Rebekah Is a woman seperated from her husband who decides,on a whim, to accompany her brother on a trip to Crow Island 101 miles off the coast of Long Island. her borther Johnny is somehow implicated in the disappearance of Louise, a disappearance that Travis a soon to be retired cop is trying to solve.

On Crow Island Johnny is killed, Rebekah is believed dead and the perpetrators know they may have left some evidence behind. Explaining the narrative anymore would only give me a headache so I have decided not to bother.

The author evolves the story line in a then and now narrative. the "Then" can be as much as weeks or even months ago equally it could be 60 minutes ago. It is a real mess to follow not least because in this ARC there is no paragraphing between then and now - let alone chapter demarcation.

The need to suspend my disbelief was raised early
1. Nobody reported Rebekah or Johnny missing - mother best friend, her husband other more remotely connected friends
2. the attempts to catch Rebekah were more Keystone cops than acceptable chases
3. Rebekah manages to feed herself for 6 months on a few tins and at the same time Run to build up muscle mass and strength and feed a dog.
3. The cop investigating Louise's disappearance worked out that Johnny and Rebekah never left the island but decided not to tell anyone
4. The perpetrators were (view spoiler)

I could go on this book would have been better as 200 page book with less fluff to bulk it out, it was totally unbelievable and it will not be an author i follow, It feels like tha author gave no thought to the brain power of his reader or their ability to see the kinks in the storyline. It was dreadfully disappointing.

I find GR ratings so arbitrary but cannot give it more than a 1 star rating

An atmospheric and twisty mystery thriller that would benefit from a bit of condensing

Rebekah Murphy, a separated mother of two, agrees to visit a remote uninhabited island with her brother, aspiring writer Johnny, who is researching for a new book. However, when the two arrive, they find themselves targeted by killers for reasons unknown, and Rebekah wakes up and discovers she is trapped on the island for the winter with Johnny nowhere to be found. As she fights for survival, she also struggles to identify what exactly it is that led to her, and her brother being targeted. Meanwhile, back home in New York City, Detective Frank Travis is approaching his retirement and desperately searching for a missing girl. He knows that her case will likely be abandoned once he leaves the force, but what he doesn’t know is that her disappearance is linked to Rebekah, and only with her help might he be able to crack the mystery.

This was overall a very well-written and enjoyable crime mystery thriller story, with a multi-layered protagonist, a complex and twist-packed plot and plenty of red herrings and false leads sprinkled in to keep the reader guessing. The opening was very gripping, and the initial parts of the book where Rebekah was trapped on the island were packed with non-stop tension and a permeating atmosphere of fear and despair. Crow Island itself was almost like a character in the story – dark, harsh, and foreboding – and you really felt Rebekah’s claustrophobia and panic as she struggles for her survival, all whilst desperately missing her young daughters and trying to figure out why sinister men are hunting her. I liked the character of Frank Travis, a detective approaching retirement who just wants to solve his last case for the sake of the missing girl and her family, and his sections of the book almost felt like a separate crime story at first. The author then craftily joins together the two plots, and the links all become clear in the final few chapters, where surprising secrets are revealed.

Unfortunately, despite having all the ingredients for a great crime thriller, I didn’t find myself enjoying this story as much as I thought I would. I didn’t really engage with Rebekah and found her intense love for her daughters and her almost panicked fear of being separated from them didn’t really gel with her career as a supposed successful trauma and orthopaedic surgeon, who would have spent long periods of time without seeing her kids. Whilst they were initially very tense and readable, I also found some scenes of her struggling to survive on the island were a bit repetitive and some action scenes included too much detail which made them feel drawn out and left me struggling to keep my focus, losing some of their tension as a result. I felt that there was a lot of background information included which didn’t end up really contributing to the overall story, which further added to the lengthy feel of some sections, and some red herrings felt like they were inserted just for the sake of it and were never really explained. Finally, the last quarter of the book really did drag a bit and needed tightening up to avoid squandering the build-up of tension that had developed throughout the preceding story.

In conclusion, I did enjoy reading this book, and it is a solid crime thriller, but feel that it needed editing and shortening to maintain its high tension and the excellent fearful atmosphere it initially generates. I certainly would read more by this author but would probably pick something a little shorter.

Daenerys

Elite Reviewing Group received a copy of this book to review.

A great murder and missing persons mystery. Loved the way this book kept revealing details by past and present flash backs. Intriguing right to the end. A little far fetched in some situations and glossed over how one would survive for 5 months with no heating/electricity and very little nourishing food, but still a good read that kept you turning the pages.

