What Happened to Nina?

Nina Fraser and Simon Jordan are childhood sweethearts and live in a small town in Vermont. They seem to be perfectly suited and their respective families expect them to get married. But after a weekend away together in a cabin, Simon returns home alone alleging they had a row and broke up, that Nina told him she was interested in someone else. He says she arranged for a friend to collect her, but clearly this never happened. She’s disappeared.
 
Nina’s parents are convinced Simon knows where she is and what really happened, while his parents pull out all the stops to protect their son. Being far wealthier and more influential than the Frasers, the Jordans have the advantage. Detective Matthew Wright also has his suspicions about Simon, but proving them correct is another matter.
 
Is Simon guilty? Nina’s disappearance hits the headlines with the resulting plethora of social media armchair detectives, conspiracy theorists and vicious anonymous opinions. The Jordans even get their lawyers and PR agents to use this to their advantage to make it look as if not is all as it should be in the Fraser family, causing them additional distress.
 
I’ve now read most of this author’s thrillers as she has proved to be top-rate in her genre, but this stand-alone novel (several of her others are about an Irish detective) has to be her best so far. Her portrayal of the two mothers, one who has lost her child and is determined to know the truth, the other defending hers no matter the cost, is particularly skilful, and her hard-hitting dialogue as it relates to that curse of our modern world, “trial by media”, is exceptional.
 
If you’ve never read Dervla McTiernan, then this novel is a great place to start.
 
Four-and-a-half stars.
 
 
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