Given that this is the author's debut novel, it's a highly impressive and well written story, which was a real page turner and had me gripped right from the very first page.

I thought the story plot was very well written, I loved how the story was told from different characters throughout the telling of the story, it certainly gave you an insight into things and the different view points.

You really do feel for some of the characters, in what they are going through or have already experienced. The characters were so well written that sometimes you felt like you were in the same room or place as them.

I have to say I wasn't expecting the twist, very cleverly done and honestly never saw it coming.

I'm looking forward to the author's second novel already.

The intertwined stories of two missing girls kept me guessing, but there were too many different voices telling the tale. Three adult women, and a missing girl, and the man who took her... I managed to keep them all straight, but it was like watching the story unfold from a distance. This is one of those books that makes you work to piece together exactly what's going on.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. A great debut novel absolutely thought it was brilliant and this had me hooked from the beginning

I just loved this book and couldn't put it down. I know it sounds like a cliche but it's true. The characters were easy to get to know... well I thought I knew them! The plot unfolded chapter by chapter with a build up of the tension keeping up all through.
I would have been kinder to Maggie than the author but without giving any plot away I can't say how.
I know it's an odd thing to say but I was almost put off by the title but I can't explain why. Suffice to say I'm very glad I decided to read it.

This was a good suspense book. Grace is taken one day after school. We learn all about Grace and her family. We also learn about Zoe and her family and what happened to her 25 years ago. You go back and forth between Stephanie (Grace's Aunt) and Maggie (Zoe's Grandmother). You learn about what happens to Zoe and how it could be related to Grace's disappearance. As you are reading this book you think you know everything that is going on but you don't. I was really surprised with how it turns out. This is a great mystery, suspense book that I think you should read especially if you like that type of book.

It took a little while to get into this book. Little Grace goes missing when she is taken from the shop around the corner. Her parents and Aunty are frantic with worry. We read the book from three different perspectives, at home with Mum, Dad and Aunty, a lady called Maggi and a small child. I liked the twist the book brought, and despite the abrupt ending and the pace I felt the book was led by, it was a good read.

What can I say other than wow! I could not get enough of this book and that is all down to the amazing writing of Elisabeth Carpenter. Having read books of a similar style you would think I would be wise to the inevitable ups, downs and twists but this book totally took my breath away.

The thought of child abduction absolutely terrifies me and this book encompassed all of the emotions that someone going through this nightmare would experience. It was heartbreaking to read the story of Maggie and Sarah who lost their granddaughter and daughter when she was only 5 years old to abduction but the clever linking in of the story of the abduction of 8 year old Grace from her mother Emma had me compelled to read.

I enjoyed the three different narratives and found that they were relatively easy to follow. One in particular completely took my breath away especially it transpired that there was a massive twist with who I thought the person was. So, so clever! I love it when I can be truly surprised by what I'm reading as often twists are so predictable.

The characters are extremely likable especially Maggie, who I was rooting for the whole way through the story. I desperately wanted her to reunite with Zoe and get the peace of mind that she craved. It is a skill to be able to get the reader feeling compassion for a fictional character but Elisabeth Carpenter showed an immense understanding of what the reader would want to read.

Would I recommend this? Yes, absolutely without a doubt. I simply cannot wait to read more from this author. An outstanding debut novel. Well done.

Very clever mystery story with multiple twists and complex characters. Kept me guessing and confused all the way through.

Eight year old Grace had been begging her parents to start letting her walk home from school with her friends so they finally begin to let her. Grace's mother, Emma, had at first followed her daughter and hid to keep an eye on her as she walked but once she saw she was doing alright she let the girl make the trip on her own until one day Grace didn't come home.

Frantic with worry every searches every where for the little girl finding the last place she was seen was seen in a sweetshop with no other clues to her whereabouts. Soon the police and media are involved in the search for young Grace when ageing widow Maggie Sharples sees Grace's image on the news bringing back memories of her own granddaughter being kidnapped years before. For Maggie though the face she sees on the television is a bit too familiar to be coincidence.