Plot: TWO MISSING WOMEN. TWO PIECES OF THE SAME PUZZLE. What links these apparently unrelated cases? Who is causing young women to disappear? & when does missing mean murder?

⭐ I was dubious about a Weaver book with no Raker but I didn't need to be, I'm over the moon to report that it is every bit as thrilling, clever & unputdownable as the rest. In fact, it is now in my top 2 favourites Weavers.
⭐ Rebekah is a complex, relatable character you can't help rooting for.
⭐ It's fast-paced & the short chapters gave me that addictive 'I'll just read one more' nature that had me racing through the pages.
⭐I stayed up far far too late (stupid o'clock in the morning kind of late) because I simply couldn't put it down until all the pieces had been put back together.
⭐ The plot, the twists & how it all came together blew me away in the best way & left me wondering how on earth Weaver comes up the incredible ideas. No stone is left unturned & it is top firmly in my top 3 best reads of 2021!

PS. There is also a lovely little treat in there for the die-hard Raker fans, which left me with a big smile on my face!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Disclaimer: A huge thanks to Penguin Random House for sending me this title for an honest & unbiased review. All opinions are my own.

This was my first Weaver book, and I'm unsure I'll read another, unless the blurb really grabs me. I had heard great things and was looking forward to seeing what kind of writer he was.
This was very slow and I found myself skimming large parts at times, but then in the actual parts of action and suspense, I realised I had no clue whatsoever what was happening. I understand this was probably intentional, hence the title, but then in my opinion it should drip feed the clues so the reader is able to follow the story continually through the book. This didn't happen for me, and too much referring back to the beginning frustrates me and hampers my enjoyment.

I was disappointed with this book and did not connect with it. Its a slow burn with a weak plot. Sorry Tim, not one of your best.

I love this series with David Raker. He's a detective character developed very well and the mysteries are also very gripping. Love the plots, the characters, and trying to solve them myself. Weaver's writing is also impressive. It's a series I'd recommend to mystery series readers.
Thanks a lot for this copy.

I’ve read previous Tim Weaver books and enjoyed them, so I settled into the Missing Pieces book with a sense of advanced satisfaction. I knew this was a stand alone book so had no preconceptions. I enjoyed the first 10% but after that I felt I was being cheated by the fact that the author knew the answers to the reader’s questions but would draw us all along to make us read more. The story is quite basic but the elongation of it is unnecessarily long drawn out and frankly quite irritating. However this would not stop me reading other books by Tim Weaver.

An atmospheric thriller with vivid descriptions. A great twisty thriller which I love and definitely one I can see making a good movie.
It did take a while to get used to the format, flipping backwards and forwards but once I understood this I sailed through.
Below and Travis both great characters who were believable.
I like a thriller that keeps me guessing
Thank you for this copy to read and review

This is my first Tim Weaver book, but I think I might hunt out the David Raker series as I enjoyed this very much.
It tells the story of Rebekah as she’s been left behind, alone, on an island that closes for the winter months after someone tried to kill her and her brother Johnny.
Rebekah needs to try and survive until the island reopens while trying to figure out who and why tried to kill her.
The book switches between Rebekah on the island now, the events ‘before’ that lead to her being on the island and Frank Travis’ perspective as he tries to solve a murder which he then discovers is linked to Rebekah and Johnny’s disappearance.
The book starts off a little slowly, but I soon found myself so invested in Rebekah’s fate that I could not put the book down!
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for letting me review this book.

Great page turner. A high energy, heart in the mouth mystery that has you rooting for the central character as she tries to survive. Highly recommended.

I loved this book! I found that the more I read, the more I needed to read. I loved how the storyline unfolded and was really pleased that the ending gave me all the answers I wanted - except one!! Maybe all will be revealed in another book with the one thing that is unfinished for me! Well written, fast paced and I honestly couldn’t read it quick enough.

What a tense, compulsive read this was from the start. Bek (Rebekah) is on Crow Island alone, trying to avoid the man who is trying to kill her. Her brother was with her but has disappeared and she has to survive alone while trying to work out why this is happening to her. As fast as the story unfolds, Tim Weaver takes us back to 'Before' all this happened building the tension even more. An excellent stand alone, which definitely kept me guessing.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Tim Weaver/Penguin Michael Joseph UK for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

Rebekah Murphy has been missing for five months. She knows too much. She knows she's alone on an abandoned island with a killer on her trail. She knows that to get home, she must live to understand why this is happening. She knows someone tried to kill her for a secret.

