Nina Landry has a lot to do. She and her children are going on vacation for Christmas, all the way to the States. That’s a long way from their small island to the north of England. They moved to the island a couple of years previous, so her husband could follow his dream and open a restaurant. But that never materialized, and then the marriage fell apart, and for this year’s winter break, teacher Nina and her daughter Charlie and son Jackson are going to spend their days off school on the beach in Florida.
Today is the day they’re going to leave. In just hours, they’ll be driving to London, flying out of Heathrow, and truly getting away from it. But Nina has so much to do first, starting with that annoying rattle in her car engine. A quick stop at Rick’s house so he can take a look at it, and then she’ll be back home to pack and make sure her kids are packed up too. Charlie spend the night at a friend’s house, but she’d promised to be home and to be packing by the time Nina got back.
Only, she wasn’t.
When Nina finally got her car back from Rick, she heads home to find out that Charlie still hasn’t made it home, hasn’t cleaned up her room, hasn’t packed. Nina is furious with her, but before she can do much about that, she is interrupted. Friends descend on the house from what feels like all different directions. Charlie set it all up, an impromptu birthday party for Nina’s 40th. There’s cake, there’s alcohol, there’s a special photo of Charlie and Jackson that came in the post. But still no Charlie.
As time ticks on and Nina talks to Charlie’s friends at the party, she goes from angry to worried. It’s not like Charlie to disappear like that. Her friends don’t know where she is. She had been with them last night, but she left early in the morning to do her paper round. The more Nina learns about Charlie’s recent activities, the more worried she gets. Nina just can’t believe that Charlie would go missing of her own volition right before their trip.
Nina talks to the police, to Charlie’s boss at the newsagent’s, to her ex-husband, to anyone she can think of to try to figure out where Charlie has gone.Nina learns a detail and rushes in a new direction, only to find out that it’s a dead end. Over and over, throughout the day, Nina cases down any tip she can find, missing the flight, getting in the way of the police, doing whatever it takes to try to find her daughter. As the day grows to a close, will Nina be able to find her daughter in time, or was it always too late?
Husband and wife writing team Nicci French have crafted this nail-bitingly compelling novel of a mother in a desperate search for her daughter. Losing You is a tightly wound thriller that will leave you on the edge of your seat. I made the mistake of taking this to work, to read on my lunch break one week. I got so wrapped up in Nina’s story that there were two days in a row that I almost forgot to clock back in, lost as I was on Sandling Island, hoping to find a lost teenager.
I really loved this book and had a lot of trouble setting it aside and returning to real life. This may be the first novel by Nicci French that I’ve read, but it won’t be the last. This was a gripping reading experience, and I’m so glad I got to spend time in this world.
An advance copy of Losing You was provided by William Morrow through a Goodreads giveaway, with many thanks.