99 Red Balloons is a thriller that takes the thought of every parent's worst nightmare and expand the story to yet another level blending the past and present together. The overall plot is one that is sure to keep a reader on edge with a little girl's life on the line when she can't be found but for me this one also seemed to be a bit confusing with so much going on.

The story is told with alternating points of views from various different characters all throughout the book which is where I think I struggled with keeping track. Some chapters are from the family then a lady watching the story unfold and even a little girl who had been taken. By the time it all wrapped up it made sense but during the early pages and the middle there were a few times the voices within the chapters just weren't standing out enough to remember who was who.

In the end I decided to rate this book at 3.5 stars. The intensity was there to keep me wanting to know how it would unfold but I had to sometimes stop and remind myself who was who and what situation I was reading so the flow could have been a bit better in my opinion.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

I really enjoyed this book. Each chapter is from a different characters perspective. At the beginning we meet Steph who has gone to visit her sister Emma and we find out that Emma's daughter Grace has been kidnapped. We then meet Maggie who I absolutely loved and totally believed her. Maggie's granchild has been kidnapped many years before and was never found. We then follow both there stories. I found this book really enjoyable and it kept me guessing up to the end. A really enjoyable read. And I look forward to reading more by this author.

My best friend had recently received this book through netgalley and loved it and told me I defiantly needed to send my own request because it was that great! I was fortunate enough to be given a chance to read this book through netgalley! and yes my best friend was very right it had all the components I wanted for a good thriller. 1 great cover! 2 it had me going from the start all the way till the end I even had to back track at one point when I came to a great twist! 3 its a quick easy read 4 Awesome twist that I never saw coming and each character makes you feel what they are going through! I will also say that im not sure who I felt worse for Maggie or Stephanie they both lost out on so much its scary when you remember this is a fiction novel but things like this unfortunately happen all the time! I highly recommend this book!

This story follows the tales of 2 girls who go missing decades apart and alternating tales where you wonder whether Grace will be found and what connection there may be to the previous crime. It was an interesting twist on a missing child story and I liked trying to put the pieces together.
It shows you a little of the investigation and the strain this puts on family relationships and the secrets that families sometimes hold.
The horrors of wanting to give your children a little independance which goes against your inclination to keep them close and the devastating consequen

The cover and the title drew me to this book - a debut thriller from Libby Carpenter - but the writing, and the gripping multi-perspective story telling kept me reading, well into the wee hours.
This is a book that twists and turns in ways you don't see coming - but at the heart is a storyline that any parent can identify with. The horror of having to deal with the knowledge that your beloved child has disappeared and has most likely been snatched.
We all have stories in our minds from recent years of missing children - those faces we see staring at us from newspapers or round the clock news coverage on TV. So this book immediately draws the reader into that world - the world of a family imploding as they deal with the possible abduction of eight year old Grace Harper.
There are her parents, her aunt, her cousin, her somewhat distant grandmother - not to mention those on the periphery of their lives who are immediately caught up in every parent's worst nightmare.
The book also follows the story of Maggie - a grandmother who can only sympathise with what the Harper's are going through - her grand-daughter Zoe having disappeared 30 years previously leading to a catastrophic turn of events for her family. She wants to reach out to the Harpers, but has become embittered by her losses.
As I mentioned this book is told through multiple points of view, Grace's aunt, Steph, the abducted child, the abductor and Maggie but the multiple voices don't ever become confusing, Each is clear and distinct and adds a carefully crafted layer to the story.
The pace of this novel is good - and certainly as it reaches it's dramatic climax I simply could not put the book down and my heart was in my throat.
This book is exceptionally accomplished for a debut novel - there are some passages which are beautifully written, tender and genuinely very moving. Other passages have just the right amount of menace about them. It also explores how experiences can change a person - and how the mind does what it needs to do to protect us from our own harmful memories.
For me, the real gem in this book is Maggie - a beautifully written character who I was rooting from from the start. Her friendship with Jim is just perfectly drawn.

