Omg talk about a roller coaster read wow this book kept me on the edge of my seat threw out I just couldn't put it down this writer keeps you hooked and once your hooked your not letting go I found this book thrilling the characters were fantastic and well thought out and the little clues all the way threw keep you guessing until the end this book stays with you long after you close the book this book is well worth the read I promise you wont be disappointed

I received a free eARC of Don't Let Go but that has in no way influenced my review.

I'm a fan of translated crime fiction and have read several novels which have been translated from their original French, just like Don't Let Go. The book has a wonderful French feel to it but it isn't strictly set in mainland France; all of the action happens on the French island of Réunion. Réunion is where Martial and Liane Bellion have chosen to take a holiday with their six-year-old daughter, Sopha. They're lounging by the pool, enjoying the luxury of their hotel when Liane decides to return to their room. From there the nightmare begins because Liane disappears. The room is in disarray, the smears of what looks like blood are impossible to ignore. The evidence is staring everyone in the face. Liane has vanished, but no one saw her leave. When Martial is brought in for routine questioning, his story begins to fall apart. So he runs, taking Sopha with him. All fingers point to Martial killing his wife. Why else would he run...?

I really enjoyed this book and I loved being immersed in the culture of this vibrant island which, until now, I knew very little about. The characters are strong and I particularly loved Captain Aja Purvi who is a kick-ass 'get the job' done kind of woman. I also, reluctantly, liked Second Lieutenant Christos Konstantinov who is a highly sexed, leering lothario easily distracted by drugs and women. He's not the sort of character I normally warm to at all (in fact, he's the type of character who would normally make me DNF a book), but in the end, he showed bucketfuls of heart when it was needed the most. The reader never really knows where they stand with Martial Bellion, who I thought was well-written. Is he a killer? Does he have another motive for stealing his daughter away and going on the run from the police? I was constantly doubting what I thought and couldn't call it at all.

The plot was engaging and I was intrigued about where the story was going to go. The setting was gorgeous in parts and I could imagine lounging by the lagoon. You do get to see the less-touristy parts of the island, away from the exotic resorts and stunning beaches (it is a crime fiction novel, after all!). I was left with a few unanswered questions though, which I'm putting down to reader error (something I perhaps missed). The other thing I would mention is that this book uses a lot of footnotes to describe and explain unfamiliar words and phrases. On my Kindle copy, the footnotes were hard to use and ended up in all sorts of odd places. If I were to read this book again in future I would want to read a paperback copy, rather than a digital copy.

Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. I really enjoyed Don't Let Go despite the points raised above. It's a great character-driven mystery which in these times of lockdown and cancelled holidays was a welcome distraction. I have two other Bussi novels on my bookshelf and I'm looking forward to reading them. Engaging, interesting and quite the page-turner! Recommended.

I chose to read and review an eARC of Don't Let Go. The above review is my own unbiased opinion.

This was a gripping and tense psychological thriller with an emotional plotline. I loved the writing style and was kept on the edge of my seat. Another brilliant book from the author.

I usually am a fan of thrillers but unfortunately I couldn't get into this book. It may have been that it has been translated from the authors first language of French and something was lost in the translation.

Don't Let Go by Michel Bussi is a thrilling and tense story centering around Liane Bellion who disappears whilst on holiday with her husband and 6 year old daughter.

Michel Bussi is a rock star of an author. I have never been disappointed by one of his books. They are each brilliant in their own way. Don't Let Go reminded me ever so slightly of Time is a Killer (which I rated 5 stars on the strength of young Clotilde alone) but just marginally as they each take place in beautiful, exotic locales. Beyond that they are very different.

La Reunion island is the host in this outing and proved the perfect backdrop to this twisted tale. We follow the story through the eyes of many locals - hotel staff, the very busy police and a number of eye witnesses and strap hangers. I confess, there was a fair bit of local Creole terminology I didn't fully understand but I got the general gist and carried on. We also track the actions of Martial, the husband of missing Liane, and their delightful daughter Sopha. Monsieur Bussi is especially gifted as a documenter of whimsical thoughts occurring in the heads of young girls. Here, Sopha is a real gem to behold. A bright spark to lighten up the darkness of the story. You will love her.

Much happens that will shock and intrigue the reader. It is a well crafted yarn that ventures off down a number of diverse paths but wraps up with great satisfaction. It is dark, humorous at times and full of characters that are rich and worth caring about. A great mystery in a beautiful location that is sure to delight and, quite possibly, break your heart in the process too.

Page turning thriller from Bussi who is making a name for himself as the master of twisty, surprise thrillers with an intelligent edge. Perfect for the beach this summer!

After being really excites by other titles by Michael Bussi I have to say I was a little disappointed in this one. It's not a bad book (infact its probably a fairly average book overall) but compared to previous titles I feel it had a little more to give

A woman disappears, the husband reports her disappearance but the police are suspicious. A man is found dead in the sea - are the deaths linked and what is going on?

Michel Bussi has written another great thriller, the storyline is fast paced and the twists and turns in the plot make for a great read.

