Published by HarperCollins UK/ Killer Reads

Synopsis:

A unique, exciting psychological thriller that will tug at your heartstrings, and keep you guessing until the very last page!

A MISSING GIRL…A SECRET TO BE UNCOVERED.

Edie and her identical twin Laura have always been best friends. So when Laura surprises Edie at the Mediterranean holiday resort where she’s working, Edie can’t wait for the partying to start! But then, Laura vanishes without a trace…

At the same time, in a country on the other side of the sea, Fatima and her twin daughters set out on a harrowing journey that only the strongest – and luckiest – survive.

Edie and Fatima’s lives are worlds apart, but now, their paths are set to collide, with devastating consequences. When Fatima hovers on the brink of survival, Edie must risk her own life to save her, and finally discover the truth about her missing sister.

I’m going to be honest here, this book did nothing for me.

The writing itself was actually pretty good, the author’s style is very easy to read and the chapters are laid out in alternating POVs until the character’s storylines intertwine near the end. This is something I actually quite enjoy in books, working out the common thread that binds the characters together – this one actually took me a little while to guess.

 The good: One of the POV characters, Fatima is a refugee from an unnamed country (it’s totally Syria) is making a desperate journey to absolutely anywhere that will see her twin daughter’s safe. She used to be a very normal woman, pootling about her ordinary life and has no idea the strength she has to save her children – this bit is well written in that it isn’t inspiration porn, this woman has non-heroic thoughts about how hard it is to care for a pair of toddlers while on the run, about having to stop caring for strangers to make sure her family survives. It’s not a happy story but she mama bears her way through her hardships.

 The bad: Edie. Oh Edie, Edie, Edie. This is the second POV character and I disliked everything about her. She’s a young English woman, working in a holiday resort in… I want to say Greece? She’s everything white privilege represents. I know she’s meant to be a counterpoint to Fatima, but she’s a vacuous tramp and I couldn’t find anything to empathise with. She looks down on anyone who isn’t as slim and beautiful as she is, pins everything on a man who is clearly uninterested/abusive and then does a series of stupid things. She took up 50% of this book, which was the 50% I really didn’t enjoy.

The ugly: The ending. Nope. Just nope. I wish this book had solely been about Fatima and her journey and Edie just kept out of it entirely – a thriller about a refugee’s journey would have valuable in its own right and something I could wholeheartedly get behind.