This is a book that I would love to see adapted for the small screen - and if this is Libby Carpenter's debut - I'm very much looking forward to seeing what she does next. Highly recommended.

This book is about two girls that have been abducted from a sweet shop twenty years apart. The story follows the recent abduction of 8 year old Grace who was abducted by a man in a woollen hat. It is clear that there are a lot of secrets within Grace's family which adds to the story. We also follow the grandmother of Zoe who went missing 20 years ago but was never found. The recent case reopens old wounds and we see the effect this has had on her life.

This book was very fast paced and I managed to read it within a couple of days which is extremely quick for me. I enjoyed reading about all the characters and there was lots of twists and turns on the way. I did guess the twist but I am not sure whether the author intended for the reader to figure it out early on. I felt like we needed an epilogue as I was left really wanting to know what happened afterwards.

Wow! I loved this book. It's a super fast-paced story that had me on the edge of my seat and looking back now I can see that all of the clues were there but I walked, no make that RAN, past every one of them. If reading was a race, I would have won a gold medal for reading 99 Red Balloons.

With two stories of missing children, both are absolutely heartbreaking. Firstly, the story in the present is of sisters, Emma and Steph. Emma's daughter, Grace, has gone missing and it's usually a time when the family would rally round but this family is ODD. Emma and Steph's mother virtually has to be dragged there to support her daughter and Emma's husband seems to be hiding something...something that Steph is privy to.

The past story is about Maggie whose granddaughter, Zoe, was abducted. Zoe's mother, Sarah, died of a broken heart and Maggie never gave up looking for Zoe. She knows exactly what Emma is going through and I've read enough psychological thrillers to know that the two stories would link somehow, but I didn't expect them to come together is such a spectacular fashion.

99 Red Balloons is a proper edge of your seat, race against time, rollercoaster ride that had my heart rate soaring to danger levels. A magnificent debut by Elisabeth Carpenter that will be difficult to beat. Highly recommended.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

Wow what a brilliant debut novel! This took my breath away and had me totally gripped from start to finish! Highly recommended to friends already!

OK, who else has had this song playing in their head since they started reading this book! I cannot get it out of mine! The title and book cover were the first two things that grabbed me about this book when I saw them and the blurb pulled me straight on in.

From the very beginning it is clear that this is going to be an upsetting story; the grief of two mothers, although decades apart, seeps through the pages and does not let up and a cast of unreliable narrators will have you suspicious of all who appear before your gaze. This was the kind of killer hook that draws me into a book, a plot that I can engage and connect with and want to invest my time in!

So why was I left with mixed feelings about this read? The concept of the plot was fantastic and it lends itself so well to the genre but for me, there were just a little too many clues that gave the game away and I kind of worked out where it was all going early on in the book. However, this doesn't detract from the fact that it was a very well written debut novel and a strong and intriguing plot that will appeal to many.

Each of the characters were extremely true to life and I couldn't fault them at all; I was able to empathise with each and every one of them throughout the book and this stayed with me all the way to the very end. Yet the format of the book confused me; I was so glad that most of the chapters had names attached to them as it meant that I could work out who was narrating but it just felt like each chapter was a bit disjointed and there was no sense of continuity for me as a reader which left me feeling a little cold and left out of the book if you know what I mean!

The family dynamics or rather the dysfunctional families made fascinating reading as each little layer was lifted and another untruth uncovered. It certainly made for quite dark,  harrowing and emotional reading.

Overall I felt that this was a good debut novel from the author and I would certainly read more from her.

3.5 stars

As the story opens a schoolgirl is abducted from a sweet shop in England, having been led to believe that the man in the woolly hat was sent by her mom. As the man drives the girl away, the song 'Ninety Nine Red Balloons' - which she likes - is playing on the car radio.

**********

Stephanie arrives at her sister Emma's house to find her sibling near hysteria. Emma's 8-year-old daughter Grace hasn't arrived home from school, and none of the neighbors have seen her. The police arrive to hunt for the child, but Grace can't be found anywhere. DI Lee Hines and DS Rachel Berry question Grace's relatives about where the girl might go, but the family doesn't believe Grace would wander off on her own.