However I have three issues with this book.

The casual sexism of the male policeman grates, particularly in this time of #metoo. I thought there might some reason that the character tried to 'stop his tongue lolling', or the details about his erection, or how he longed to flip open the buttons of the blouse of a woman, but no, that's just who he is, it did not add anything to the plot.

The translation struggles to cope with the Reunion island slang so there are quite a few annotated words. Perhaps a translator along the line could have pointed out that the surname Purvi does not work well in English.

This leads onto my last quibble. I have never been to Reunion so I can not make any comment on the social structure or culture of the area. However, in the same way that the sexism grates, the stereotyping and name calling of the racial groups is not a comfortable read.

This is an excellent crime/thriller although the language can be a bit confusing at times as it is set in Reunion Island and there is quite a lot of local dialect although it is translated. Nevertheless, it is well written, pacy and has a good twist in the end. Would definitely recommend it.

I really enjoyed the previous book I read by Michel Bussi, After The Crash, so was looking forward to reading Don't Let Go. When Lianne goes missing whilst on holiday, husband Martial is desperate to find her. After a few hours Martial's life starts to unravel and he becomes suspect number one. Acting very strangely, Martial goes on the run with daughter Sopha as they try to outrun the police.
All is never what it seems and I found the book well written with the additional characters being written in very well to explain and knit together events well.
The twist was good at the end, one I didn't see coming. The three stars is purely because I found the book quite a heavy read and found myself drifting away from the plot rather than being engrossed in it.

Having loved Black Water Lilies by Bussi, I was thrilled to be reading this latest offering. This tense psychological thriller is set on the beautiful Indian Ocean island of Reunion with its strong connections with France. It is viewed by the French as a place that epitomised harmony amidst all the races, although if you are non white, your opinion is likely to differ on this assessment, given the racism. Bussi gives us an indepth feel of Reunion, past slavery, the culture, language, food, historical background, policing and tourism. Despite efforts to integrate the community, the only place the rich and poor actually mingle is on the beaches. In this tropical paradise, Martial and Liane Bellion are holidaying at The Athena Hotel, with their 6 year old daughter, Sopha. The police are called in at the instigation of Martial, after Liane disappears, with their room ransacked, and blood stains on the floor, walls and bed.

Detective Captain Aja Purvi, a bright and intelligent woman, who feels she has to prove that she is able, interviews hotel employees and other tourists, with Christos, the only police officer with forensic skills. They suspect Martial of killing both his wife and a local man found stabbed with a knife with Martial's fingerprints. The police race to arrest him, but Martial gives them the slip, taking Sopha with him. As a massive police hunt gets underway, Martial's background and connections to Reunion are slowly revealed along with rumours of his involvement in the death of a child many years on the island. Liane had visited a police station prior to her disappearance, asking about protection, a woman clearly in fear of her life. With more deaths that follow, Martial is a multiple killer, his guilt seems to be beyond question, even his daughter suspects him of killing her mother. However, with twist after twist, the police begin to get an inkling that maybe, just maybe, all is not as it seems.

The island of Reunion and its people play a dominating role in this well plotted and highly gripping novel, translated from the French. I really adored the strong sense of location, Bussi obviously knows the place well and has done his research on it. The assumptions that we make as a reader as we read the novel are slowly dismantled with skill and expertise by the author. I found this an intense and compelling read as I raced through it. I particularly liked the characters of Sopha, Christos and his partner, a woman with a strong interest in crime fiction and real crime. All in all, this is a brilliant read! Many thanks to Orion for an ARC.

Unfortunately, this book was archived before I got chance to read it.

Michel Bussi is an author I'm on the fence with. Loved "After the Crash" but couldn't get into "Black Water Lillies", and afraid this latest offering was more aligned with the latter. H gives us a set of characters in this book that I just didn't bond with, and I can't quite put my finger on why. I like his choice of setting - a small island where everyone knows everyone's business, and makes it hard to hide secrets. Ultimately though, the plot wasn't strong enough to win me over.

I am incredibly disappointed that I missed the fact I was given the opportunity to read and review this book, as I was really looking forward to it. However, it was archived before I realised. Thank you anyway, lesson learned!

The sun-kissed volcanic island of Reunion sits in the middle of the Indian Ocean and is a melting pot of cultures, from the colonial French to the Malabars, to the Creoles and more. But beneath the surface of a tropical paradise tensions run deep, resentment, unemployment, racism and issues with drugs. When a beautiful French tourist disappears from a luxury hotel the local police initially suspect kidnapping but then their suspicion falls on her husband. When more bodies are found and the husband disappears with his 6-year old daughter then a full-scale manhunt is initiated. However Martial Bellion is not just a tourist and the seeds for these events were sown many years before.

I have been a big fan of Michel Bussi's writing based on his first two novels translated into English, 'After the Crash' and 'Black Water Lilies', so I had high expectations for this book. However I found it hard to get engaged over the first third of the story; it could be the use of patois, requiring translation, it could be that I didn't really engage with the characters. Once the story got going however it was completely different. The second half of the book is fast-paced and with enough twists and turns to make one want to just keep reading. I did work out the whodunit and the motive but felt there were a few gaping holes in the storyline.

