Daughter

Tim certainly is the master of what you might call the “Domestic thriller”; ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations.

In this case, we jump straight into the mystery when a single mother finds that her student daughter left her university accommodation months ago and has vanished from sight. Through a series of flashbacks w heye learn that the mother – daughter relationship was perhaps more fragile than first thought, and that things buried even deeper in the past can come back to bite you.

The story moves along nicely, with small reveals and help from unexpected quarters. I didn’t predict the reason behind the mystery (My guess was some sort of MI5 spookery) And the actual reason wasn’t totally convincing. It seemed to have both a fairly flimsy justification and much easier ways to achieve the same ends, But if you do accept the premise, then the story does all hang together with some nice twists and turns, and with not a page wasted on unnecessary details.

The ending seemed a little abrupt and almost too easy, a sort of “Police-ex-machina” in which the cops sort everything out for us, but there are small quibbles only in what was an enjoyable book. If there are no extraordinary (and hence slightly unbelievable) events, then this would be a kitchen sink drama, not a thriller!

I’ve ordered the rest of his books and look forward to a bit more escapist reading with each of them.