As time ticks by - and the situation looks dire - Graces's family draws together to support each other. This includes the parents, Emma and Matt; Aunt Stephanie and her 13-year-old son Jamie; and the widowed grandmother. When the police leave to continue their search elsewhere, the Family Liasion Officer (FLO) - PC Nadia Sharma - stays to assist Grace's relatives.....who are falling apart.

Across England, in another town, a seventy-something woman named Maggie is disturbed when she sees the news story about Grace. Maggie's granddaughter Zoe was abducted 30 years ago, and the loss destroyed the family. Maggie's son Scott turned into a drug addict and criminal; Maggie's grief-stricken husband Ron died; Maggie's son-in-law David left to search for his girl; and Maggie's daughter Sarah became an alcoholic and committed suicide.

Maggie's lived alone since then, and has continued to follow news stories of vanished children. Maggie always sends a card to the parents of missing kids - with her name and address - in case the current police investigation turns up news of Zoe....who's never been found.

Most of the story is told in the alternating voices of Stephanie and Maggie. There are also sections narrated by an abducted child, and glimpses into the thoughts and behavior of a kidnapper.

In Stephanie's chapters we get insight into a frightened family trying to deal with a dreadful situation. As days pass, family members blame themselves and each other; can't bring themselves to shower or change clothes; drink too much; ignore the food dropped off by neighbors; and generally fall into despair. Stephanie has the added responsiblity of looking after her son Jamie, who gets a break from the suffocating environment by visiting his dad and going to school.

We also learn that Emma is not Stephanie's biological sister. Emma was adopted at the age of 10 after being rescued from an abusive home. Nevertheless, the siblings have a very strong bond and are devoted to each other. Still, Stephanie and Matt (Emma's husband) have a secret between them, which causes added tension in the already strained household. This is exacerbated by the presence of PI Sharma - who's always around.....listening.

In Maggie's narrative she describes her family tragedy; her continuing depression; her day to day activities; and the discomfort she feels with local people - who seem to exude pity. Maggie also talks about her friend Jim - a caring man who comes by regularly to check up on her. When Maggie and Jim see a photo of Grace's family in the newspaper, someone looks familiar.

In the chapters recounted by the child she seems drugged and sleepy during a long car journey - and frightened by her situation. She continually asks when she'll see her mommy.

And finally we see a nervous abductor trying to keep a child calm while he disguises or hides her, to keep from getting caught as he crosses borders. (Uh-oh!) I wanted to know what this was all about.

The police investigation continues behind the scenes, and the family is kept updated by the detectives and the FLO. But the cops don't divulge everything they find out until the book's climax, which is appropriately dramatic.

I don't want to give away spoilers so I'll just say the author has a deft touch with misdirection and the story has some big surprises.

The narrative is proabably an accurate depiction of how families react when a child goes missing. If you've ever mislaid a kid temporarily - in a store or park - you've probably felt a little of this. I found the story compelling and was anxious to discover what happened to Grace..... and what secrets people were keeping.

I'd recommend this engaging book to fans of psychological thrillers.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Elisabeth Carpenter), and the publisher (Avon) for a copy of the book.

This is a story of family secrets, child abduction and the effects of a single action that resonate down the generations.
At times this book is heartbreakingly sad, Emma and Matt's daughter Grace has been abducted and the circumstances bring back the horrific time that Maggie's granddaughter Zoe was abducted 30 years previously. I found Maggie's story particularly poignant, at one point she reflects on how she has lost everyone that she has loved over the years. I also loved the friendship between Maggie and Jim.
The story is told mainly from the point of view of Emma, Maggie and Emma's sister Stephanie as well as unnamed narrators which does make the story slightly disjointed in places. I had to restart the book at one point and write down who all the characters were as it was confusing! Rather than being a tense whodunnit, I would say this is more a family saga. I would certainly recommend this book, I did enjoy it.
Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book as an arc.

Loved this book keeps you on your toes throughout. Sad in parts as well as excutung