BOOK SYNOPSIS
You thought she was safe. You were wrong…
Alex knows her daughter would never wander off in a strange place. So when her three-year-old vanishes from an idyllic beach wedding, Alex immediately believes the worst.
The hunt for Lottie quickly becomes a world-wide search, but it’s not long before suspicion falls on her mother. Why wasn’t she watching Lottie?
Alex knows she’s not perfect, but she loves her child. And with all eyes on her, Alex fears they’ll never uncover the truth unless she takes matters into her own hands.
Who took Lottie Martini? And will she ever come home?
I would imagine that most parents at some time in their lives have experienced every parent's worst nightmare, the heart stopping moment when you are out somewhere and lose sight of one of your children. The overpowering emotions, fear, terror and panic as you frantically search from them, constantly calling their name. Then the immense feeling of relief when you find them again and wrap them in your arms, swearing never to let them out of your sight ever again. Now, imagine that you couldn't find your child, that they had just disappeared, vanished, gone, without a trace, no witnesses, no evidence, they were just simply....gone. This incredible thriller is narrated predominantly from the perspective of Alexa Martini, a human rights lawyer and single mother to three year old Lottie (Charlotte) Alexa admits that although she loves her daughter, she has struggled to bond with her and has often felt that being a mother is a bit of a inconvenience. The last thing Alexa needs is to being flying to Florida to attend a lavish wedding but the groom is her friend Marc who had placed his own life in hold after the death of Alexa's husband. A wedding is supposed to signify the start of the newly weds lives together but for Alexa this wedding will mark the end of life as she knows it and the beginning of every parents worst nightmare. Sometime during the celebrations, Lottie disappears and Alexa finds herself plunged into the complex world of missing children, politics, paedophiles, the dark web and facing judgement from various aspects of the media and faceless trolls on the internet. As time passes, Alexa grows frustrated with the police investigation and starts her own desperate quest to find her daughter. A search that will push her to the limits mentally and cause her to be suspicious of everyone in her life, including her own family. There are people in Alexa's life who are not who they appear to be but could any of them have been involved in Lottie's disappearance? Would Alexa ever see her daughter again? Alexa was a complex individual, who if I'm honest I liked a lot more by the end of the story than I did when she was first introduced into the story. I had to admire her determination to uncover what had happened to Lottie but there was also times when I had doubts about the reliability of her narrative. Could she have actually been involved in the disappearance of her daughter? Had Alexa done something horrific and blocked her actions from her mind? Was her search a clever rise to distract people from her own guilt? Interspersed throughout the book was chapters that were voiced from the perspective of Quinn Wilde, a journalist who had been badly injured after a IED exploded beneath her jeep whilst she was in Syria. Quinn doesn't like human interest stories, she prefers the danger and excitement of being a war correspondent and she finds herself taking a instant dislike to Alexa Martini. But as time passes, she begins to suspect that there is more to Lottie's disappearance than the usual missing child case and becomes addicted to uncovering the truth. Quinn was a opinionated and very often not very likeable individual for the vast majority of the story but I did actually end up liking her by the time I finished the book. Omg, wow....just wow, this book is absolutely bloody brilliant, it's a intricately plotted, cleverly written, character driven story that is packed full of twists,turns and red herrings, keeps me guessing and glued my kindle. There was numerous realistic characters who could have known what had happened to Lottie and the truth when it was revealed was a genuinely, unexpected mind blowing shock. I would love to watch a film adaptation of this addictive thriller, worth all the stars and more and very very highly recommended
AUTHOR BIO
Tess Stimson is the British author of ten novels, including top-ten bestseller The Adultery Club, and two non-fiction books, which between them have been translated into dozens of languages.
Her first "proper" job after graduating from St Hilda's College, Oxford (where she read English) was as a news trainee with ITN (Independent Television News). She reported and produced regional and world stories,travelling to hotspots and war-zones all over the globe.
In 2002, she was appointed Professor of Creative Writing at the University of South Florida and moved to the US. She now lives and works in Vermont with her husband, Erik, their three children, and (at the last count) two cats, three fish, one gerbil and a large number of bats in the attic.
Social Media Links –
Twitter: @ tessjstimson
Facebook: https:// www.facebook.com/ Tess-Stimson-106964301384
Instagram: https:// www.instagram.com/ tessstimson/
Purchase Links
UK - https:// www.amazon.co.uk/ Stolen-Tess-Stimson-ebook/ dp/ B08S78F7W2
US - https:// www.amazon.com/ Stolen-Tess-Stimson-ebook/ dp/ B08S78F7W2
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