I enjoyed this dark, twisty book from Kubica. It is very gripping and has many unexpected twists that make the experience entertaining.
Definitely recommend it for thriller lovers.

A really good twisty book about a woman and her daughter that go missing, eleven years later the daughter turns up telling her horrifying story of being kept in a basement but not all is as it seems. This book had me hooked and I didn't see the twist coming at all! I would deffinatly recommend.

This book is a mesmerising read. The book opens with the harrowing scenes of a young girl being held captive in a dark basement for many years. She plots her escape and manages to make her way to a farmhouse. She tells them that her name is a Delilah Dickey. Delilah went missing, along with her mother Meredith, eleven years ago. At the same time new Mum Shelley goes missing, never returning from her night run. Neighbours Bea and Kate help to to investigate the case of the missing woman and quickly uncover dangerous links. The book is narrated by multiple characters with chapters from eleven years ago and the present time. Delilah is reunited with her father and young brother,Leo, but Leo begins to have doubts that she is his sister. If she isn’t who is she and why is she saying she is? As the truth begins to emerge, secrets are uncovered and shocking events revealed. This was a very gripping read, with the plot changing in many directions until it reaches a shocking and unexplained conclusion. Probably the ending is a little far fetched and also seems a little rushed but it still is a highly recommended read.
Thanks to Netgalley and HQ for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

I always look forward to reading a Mary Kubica book as her writing is well crafted and she pushes the pace at just the right speed. I enjoyed this new book with its twists and unexpected turns very much. The desperation of the child hidden in a cellar for 11 years and the torment of the family left behind were brilliantly described. I’ll certainly be looking out for her next book!

I really enjoyed this, particularly because I couldn't see where the story was headed.
It felt quite tightly plotted despite the various story strands and time jumps.
The voice that spoke strongest to me was the older Leo chapters, despite not driving any narrative his observations felt very authentic and really helped with insight into the story and characters.
Some of the red herrings felt far too big to be just that - particularly the 'Deliliah' story, because we were obviously invested in her by the end as we had spent time in that basement, so I was a little disappointed to find out she wasn't connected to the story really.
The ending was a little outlandish but I enjoyed it because I just didn't see it coming.
An involving thriller with some nice twists.

Wow... just wow!

Strap in tight as this is one hell of a ride. One of the best thrillers I have read in a long time.

This is the first book by this author I have read but I can assure you it won't be the last.

I was completely absorbed in this fast paced thriller. I honestly haven't got a bad thing to say about it.

Told as a dual timeline, which seems to be the norm nowadays and from various narratives it follows the stories of Shelby, Meredith and Delilah.

The author expertly weaves these three characters and their stories together, giving a tense, gripping, twisty read that had me hooked.

I've read a few reviews mentioning the switching between timelines was off putting and hard to follow. Personally I didn't find this to be the case, if anything it added to the overall story and kept me on my toes (no skimming pages).

I can't praise this any higher. The raw emotion I felt at times left me with tears trickling down my face. Heartbreaking, breathtaking.. what more could you want?

Massive thank you to Netgalley and HQ for the ARC.

How have I not read any of Mary's books before, she is bloody fantastic! Except for the fact that this book kept me up all night trying to work out what happened to the two missing women and 6 year old Delilah. The hook catches you deep in your throat and takes your breath, first new mum Shelby goes missing, never returning from her late night run.

As if that wasn't tragic enough within the confines of a small community, local doula Meredith and her 6 year old vanish very soon after.

11 years go by and suddenly, Delilah has come home.

Where has she been, and when she finally is able to use her voice, will anyone believe what she has been saying? Or will someone be waiting for her to stop her talking .

The case seems pretty straight forward-after initially thinking it is a serial killer which sends waves of fear around the town, the police investigation succeeds in finding 2 bodies.

Believing she is cheating on him soon after the birth of their baby, husband Josh is immediately suspected after her body is found and imprisoned for Shelby's murder.

Meredith is found with self inflicted wounds and a suicide note , case closed.

Or is it?

Who has been sending Meredith threatening emails, taunting her with something that she has allegedly done in the past?