Enjoyed this book. It had a great setting. Interesting storyline. It had me engrossed from the beginning. I love when a book does that and i know im going to enjoy the rest of the book.

I have recently read and enjoyed Black Water Lilies, also by this author, so when I saw this one had also been translated into English and released as "Don't Let Go", I jumped at the chance to read it.
This book is set on Réunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean. A real place I have never heard of prior to reading this book and one that I now know quite a lot about. The author explains a lot about the people, the geography and the culture during this book and, where I would usually find it annoying and distracting, here it was done in the right way and at the right times so that it complemented the narrative perfectly, enhancing and colouring the story as it unfolded. I could go as far as saying that the setting could almost be considered to be a character in its own right in this book.
Liane, Martial and Sopha are on holiday on this beautiful island. One day, Liane pops up to her hotel room. An hour or so later, Martial asks a nearby couple to look after Sopha whilst he looks for his wife, concerned she has been gone a while. Finding the door locked, he asks the hotel staff to open it. What he finds is shocking. No Liane, but the room is a mess, all her things have gone and there is blood. He calls the police. They come. They talk to staff and a new timeline emerges. One that puts Martial firmly in the spotlight. The rest of the book is told in time-stamped entries, like an investigation report, as the police try to get to the bottom of things.
This book kept me on my toes throughout. Although I made certain assumptions throughout, I was completely in the dark as to what was really going on right up until the final reveal. Little snippets of pertinent information was drip-fed at appropriate times throughout the book as the Police and other characters started to piece it all together. The plot was intricate and rather well done with little twists and turns along the way keeping my interest throughout. The characters were also quite interesting. There was quite a bit of sexism, racism and a few other isms along the way but all in keeping with the setting and culture thereof. Well, as far as I can tell given my limited experience of both, but to me, it was on the whole acceptable. There were a couple of things I didn't quite find to be congruent however. Things that, given the setting and the ambience already described, what happens towards the end of the book was a bit too "action flick" for me and didn't quite sit true. But, I can forgive mostly as the rest of it was good. Probably good enough to have stood up without this OTT bit but hey, what do I know!
All in all a good solid and decent read. On the back of this and Black Water Lilies, I have just bought After the Crash and look forward to reading that too.

My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

This was horrifyingly good - what would you go if your partner disappeared on an island where you were holidaying,far from anywhere and in the most remote yet beautiful part of the Indian ocean. The language and cultural barriers, the fact your young daughter is there with you, the trouble of all that plus being suspected yourself.
There’s something very grim yet fascinating about novels which put tragedy in an idyllic setting and this is one of them.More so as it reminded me of a horrible true life story which was in the news a few years ago.

The book grips from the off and what makes it more gripping is how its written in the news bulletin format - quick snippets of info, the developing investigation, the red herrings, the whys and where fors and the race to the crushing climax.


An awfully inward looking and protective island community at odds with its tourist appearance in this novel. Read it on a beach and imagine yourself there...

It’s such a pleasure to kick back and settle down with a book from an author who is reliably brilliant; other than knowing you’re in for a treat you have no idea what to expect, as every story has been utterly unique in their presentation, plot, and finale.

'Don’t Let Go' exceeded my expectations as it's a cracker of a cunning mystery, nurtured to perfection.

A missing wife, an anxious husband, and their blood-splattered hotel room all point to a grave outcome, but statements from witnesses conflict with the facts. Despite the carnage no body is found, yet no one saw her leave their room after she went inside. The details that emerge suggest premeditated murder but without the evidence of a physical corpse the fate of Liane Bellion cannot be determined, only that she has vanished into thin air.

Ooh, I do love a book like this! The sharp hook of suspense caught me right away! I was trying to work out scenarios as to why Liane's husband would casually leave his daughter swimming in the hotel pool after excusing himself to check on his wife, then call the police to report her missing and successfully draw attention to himself as a pattern of erratic behaviour is revealed.

The chronological time stamps included within each chapter were similar to following a live bulletin, while maintaining a flowing story format. This additional level of reality it impresses just how dangerous lost time can be to an investigation of this nature as every what, why, where, and how take a step closer to the husband's guilt. The police authorities grow restless and overworked, and the prime suspect makes so many illogical moves I was wondering what he could possibly be trying to achieve. Of course it all becomes quite clear. Until then, the island's residents are speculating, backed up by sources of gossip and details not exchanged with police during interviews.

'Don’t Let Go' is a title you can't fully appreciate until you near the end of a holiday in this vivid Indian Ocean setting, where some of the characters are wishing they most definitely weren’t there. While the frantic race is on to solve a vengeful riddle before the ultimate sacrifice must be made, the diverse heritage of Réunion Island allows its cultural history to blend into the story at just the right intervals.

Simply superb.

***Actual Rating 4.5 / 5***