The Surgeon in particular. That one had me gripped and this one had that same sort of feel to it, but it's not like any of the newer wave of thrillers like Gone Girl or The Girl On The Train, or any other Girl-related book. This sits in a league of its own, and I LOVED it.

Lucy Dawson has always erred on the side of darker fiction, and her new novel You Sent Me A Letter is no exception. It's extremely dark, with a twisty plot, and you're never quite sure who to trust, or who gave Sophie that letter to read out at 8pm, on her birthday, although after a certain revelation, I nailed my colours to the mast, and as it turned out I was right. GO ME. I am the best at guessing who did it, and I was right again.

I've been a fan of Lucy's ever since her debut novel His Other Lover, and followed that with What My Best Friend Did and The One That Got Away. The only one of her books I haven't read is Little Sister, but I've got it on my bookshelf. You Sent Me A Letter is yet another short, quick read from Lucy, which I like as it keeps the tension going, and it's like reading a book while you're on speed, I was flipping the pages that quickly, because I could literally feel Sophie's panic, as she tried to figure out just what the hell was going on, and what revelations lay in that letter.

I do, however, wonder why Sophie didn't just read the letter straight away. That genuinely baffled me, but I suppose if a fella breaks into your house, delivers you a letter, and threatens your nearest and dearest, you just do what he wants, which was for it to be read at 8pm, but the curiosity would have genuinely killed me. I could feel the tension dripping off the pages, and I kept getting so frustrated as Sophie's day turned out to be the longest day in history, or so it seemed, as 8pm took forever to come around! 

I genuinely didn't like this book, it's SO hard to enjoy a book when all you feel is tension, and I felt tension to the maximum while reading. I understood Sophie was harassed, but the way she kept snapping at her loved ones, and her weird behaviour, I couldn't understand why she wasn't carted away by the men in white coats, she literally acted so strangely. It most definitely was one of those edge-of-your-seat reads. I couldn't possibly put it down, because I wanted to know what the heck was going on. You Sent Me A Letter was a pulse-pounding read, a roller-coaster of a read and even though I knew who the culprit was, and even though Sophie did some terrible things, it was still a terrible way to get revenge, but it was so, so engrossing.

The Widow is supposed to be 2016's Gone Girl, or The Girl On The Train. Can I be the millionth person to say I'm SICK of books being referred to like that. The Widow is nothing like either of those two books, it just so happens to be a psychological thriller which obviously is where the comparison comes from. Just let books be what they want to be, publishers. Stop making them all the same, or putting them in the same box.

Now that that's out of the way (I feel SO much better) I can talk about the book itself. The Widow is very much an intriguing read, because I've never read a novel before like this one, and you do wonder when it comes to people like the Taylors', what kind of wife or woman can stand by someone who's accused of something so horrific? A wishy-washy woman with no backbone is the answer, and so we have Jean Taylor. Not to be rude but when the book started, and she was talking about her simple life and simple job, I thought maybe there was something wrong with her? But no, she just lacks backbone, and while I enjoyed her narrative, I didn't like her. I genuinely expected some kind of mouth-dropping twist at the end, that Jean was not all she seemed, and I was kind of disappointed she was the same the whole novel.

The real story for me was that of Kate, the journalist trying to get to the bottom of Jean's story, and of Bob Sparkes, the detective trying to find Bella. You really root for both of them, because you really want to know what happened to Bella. Were they wrong about Glen? Right? Where did Bella go? A child doesn't just vanish into thin air. And Bob's dedication was to be applauded, because you want an officer to go as far as he can go to try and get answers. And I liked Kate, too. Her dogged determination was to be admired, and she seemed far nicer than your typical journalist. 

I've long said that authors who write psychological thrillers are crap at endings. They very rarely get it right, and usually leave you with a ton of questions and this was the case again. We got some sort of resolution, but I kinda wanted to know what happened after that. And I still thought there was something amiss about Jean Taylor. That she wasn't as sweet and innocent as she made herself out to be, and I just waited and waited for the gob-smacking twist that was never to appear. That's another problem with these books, you expect a twist and end up disappointed when there's a relatively mundane ending. For all that I've said I liked this book, it kept me reading, I just thought Jean Taylor was the most unreliable narrator I've ever met and I wouldn't trust her as far as I could throw her.