How will Delilah ever be able to fit back into a home, a community, that remembers her as a six year old-the girl who has returned reignites the grief of her father and her brother Lucas who has lived in the shadow of his sister's famous disappearance, bullied and made to feel weak and unloved.

Neighbours Bea and Kate step up to help out and investigate the women who have gone missing, quickly uncovering links between the two which could spell danger if they get too close.

The narration is shared between Delilah, Kate, Lucas and Meredith giving these first person threads a sense of intimacy and knowledge of them that makes Meredith's death very hard to take when you find out what happened, makes you cry for Lucas whose emotional neglect by a distraught parent ends up turning around to be the grownup his father needs for support. Delilah's narrative just breaks your heart, the book begins with her escape and you are urging every single step onwards towards safety and feel so angry that she was stolen in more ways than one. Kate's involvement in a family dynamic so different from her own reflects just how much she wants to be a part of something, to belong and intimates that she feels the cumulative guilt that invades small groups of people when a crime hits close to home.

The psychology of the investigation weaves itself around your mind as you become deeply invested in finding the truth but in doing so, you are neatly set up because sometimes the truth is just so awful that you wish you didn't look so hard for it.

And also, this book has one of the best descriptions and explanations for pregnancy and birth trauma that I have ever read. Mary completely nails the way that women are subjugated, have their voices talked over and are seen as less than one person as soon as they are perceived to be pregnant. The presence of a doula is highly recommended as an advocate in place of women and their partners who are emotionally wrought, trying to balance a need to trust their bodily processes and also the medical professionals caring for them. The catalogue of disaster illustrated in Shelby's birth experience, is highly accurate in a medical model based society, which values the voice of the doctor far more than that of the women they are actually supposed to be supporting ,in either a clinical, or professional capacity.

Highly enjoyable, very skilful and emotive storytelling at its best.

In a small town, new mom Shelby Tebow tells her husband, Jason, she’s going out for a run. What Jason doesn’t know is Shelby is meeting her lover for a secret rendezvous, but she never made it to him. A few months later, mother and daughter Meredith & Delilah have disappeared too! Is this a coincidence or is there a serial kidnapper? Wow this is suspenseful & twisty, I couldn’t put it down! Thank you to NetGalley and Park Row for a gifted copy. This is my honest review.

When you pick up a new thriller written by Mary Kubica, you know it’s time to clear the diary, close the shutters, switch off the phone and settle in for a long, undisturbed read. This book, her latest, is no exception. Following a dual timeline and narrated from several points of view, Kubica artfully threads together the stories of Meredith, Delilah and Shelby. The novel starts with Shelby’s disappearance, followed by the disappearance of Meredith and her six-year-old daughter Delilah. For a long time, police investigations come to nothingn and the three females join the heart-breaking statistics of cold cases. But when Delilah suddenly reappears eleven years later, we learn the interconnectedness between the women, and the terrible domestic truths that lie at the heart of their disappearances.
Utterly gripping and with the emotional depth and understanding of human fallacies sadly lacking in other thrillers, this book should earn Kubica even more readers than she already has. My thanks go to the publishers and to NetGalley for the free ARC provided in exchange for this honest and unbiased review.

Complex and twisty thriller told in the past and present and from three different viewpoints. A child returns after many years and is now a young adult, the difficulties this causes are well described as we struggle to understand what happened.

😳🤯
I mean, I was expecting this kind of ducked up situations but somehow this just kept going on going and had my head spinning around in so many ways.
I rarely enjoy so many different pov and timelines but here it was easy to keep up with everything and read along the storyline.
Some of the wicked twists were pretty predictable and some unexpected to say at least.

A must read story for any thriller lovers

Arc review from the publisher HQ through NetGalley

This is by far the best thriller I have read in a long time.

The plot is relatively fast-paced, and is set on a dual timeline and (as seems to be so common these days) told from multiple points of view, allowing clues and red herrings to be drip-fed to us throughout. The characters are skilfully and realistically portrayed, several of them heartbreakingly so.

Some reviewers have commented that there could have been more twists. I did not find this an issue: There were a few very clever ones, and the tension was sufficiently maintained in the rest of the book to make me want to read it in one sitting. I ended up staying up until 3.30am to finish it!

