Such a pleasure to be able to recommend a thriller set in the Australian Capital Territory.
Of course this is about a missing child; the most nail biting thrillers usually are. Lexie Parker and her three year old daughter Bella attend a regular playgroup in a small village outside Canberra (fun fact; the village, named Merrigang in the book, is based on Uriarra). The playgroup needs Tim Tams (which playgroup doesn’t?) so, although Lexie is desperately anxious about leaving her daughter, she asks the other mums in playgroup to keep an eye on Bella and forces herself to walk to the shop for the required Tim Tams. She counts the seconds she is gone; a total of six minutes. By the time she returns, Bella has vanished. But how could she have disappeared so completely in such a small time? Did she wander off? Was she abducted?
This is a well crafted read, particularly for a first book. The characters are all believable and believably flawed. You do want to keep reading because it’s just as impossible to us as it is to her parents that Bella could have just vanished. Toward the end it gets a little far-fetched (three principal characters ending up locked in a chapel? And how many isolated rural properties have chapels, anyway?), but ultimately it’s a satisfying read.
And if, like me, you’re a parent who likes to pick at the scab of your darkest fears, do try these other missing child mysteries; Now You See Her by Heidi Perks and Have You Seen Her by Lisa Hall. No prizes for guessing the gender of the missing child in those two.
