Daughter by Jane Shemilt

THE NIGHT OF THE DISAPPEARANCE
She used to tell me everything. 
They have a picture.
It'll help. 
But it doesn't show the way her hair shines so brightly it looks like sheets of gold. She has a tiny mole, just beneath her left eyebrow. She smells very faintly of lemons. 
She bites her nails. 
She never cries. 
She loves autumn, I wanted to tell them. She collects leaves, like a child does. She is just a child. 

FIND HER. ONE YEAR LATER
Naomi is still missing. Jenny is a mother on the brink of obsession. The Malcolm family is in pieces.
Is finding the truth about Naomi the only way to put them back together?
Or is the truth the thing that will finally tear them apart?

When I read the synopsis for Daughter my curiosity was already piqued and I was hoping that this was going to be a truly gripping read.

Every parent’s worst nightmare is for their child to go missing and this is what happens to Dr Jenny Malcolm. Daughter Naomi has not come home from her theatre but no one knows if she was kidnapped or went willingly or if she is dead or alive. As Jenny works with the police to try and find some leads to help with the case other secrets are uncovered but will these leads help to find Naomi?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it did take me a few chapters to get used to the layout of the book where it keeps jumping back and forward to the time of the disappearance to a year later and it is the structure of the book that loses a star for the rating because I thought this was a gripping read but it had the potential to be so much more as I feel that the suspense could have been heightened if it was to have just been told from the time of the disappearance and gradually built up to a year later.

What the author manages to do so well is to conceal the real story behind the disappearance and even though she feeds us small clues it's not until you find out what actually happened that you then look back and see that certain events held clues and this just shows what a talented writing skill the author has. I was suspicious of everyone and it wasn’t until I was about a third of the way through that I had a strong suspicion that I knew who was involved and what had happened but I hold my hands up and say I was completely off track and reading the last chapter I resembled a goldfish with mouth wide open in surprise.

The author managed to deliver this book at a perfect pace with no feeling of the book being drawn out at all through the book it was subtly eventful the whole way through so I found the storyline held my attention the whole way through.

I made the mistake of starting this book before I went to bed and needless to say I had read 276 pages in one hit because I was so engrossed in the storyline. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes the challenge of guessing the “who did it” I would be surprised if anyone worked this one out. I look forward to this authors future releases.

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