A wonderful police procedural about the quest of a detective on the eve of retirement to find a missing woman. Dark and atmospheric!

I'm a great fan of this author and the David Raker series and so was thrilled to have the opportunity to preview this standalone thriller.

It's got much to like; A mother of 2 young children finds herself in the crosshairs of a killer and has no idea why. Meanwhile, a veteran detective can't let go of a missing persons case.
The story follows the main character, Rebekah, as she is hunted on a deserted island and the timeline moves backwards and forwards as it progresses.
The missing persons detective story interweaves throughout and if you stick with it, all will be revealed.

I'll be honest, if I wasn't such a fan, I don't know that I'd have stuck with it as it's quite a confusing read at times, with titles headed 'before' and then another thread that appears to make no sense comes in. Also, there were some holes in the story and it really stretches credulity at times, but, in summary, overall it's a cracking read from an excellent author who I would urge you to trust - all will come together.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Michael Joseph and Penguin for the opportunity to preview and I wish the author much success.

Missing Pieces by Tim Weaver
Publishers: Penguin Michael Joseph Uk
Publication Date 1st April 2021

NO SPOILERS

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I read the 2nd of Tim Weaver’s David Raker books, The Dead Tracks, a few years ago, and immediately after, purchased books 1, and 3. It was that good. Since then I’ve read each one as soon as it comes out and have loved them all. I was interested to see the author’s first, standalone mystery thriller and delighted to be approved for an advance copy. It starts a slow burner, a woman stranded alone on an island, far from home. The tension builds, with flash backs to “before” plus a couple of other plot strands which draw you in. I got to the point where I had to put everything else on hold to finish it.
This book certainly kept me guessing, right until the end with plenty of twists and a great, and ultimately satisfying, conclusion. I could also picture it as a great film.

Superior mystery thriller. I can’t recommend it enough. I’d like to thank the author, publishers and NetGalley for this advance digital copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

I’m a very big fan of Tim’s David Raker books so when a new novel appears I’m always eager to read it. His Raker books are brilliant, some truly amazing but I’m afraid this stand alone book left me cold. I have tried to get into it a few times but the opening chapters are not riveting, and the characters are not developed enough to make the elusive story line interesting. I’m not sure what has happened to Tim’s writing, I even found the catastrophic word gotten in it, usually plentiful in US books,. No one bothersto tell them that this word is grammatically wrong and doesn’t actually exist in the dictionary or English language. I know some people enjoyed this book but for meit was wholly disappointing.

This book has blown me away! Binge read in a day as physically couldn't put it down. So many questions were raised for me throughout and you are absolutely pushed to suspect everyone of wronging Rebekah! An absolute must read for everyone!!

Missing Pieces, Tim Weaver. 4/5

Rebekah Murphy has been missing for 5 months... so why is nobody looking for her? Abandoned and alone on a deserted island with a killer on her trail, Rebekah knows she must get home to her children. She knows somebody tried to kill her, she must work out why. Detective Frank Travis doesn’t know enough, he’s got a missing woman Louise Franks, he’s a week away from retirement and he’s desperate to solve the case. With Rebekah and Travis each holding a key to the puzzle, what will it cost them to solve it?

It’s a brand new Tim Weaver and David Raker is not around, this time Weaver has written a standalone and it is fantastic.

Missing Pieces combines everything we love from Weavers Raker novels and adds a little more. A clever, intriguing mystery. A brave, gutsy heroine. Haunting backdrop and that feeling of being constantly on the edge.

Weavers writing remains solid, a standout in the genre and whilst i’ll await more of his Raker novels this standalone has proven than Weaver can write beyond David Raker and do so with a novel that is difficult to tear yourself away from.

It took one novel for Weaver to assert himself as a must read on my list, if you read little else in the thriller/crime genre this year, make sure you pick up Missing Pieces. In a genre that can sometimes be convoluted with stories, Weaver remains at the top of the game.

So many of Weaver's books have a darkness in them and this one is no exception. Something bad has happened to Rebekah - she appears to be alone on an abandoned island after being attacked. However she came with her brother so where is he now? She knows that someone is trying to kill her but she has no idea why. Detective Frank Travis, a week from retirement, is frustrated by the case of a missing woman (not Rebekah) who seems to have vanished completely. It is the way of such things that a connection might eventually emerge!! There are "Missing Pieces" in these puzzles.

Rebekah, isolated on the island, is doing everything she can to survive and return to her children. She presumes she will be missed but needs to stay fit mentally and physically. She also wants to work out just why she is in this position - is there something in her past that might provide a clue?