Thank you to NetGalley and HQ for the e-arc. The above are my own, unbiased views.

What a brilliant well thought out storyline. True the story does switch backwards and forwards from past to present and vice versa, but it’s cleverly done and not difficult to follow as long as you are paying attention to what you’re reading. Brilliant story, my heart went out to multiple characters. It just goes to show you never really know anyone, no matter how much you think you do! Kept me guessing and working out who had done what and where, but it’s very cleverly tied up at the end. Well deserving of 5 stars!

This is a hard book to review because for the most part I enjoyed it. There was plenty of suspense and some surprising plot twists but I found the ending underwhelming. After all the build up it was a bit of an anti climax although I can't say more without giving away too much. Not a book I'd recommend for this reason.

My first Mary Kubica and what a book! Im a firm lover of thrillers and I really didn’t have a clue what was going on (in a good way). I was hooked as soon as I read Delilah’s first chapter. kubica built the suspense and confusion of what had happened so well. The character development was also amazing, I adored Meredith despite her chapters being from the past. Overall it was a fab thriller that definitely had a twist, my only reservation is that it maybe didnt have enough twists? The main body of the book could have been a little more exciting!

Wow! Wow! Wow!
Nothing but Wow!!!
I have read almost about 50 books this year and have only barely loved about 2/3 books out of it. This book is certainly added to my top favorite book of the year! I was in mood for a thriller story and this book did all the justice I was craving for in a thriller book. I love reading thriller/mysteries and I have read such a phenomenal one after ages! I cannot recommend this book enough to anyone who loves twists after twists!

Damn the book has made me speechless. I can’t stop thinking about what happened! The book also made me sob couple of times! I loved loved loved it so much!

The way it’s written from different perspectives and how it’s all everyone’s to connected to the incident in different ways. I loved and sympathized with Josh so much and I loved Leo’s POV the most! There are just too many twists that I had not even thought in my back of my head! I don’t know any more to say than that I loved the book! It’s a fast paced book that made me hooked from the very first chapter. Usually the long chapters put me off but I was so engaged in the story that I didn’t even realise how long SOME chapters were.

Thankyou Netgalley and HQ for the e-arc! This is my honest review and I am grateful for the arc to have read such a good book- simply added to my favorites!

A mother and her young daughter go missing.
Eleven years later the daughter returns.
She has been held captive. By whom and why is she back now.
This story is told from multiple points of view and set in different time lines.
A great read
Thanks NetGalley.

This complex novel fluctuates between the view points of Kate, Leo, Shelly, Meredith and others. Some elements are quite disturbing and do play on your mind in between reading sessions but this kept me coming back for more. It did take a while to get used to moving around between the perspectives and timeframes but was well worth persisting. There are a few elements that are implausible but I read an ARC and these will likely have been worked out during the pre-publication edits.

This was a very hard & dark read for the first few chapters but also totally addictive.

It is tightly plotted, with clearly drawn characters and lots of subtle red herrings.

I suspected and wondered, but with twist after twist I did not guess the ending.

It is an uncomfortable story at times. Enjoyable- I'm not sure. Unputdownable-definitely!

Thank you Harper Collins & NetGalley for my ARC.

Wow, that’s messed up – typical Kubica though.

Shelby isn’t exactly going where she said she was going when she disappeared. Then not long after another woman and her six-year-old child also vanish. Are the events connected and if so what the heck is going on? Where are Delilah and her mother Meredith?

This dual timeline story goes from the past – before the disappearances, and eleven years into the future when one of them reappears out of the blue. The loved ones have difficulty accepting the return. The victim isn’t the same person she was before she vanished.

It’s a dark domestic thriller that is a bit like a maze with many corridors leading to the conclusion, although there are plenty of red herrings. To be fair I felt as if some of the questions were left unanswered, not all of the threads were tied off neatly. Just a bit frustrating (wonders if I should email the author and ask where xyz is?).

At times it seems as if everyone gets lost in the many different threads, both the readers and the author. As if the it ends up somewhere completely unexpected and not entirely planned. It doesn’t change the fact it’s a good read though.