Stolen - Rebecca Muddiman

‘How had this become her life? It wasn’t even a life. She felt like a ghost.’

Abby Henshaw is on her way to visit a friend after a doctor’s appointment with her eight-month-old baby daughter, Beth. The journey she makes will change her life forever. Suffering a horrendous assault and abandoned at the roadside in a remote spot in the country, Abby faces not only the after effects of the brutal attack, but also comes to a terrifying realisation about Beth – she is gone, stolen. DI Michael Gardner investigates the case and as he looks into Abby’s life and those closest to her, he starts to uncover huge secrets amongst them, and he also finds himself forming a bond with Abby and unable to let the case go even when any leads seem to have gone cold.

Rebecca Muddiman successfully portrays how Abby’s life is utterly destroyed by Beth’s disappearance, and how she is tormented by the secrets she kept and the decisions she made. She is reduced to scouring public places in the vain hope of ever seeing Beth again, and when there is new hope she depicts the struggle Abby has to convince those around her to believe her and not let this lead slip away.

This powerful debut is a compelling, page-turner of a crime novel from a talented new author. The story slowly builds in tension, I was a bit keen for it move slightly quicker at times in the middle, but when the revelations come towards the end, I felt they were powerful and shocking. The chapters are very short and keep the story ticking along at a good pace. The plot is always central to this novel – the reader questions what the outcome will be throughout – but the novel is also very much character driven, as we get a strong insight into Abby’s drastically altered life and into DI Gardner’s rather empty life and his mindset as he continues to doggedly pursue this case for Abby, despite it having been shelved and seemingly without any hopes of resolution, whilst under pressure to solve his other cases. 

I was really keen to discover the ending to this story and learn if what I had suspected was true; there are clues for us but the whole truth when it comes is more shocking than I had thought. I look forward to reading more from this author. 

Published by Moth Publishing and Winner of the Northern Crime Competition 2012

I originally reviewed this book for Newbooks magazine.

You can find the author on twitter @RebeccaMuddiman and visit her blog here.

Human Remains - Elizabeth Haynes

‘I wanted to go home and lock the door and not open it again.’

This is the third novel from crime writer Elizabeth Haynes and for me this is her darkest yet. Annabel works as an analyst for the police. She is lonely, with just her cat Lucy for company at home, and a few visits a week to her housebound mum to separate her days. She works hard, and doesn’t have any other close relationships, seeing the friendships amongst others at work go on around her without being part of them, feeling rather disconnected.

Having made a grim discovery in the house next door to hers one day, she realises on her return to work that similar deaths are happening in an alarmingly high number in the locality, and takes this information to her bosses at the police station. Why are so many people dying alone at home, not being discovered for some time after their deaths? Though seeming unsuspicious and raising little interest at first– these are deaths after all, not murders, aren’t they? – not least a local journalist, Sam Everett.

Through other lonely, troubled voices that are heard briefly in the story, and primarily through Annabel, this novel examines loneliness and the vulnerability of it, whether society should do more for those living alone, making us question our duty to others, and it makes you wonder about both choosing to be alone and ending up that way. As the neighbour of someone who has been found dead and alone comments ‘I think it’s terrible that in this day and age nobody notices you’re gone…People should take more care of each other.’ This is not to say that the novel offers no hope in this regard; in fact there are people who demonstrate the very opposite and offer kindness and friendship just when it is most needed.

Haynes has created a cold, chilling character for the criminal in this novel. She takes us into his mind; we know that from the outside he looks just like anyone else, he goes to work, goes about his life, no one would know what else he does in private: ‘If you met me in the street I dare say you would not be unduly worried by my presence…’ But inside that twisted mind are the thoughts of man playing with the lives of others and relishing what he does, even believing he is helping them to escape, using his own particular methods: ‘You want to know how I do it, don’t you? I can imagine it, your fervent interest, your curiosity that others might describe as morbid: I can see it in the sparkle in your eyes. Well, ask me, then. Go on. I know you’re dying to…’ The language here is so apt – ‘morbid, dying to’ – in keeping with the subject matter of the book.

Elizabeth Haynes established herself as a must-read author for me with Into the Darkest Corner. This novel confirms her talent for getting to the heart of the darkest minds and imagining the awful horrors they might commit. She has crafted another compelling story, with characters that get under your skin, a mystery and investigation that keeps you turning the pages, and with a dark, creepy air pervading it all.

Published by Myriad Editions

You can follow the author on twitter @Elizjhaynes and visit her blog here.

My reviews of Into the Darkest Corner and Revenge of the Tide. 

Thanks to the publisher for kindly sending a copy of this novel to read and review. 

Three super reads! Don't they look good together!