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Lexie leaves her three-year-old daughter Bella with the other mothers in her playgroup while she pops out to the shop for biscuits. When she returns six minutes later, Bella has disappeared. None of the other mothers or children realise she is no longer there.  She has just vanished.

And so the nightmare begins for Lexie and her husband Marty as the mystery become ever more tangled the longer the little girl is missing.

Could Lexie have left the gate open accidentally so that Bella wandered off on her own? Does an unexpected visit to the playgroup by one of the husbands hold the clue? What are the motivations behind one of the mothers, Tara, and her secret blog? Why did schoolteacher Brendan lie about his whereabouts? And what about Lexie and Marty themselves - why did they move from England and have to change their surname? All these clues and many more form the background to this story. And then there's the jaded cop, Caruso, who fears the worst has come to this small town near Australia's capital city, Canberra.

This is a fast-paced and mostly well-constructed thriller (ideal for wintry afternoons!) and it certainly keeps you guessing with nearly every character having secrets or up to no good. The setting of Canberra was familiar to me, having myself been part of similar mothers' groups there in the past, and for those who know the city, the town Merrigang has aspects of Hall, Tharwa, Murrumbateman and Gundaroo. The inclusion of "trial by social media" with its trolls and hysteria is an all too accurate reflection of what can happen in our times when a child goes missing. Lexie's neurosis and wavering doubts about Marty which had their foundation in an earlier event felt overworked at times but 
fortunately, unlike real life, there is a happy - if slightly too pat - outcome to this story otherwise I wouldn't recommend it as a light read.


3 1/2 stars

(Australian booksellers below, the book does not appear to be available in other countries as yet.)

Booktopia
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Amazon.com.au

It is the late 1960s somewhere in country Victoria, Australia.

Farmer Tom Hope’s unreliable wife Trudy has just abandoned him on some sort of whim that he doesn’t understand. He soldiers on alone as best he can, making lists of things that perhaps he should have done, or done better, in order to keep her happy.

And then just as spontaneously sometime later Trudy returns to him. Although she’s pregnant to another man, the kind-hearted Tom takes her back. When little Peter is born, Tom discovers that he was meant to be a father and he and the lad become close.

All this is again thrown into jeopardy when Trudy becomes a born-again Christian and spirits little Peter away to a cult commune on Phillip Island. Tom is bereft until a Jewish woman, Hannah Babel, arrives in town, with an ambition to set up a bookshop.

Hannah is a survivor of Auschwitz and the subsequent refugee turmoils in Eastern Europe followed by the 1956 Hungarian uprising. But she keeps all of this to herself, especially the loss of her only son Michael to the gas chambers.

Although much older than him, Tom is drawn to Hannah’s exuberance and vivid personality and they are soon a couple. Meanwhile, Hannah sets up her bookshop and gives the local district much to gossip about, although in her heart she struggles with her past and the heartache of great loss.

More dramas follow involving little Peter and his mother, with further separations and angst (including a few murders) before all is finally resolved.

The narrative flows beautifully and makes for compulsive reading. Tom’s character is a delight, a man who is really too thoughtful and sentimental to be a farmer yet who sticks to the path he has chosen without giving up.

Peter is worldly beyond his years although his expeditions to try and be reunited with Tom do seem a little implausible for a lad of only six or seven.

Trudy is an unstable air-head, but Hannah is difficult to like in spite of everything she has endured. Eventually, her bookshop does succeed but there are gaps in her history that are glossed over, such as how she finds her way out of various near-death situations to return to Budapest unscathed, and where she gets so much money to buy her bookshop. Also, although one should have sympathy for her, her determination to pander to her grief without care of what it does to Tom means she can alienate the reader.

There are a few dark passages but there is also charm and comfort to be found in this book, especially in its descriptions of the ordinariness of country-town Australia and the goodwill of its people.

Four stars.


(Various covers on these sites)
 
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Amazon.co.uk

​Edie is not unduly saddened when she learns that her former mother-in-law, Anna, has died. She blames the woman for the death of her only child, Daniel, and the subsequent break-up of her marriage to Anna’s son, Joe.

This is the powerful scenario at the heart of this book and when Edie is dismayed to discover that she and Joe are joint inheritors of Anna’s ancestral home in Sicily, it sets up a dramatically fluctuating story that will challenge Edie to face her demons and ultimately alter nearly everything that she believes to be true.

But this is so much more than a novel about complex contemporary relationships and healing, there are also mysteries and crimes, all tinged with shades of the gothic, and even echoes of the paranormal.

The descriptions of the decrepit and ghostly Villa della Madonna del Mare and its gardens are exquisite and spine-tingling. Yet at the same time the author doesn’t detract from the plastic-strewn seedy side of modern-day Sicily, with its undercurrents of dark dealings by the Mafiosi, family secrets and revenge.

None of the characters is perfect which makes them all interesting, and the ways they find hope and new beginnings come together in a pleasing way. Although the main villain is fairly obvious from early on, there is an unexpected relationship twist that adds another dimension to Edie’s opinions about Anna.

I often tend to gloss over too many lavish descriptive passages in books, but the skill created here makes them all a pleasure to read in full as they help you to absorb the atmosphere and tension.

It is a truly satisfying read! I galloped through this in a couple of days and will definitely look for more titles by author Louise Douglas.

Five stars.


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