Frank, a good cop who wants to solve this one case before he retires, has a nagging feeling that he is missing some information about his case. He gets an anonymous phone call suggesting that he reviews a subject he had dismissed. He isn't sure that the call is not an attempt to put him off the scent. That simply makes he want to get to the bottom of the case even more.

These characters are - as is usual with Tim Weaver - well rounded and have a good depth to them. The more I read the more determined I was to know why the events had occurred. The setting - much of it on the island with Rebekah - almost created another "character". I was steadily drawn in.

For me this is classic Weaver. Rather dark and bleak, with very good pace and tension, coupled with vivid characters. I've been a fan of the Raker series of books almost from their start and have read them all. I was unsure what to expect from a non Raker story but I needn't have worried. Any fan's of Tim Weaver's books will be completely at home with this. As this is a standalone story no knowledge of the Raker series needed however anyone trying this will probably want to read more. Tim Weaver's writing is of a very high standard and that has been maintained for some time now. I do hope that continues for many years to come - I will certainly continue reading what he writes!

I am a big fan of Tim Weaver and have loved all the David Raker series. I was interested to see that he had written this stand alone, and I was excited to read it. It certainly didn't disappoint, and contained all the elements you would expect from this author: murder, intrigue, adventure and horror. Rebekah finds herself on an uninhabited island after 2 men tried to kill her. She doesn't know why she has been targeted, but she fears they have killed her brother, as he is now missing. This is a real page turner which kept me on the edge of my seat, and it was great that David Raker makes a cameo appearance! Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I like this author. I really enjoyed this book, the characters and the storyline, well worth a read.

I've always enjoyed TIm Weaver's books. They are full of tension that pulls you right into the action. This one was no different. The challenge of trying to work out what is going on is intriguing and you don't quite know who to trust.

This was a little slow to start with, but boy it had me hooked quite quickly! As with the fantastic David Raked books this had my heart racing and I jumped quite a few times. Absolutely brilliant!!!!#MissingPieces #NetGalley

Rebekah Murphy is stranded on an abandoned island with a killer after her, all because she knows a secret... but she doesn't know what that secret is. All she knows is that she must survive to get back to her children... Meanwhile Detective Frank Travis searches for Rebekah. Where is Rebekah? Where is her brother? What secrets are there? All is revealed as we race through the thrilling tale and everything comes together. Not a bad read. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of the book in return for my honest feedback.

Rebekah Murphy, a mother of two, is stranded on a desert island with two men who are out to kill her. She doesn't know why. The story is told in past and present. Starting with the present first and going back. I found this a little off putting and I got a little lost. Stranded on this deserted island, which she travelled to with her brother who is now missing, Rebakah is trying to evade her hunters struggling to find shelter and food. In a parallel story, Detective Travis who is nearing retirement has one last case which he has been unable to solve. That is the disappearance of Louise Mason who vanished many months ago and there is no trace or clues. This is a real page turner as you want to find out what is going on!

Tim Weaver master storyteller weaves another mystery thriller.

Louise Mason , an artist ,goes missing one night. Rebekah Murphy , a doctor ,an orthopaedic surgeon and her brother Johnny Murphy goes missing . Are these two events related ? Frank Travis a NYPD detective days away from retirement has been trying to work the case of the missing Louise Mason thinks there might be . His investigation just seems to stumble along getting nowhere .

This story is about secrets, conspirators, murder and corruption. Rebekah Murphy is trapped on an island , desperate to go home to her family but who can she trust if she does? All alone , her brother who came with her is missing who she fears has been killed by the men chasing her. Can she survive the killers ? can she survive the dreadful winter all alone on the island?

A great read ,twists and turns on every page. A stand alone novel I enjoyed immensely , a novel that certainly didn't disappoint typical of Time Weaver .

Bec's day out with her brother turns out to be the longest of her life, after a challenging life by most people's standards things are about to get even stranger. From England to New York she qualified as a Doctor and is married with two great girls who are still very young so one of lives fighters.
Thats how we start this fantastic tale that grabbed my attention early on and never let go its not just a whodunit but a big whydunit whats the reason that Becs is trapped and can't find her brother. The answer begins to come but for the truth is unexpected and powerful in my view and hits you like a thunder ball that I never saw coming. The twists are great and did surprise me but were creditable with the story adding to the drama and experience, not far fetched the made sense when you see them i just didn't see them coming.
I'm giving this 5 stars as it hit the mark in every area I can think of. I hope you love it as much as I have, I've been given a free copy in exchange for a honest review and I feel honoured to have got this book to read as you've seen i hope I think it's one of the books of the year whodunits 🙂

My Thanks to Netgalley and publishers Michael Joseph at Penguin for an ARC of this book in return for an honest review. I requested it, having read all of Tim Weavers previous novels and have been an admirer of his writing with slight reservations for the last two novels. I was intrigued to see what this first stand-alone story would offer, which besides being the first novel not to feature his missing person locator David Raker, is set in America. England is left behind. Britain doesn’t feature in this work at all. The setting is totally American. Cynics might suggest that he is going for the American market. But whatever, his research, as always, fantastic. He has got the background exactly right, at least from a Brit’s point of view. An American might differ.

