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Those who know me, would understand how much a missing child arc would get to me. Here too, Maya Duncan went missing years ago and it took her mother Kay Duncan 7 hours to raise alarm. Now 15 years hence, Phoebe knocked on Kay’s door claiming to be the missing Maya. But a shocking discovery was followed by Kay committing suicide. It was all upto Phoebe to untangle the knots that her twisted her life.

My first book by author Sam Hepburn, the story started with a bang. I loved drumming up various possibilities of what could have happened. The author got my thriller-y senses tingling high as the scenarios kept mounting up. The suspense was raised to a pitch when Kay committed suicide and that left me shocked as Phoebe was left with no anchor and no truth to give her a identiy.

Where I would have lost hope, Phoebe was more determined and strong-willed. She didn’t lose hope. She used her resources to get hold of old history and truth was slowly unveiled. Therein lay my niggles too. The story went into cult and other aspects of Kay’s past which led to more characters, and I had to concentrate hard to keep them in line. Though the reveals were good, but the suspense went down as the crux of the matter was still – Who was Phoebe and what happened to Maya?

The writing was great, slightly staccato in places, but the red herrings, the closed alleys, and the hidden truths made the story pop out. The last few pages brought home the truths that I had already suspected, so the journey to reach it was worth the time spent in reading it.

Quite entertaining.

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Book Blurb

The disappearance of five-year-old Maya Duncan remains one of the most famous missing person cases in British history. She vanished without a trace. Until now…

Fifteen years after the abduction, Phoebe knocks on Kay Duncan’s door, clutching a yellow rainhat with Maya’s name stitched into the back. Phoebe is convinced that she is Maya Duncan, and that the woman behind the door is her real mother.

When Phoebe sees Kay, the memories come flooding back, and it seems that mother and daughter are to be reunited at last. But when a shocking discovery shatters the fragile relationship they have begun to build, Kay commits suicide, leaving Phoebe riddled with guilt.

Alone and unanchored, Phoebe travels to London to dig into Kay’s life, hoping to uncover the truth behind her own identity. But as she pieces together Kay’s past, Phoebe discovers a disturbing link to the woman who raised her, and a terrible secret that even now could put her life in danger.

Publication Date: October 2020

I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher, and this is my journey into its pages, straight from the heart!! STRICTLY HONEST AND UNBIASED.

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