Detective Frank Travis doesn't know enough. He doesn't know where to find Louise Mason. He doesn't know how or why she vanished into thin air three months ago. What neither Rebekah or Detective Travis realise is that each hold a missing piece of the same puzzle.

This is a bit of a slow burner as the story slowly unravels the complicated mystery that is told from the past and present viewpoints.
This is a gripping mystery thriller that I really enjoyed.

Many thanks to Penguin Michael Joseph UK and NetGalley for an advance copy in return for a fair and honest review

Generally speaking, this was a decent read, albeit a little slow to get going. There was a very long descriptive backstory to establish the main plot and characters, plus flashbacks, which made it difficult for me to engage with the story right up to the half way mark. I’m glad I stuck with it because it was enjoyable, but it does take a bit of patience.

I am a sucker for a good thriller, and so when I saw this one advertised in Netgalley as a review copy, I signed up.

I started reading a couple of months ago. The premise - a woman, stranded, unable to reach her young children and seemingly unmissed by this who loved her - was intriguing. However, I found the writing almost too tense! I was dreading what might happen to Rebakah - the narrative style flips between the events leading up to her disappearance and the events following her desperate bid for survival after her attack. This keeps the readers on a tense see-saw, knowing with certainty that she isn’t going home to her children and that something terrible is going to happen to her. I actually put the book down for a while and read something more relaxing in the mean time!

When I came back to the book, I was determined to give it a proper shot. I usually love a tense page-turner, so I tried to look past the bits that were a little too emotional for me! Things became a little easier once the plot of her disappearance caught up with ‘real time’.

The plot is clever and tightly woven, leaving you - like Rebekah - questioning her nearest and dearest, as well as those more distant and mysterious. If you like a thriller that will keep you reading for a good few hours, give it a try.

Rebekah is left for dead on an island which is closed for three months over the winter with no way to leave and no way to call for help. We learn through flashbacks what has led up to this and how she is preparing to survice so she can get back to her children.
At the same time the secondary story develops with Detective Frank Travis looking for her and her brother.

I've never read any of Tim Weavers books and definitely feel like I have discovered a new favourite author

A standalone thriller from the author of the David Raker series. A slow start with a long descriptive backstory plus flashbacks made it difficult for me to engage with the story. I will read other novels by Tim Weaver but this was not for me.

Rebekah Murphy and her brother Johnny set out on a day trip to Crow Island, a small island just over one hundred miles from the U.S. mainland. This small place was inhabited for only half a year, mostly by fisherman. There were very few facilities on the island, which had been devastated by a hurricane in the 1980s. Johnny had set up a research interview with a local historian who was working on the island and Rebekah had offered to give him a lift. She had two very young children but was eager to spend time with her brother.

However, what should have been a simple task turned into a nightmare, as it became obvious that they had stumbled upon a murder – and the murderers! Without giving away any more of the plot, I can say that Rebekah was abandoned on the island, with little chance of escape, and with the threat of being hunted by the killers.

This novel by Tim Weaver is like a jigsaw puzzle. There are so many strands to the plot that must be fitted together to understand what is happening to Rebekah. The story is told from different standpoints and in different time zones. Mostly, it is clear where and when the story is taking place, but at times it was a little confusing. I think the author portrayed Rebekah’s emotional state well as she learned to cope with her situation. I enjoyed his portrayal of this resilient and brave woman.

All in all, this was an intriguing and well written book, but I would have appreciated less changes in the timeline. I would like to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest, independent review.

On a day visit to Crow Island with her brother Johnny, disaster strikes for Rebekah Murphy and she's suddenly alone with a killer on her trail. The island is now shut for the winter months, Rebekah has missed the last ferry home, no one knows where she is, and someone wants her dead...but why?

Meanwhile, Detective Frank Travis is days from retirement and has yet to find Louise Mason, who vanished into thin air. He does not know the identity of the man last seen talking to her on CCTV but must put the missing pieces together to find Louise, as well as the Murphy siblings, Rebekah and Johnny.

I have only read two of Tim Weaver's books before, both from the David Raker detective series, and I was hooked. Missing Pieces is a standalone novel from the David Raker series, though missing person investigator David Raker does make a cameo appearance.

This is a good book; however, it was quite slow at the beginning and confusing, which failed to draw me in. This is something which may draw other readers in, but I at times felt like giving up, before suddenly the pace picked up.

There were many twists, turns and characters, it did get confusing at times, especially when aliases were thrown in. The pace picks up in the middle, but then I found the final quarter of the book slowing down too much. I kept going, needing answers and feeling impatient, but I felt the book was a little too long-winded at times.