I found myself holding my breath for some of this novel, extremely invested in how a thirteen year old girl, Charlie, would get back to her family after being abducted. All the characters are well drawn and believable, each existing in their own orbit of agony after Charlie goes missing. Being inside the head of the abductor is an uncomfortable experience: his simple thought processes belie the evil of what he does. Ladd’s writing gets under your skin, and this is very close to being brilliant. Great to see an Australian writer kicking it in the thriller genre.
