Margot Lewis is the agony aunt for The Cambridge Examiner. Her advice column, Dear Amy, gets all kinds of letters – but none like the one she’s just received:
Dear Amy,
I don’t know where I am. I’ve been kidnapped and am being held prisoner by a strange man. I’m afraid he’ll kill me.
Please help me soon,
Bethan Avery
Bethan Avery has been missing for years. This is surely some cruel hoax. But, as more letters arrive, they contain information that was never made public. How is this happening? Answering this question will cost Margot everything . .
This has the premise of a great book. As soon as I saw this on NetGalley, I was keen to read it.
This book, for me, started with a bang. We witness the kidnapping of Katie Browne and then we are introduced to Margot. We see the arrival of the first letter, and once Margot takes it to the police a chain of events is set in place that really draws you in.
We work out that the cases, though years apart, are linked. The question is how. Margot seems to be the key, but she cannot say why.
Once we get halfway in, a rather implausible event takes place and, after this point, I felt things unravelled somewhat. A lot happens very quickly in the second half of the book; not all of it is prepared for, and some of it seems to contradict what has come beforehand. The issues surrounding the central characters of Katie, Bethan and Margot are resolved, but they seem to be less engaging.
Having started with a bang, this had a bit of a hiccup halfway through and ended on a rather sorry whimper for me.