The author is again writing about his favourite topic, missing people. But this time the search is not for someone. We, the readers are with that missing person, Rebekah, the principal character, as she desperately tries to survive on an island deserted out of season, out of communication, bitterly cold and a hundred miles out from Long Island, hoping that she will be found.

The book starts with another “Wow ! ! “ trademark Tim Weaver opening. He has his reader hooked from the off, eg “Wind shook the bones of the building*. Not just the building, or the rafters or the structure, but the bones. And this is just the first page. After that I began to feel a bit confused by different characters and time scale. We have Rebekah’s story in back snatches in between the account of her present perilous predicament. But this throws up questions. Sections are suddenly headed up” Before”, (before what?), and then without warning, we return to the present moment when she is trapped on an abandoned island with deserted buildings, one hundred and one miles from the nearest land and no means of communication. Seemingly unconnected, a soon to be retired NYPD detective, Frank Travis from a missing persons bureau, appears in a storyline. But nothing is unlinked.. If you’ve read Tim Weaver before you know you need to trust him. Anyway by this time you need to know what’s happening.

This author is the master of writing about abandoned places. He can make you hold your breath, make your skin creep. But I did start to wonder if he had rather overdone it this time. It went on for a large proportion of the book and, for me, started to lose it’s shock value and risk becoming boring. Such a waste. To keep the shock values high, the frightening descriptions need to be no more than a chapter or two at a time and the rest ordinary narrative of the story. He has squeezed every last drop out of the very scary situations in which he has put his heroine. For myself, I wished that he would occasionally take his foot off the gas and give his reader some bits of respite. But that’s just my opinion. There’s no pleasing some people. Towards the end when you think that the author can’t give you any more emotion, that everything is settled and explained, comes a final tremendous ending. You might possibly get exasperated with the book at times, as I did, but go for it. It’s one heck of a read.

This felt original and different and I really enjoyed it, though enjoying the story of a main character in these extraordinary and awful circumstances seems to be an oxymoron!!
In my opinion it is a cleverly woven story around past and present, and how previous times affect the now! Many tiny things that were done and said, seriously impact on her position.
The main character is very resilient, surviving her situation but given the "needs must scenario" her success doesn't seem improbable or impossible.
The final chapters are a rollercoaster of nail biting stages leading to the big reveal at the end - and I thought I had identified the key character and was wrong!
Thoroughly recommended.

A stand-alone novel from the great mr weaver. imagine what it would be like if someone was trying to kill you for a secret they knew you knew....but YOU can't think of what that might be. She's being hunted and so she tries to find out why. and fast..
BUT you're on an abandoned island and can't work out why and how to get off...
how to escape
OMG quite the premise.
Great writing and tempo.

A stand-alone novel by author Tim Weaver, this book opens with a woman alone in an isolated island, wounded and scared after an unknown incident involving her and her brother. Who is after her, and why? Told in a multi-time format, this book draws you in and keeps you there. Unusually in a thriller, I was also totally engaged by the characters and genuinely cared about their fates. This novel is truly suspenseful and I absolutely loved it.

Tim Weaver has taken a break from his David Raker novels to bring us this standalone novel. Like the Raker novels this one is focused on missing persons, but in this case it is told mainly from the point of view of missing person Rebekah. Somehow she’s managed to avoid the murderous attack on herself and her brother on a remote island 100 miles off the coast of New York that is just about to close up for the winter. Unfortunately she’s missed the last ferry out of there, her family only know that she’d left her young children with a friend and gone on a day trip and her attackers took her mobile phone. How she survives the winter months breaking into the few buildings that are lived in during the summer to find food and shelter makes for terrifyingly claustrophobic reading but it is interspersed with flashbacks as she looks back over her life trying to work out what has got her to this point.
I did find it a bit heavy going at first but as the mystery unfolds with the parallel story of a NYPD missing persons investigator whose failing search for a missing woman gradually reveals links to Rebekah I was completely hooked. The icing on the cake was a cameo appearance at the end of the novel by David Raker himself which led me to hope we would be reading about his search for someone in the story who wasn’t found.