No One Saw A Thing is another great read by Andrea Mara.
Sive is in London from Dublin with her high flying barrister husband and their three children. They are there for a uni catch up so her husband can meet up with his old uni friends for a long weekend. Sive is getting on the train but work are trying to contact her and before she knows it her two girls are on the train and she isn’t. Only six and two years old Sive can only pray the man stood next to her daughters heard her to help her daughters wait at the next stop. Sive gets the next train and at the next stop is the man with her two year old daughter, Bea, but no sign of her other older daughter. What ensues is a nightmare day trying to find their lost daughter.
This was a great read with good pace and difficult friend dynamics. I liked how the dual timeline worked as you got to grips with the characters better. It was a fairly believable storyline I just had a couple of irks. One was I don’t think the police had enough manpower, where was the liaison officer? Also I think the ending could have been a little better, don’t get me wrong it was good and tied up all loose strings but it was just a little too nice.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to enjoy reading this book more than I actually did. The plot was great, and the characters were well written, but I didn't like the constant to and froing with the different timelines. It was off putting for me, and I just wanted to get on with the story. It put me off I am afraid.

My thanks to Random House U.K. Transworld Publishers Bantam for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘No One Saw a Thing’ by Andrea Mara.

This was definitely a twisty psychological thriller. I suggest that it’s best to read this kind of novel with minimal plot foreknowledge. So just a few details:

Sive and her lawyer husband, Aaron, have come to London from Ireland for Aaron’s twenty year reunion with a group of his friends. They have brought along their three young children.

On her way to meet up with the group early Monday morning, Sive is standing on a crowded tube platform. As the train pulls in daughters, Faye (6) and Bea (2), jump on ahead of her. Sive is pushing a pram holding infant Tyler and is momentarily distracted by a phone call. She sees with horror the doors sliding shut and the train then moves out. ..

This is just the beginning of the nightmare as while one daughter is quickly found the other remains missing. As the title indicates it seems that no one saw a thing. Aaron’s friends try to help the couple and the police are called. They are assigned a liaison officer, D.C. Hawthorn, who deserves an award for fictional detectives who exhibit patience and go above and beyond with respect to duties. No further details to avoid spoilers.

Readers of domestic noir/psychological thrillers know that when characters present themselves as having ‘perfect lives’ it won’t be long before we learn how different reality is. Here there are plenty of secrets and lies to be revealed about the couple and Aaron’s mates during the course of its tight sixteen hour timeline.

Aside from events in the present the narrative moves back in time to earlier points in their long weekend and later on in the novel to events in Aaron’s life fifteen years ago.

In the weekend flashbacks we witness how much Sive is struggling with three young kids in London, it did seem rather shortsighted to bring them. Oh and of course, as Aaron is a very important lawyer meeting up with his mates, he’s not helping out with them. Poor Sive also is working as a freelance journalist when she has a free moment.

Overall, ‘No One Saw a Thing’ proved a clever psychological thriller that provided plenty of twists, a few red herrings, and some cliffhanger chapter endings. As with other novels by Andrea Mara, it was a great read that certainly kept me guessing.

PR gifted via @netgalley.
I’d been putting this one off as I don’t like reading stories about missing children, but it wasn’t too traumatic from the child’s POV.
It was a whirlwind that I read in 24 hours, not able to put it down. There is a cast of characters, all with secrets to bear and a hectic weekend in London. I’m shattered after reading it.
Published this coming Thursday, if you are into thrillers, go get it, you won’t be disappointed.

Talk about twist on top of twist on top of twist! No One Saw A Thing is a suspenseful thriller with so many shocking turns, that you'll definitely be kept on your toes with this fast-paced and addictive read.

Mara has quickly become an auto-buy author for me. She always creates a brilliant tense atmosphere and her thrillers are always some of my favourite reads! Yet again, I couldn't put this one down.

Sometimes thrillers annoy me when they are based on characters who don't communicate with each other properly with lie after lie being revealed. But it just worked so well here! Because there was so much going on, you can understand why the characters don't have time to catch their breath, and every new revelation comes as a massive shock.

I also love how Mara frequently weaves the theme of motherhood into her stories. It definitely fills her stories with more anxiety, and the opening scene is like right out of a mother's worst nightmare!

If you're looking for an exciting nail-biting thriller with a strong mystery and plenty of suspects, give this one a read!

3.5 stars
This is a good psychological thriller.
Sive and Aaron are in London with their three children for a reunion with Aaron’s housemates.
Sive has her hands full with the two girls and baby in the pram when trying to get onto the tube. When her phone rings she tries to decline the call and then when she looks up the girls are on the tube, and the doors have closed.
In a mad panic she shouts for them to get off at the next stop but is unsure if they can hear her.
To her relief, the youngest, Bea is there at the next stop but there’s no sign of Faye.
I really enjoyed the nail biting chapters where everyone was looking for Faye but got frustrated with the chapters from the previous days as they didn’t seem to be going anywhere.
After finishing the book I can see that the background on Aaron and his housemates helps with the story but I still think there was too much that wasn’t important in the chapters covering the previous days.
Overall a good read.
Thanks to Random House UK and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I absolutely loved this new book by Andrea Mara. Right from the start it pulled me in and there was no way I wanted to put it down; I just had to find out what had happened to Faye. How had she disappeared with no trace? Why her? Who is involved? Who is lying?

I'd thoroughly recommend this book. As a parent, it's terrifying. That sheer thought that one of my children could end up on a train as the doors close, leaving me stuck on the platform, is horrendous. But two of your children, one age six and the other age two? Andrea Mara's writing is fantastic, my heart was in my mouth. I felt sick. And then you keep reading and discover that, Sive, the mum, finds one daughter, the two year old, at the next station, but, six year old Faye has disappeared! Can you imagine?

Andrea Mara's writing is incredible, she pulls you right into that moment and then you follow Sive, as she, her husband and friends try to find their missing daughter, Faye. This is a really really hard book to put down as there are just so many twists and turns which kept me turning to the next page.

No one saw a thing is a real gripping must read!

***Book review*** Andrea Mara’s books are an auto read for me now, I flew through this new one which is due for release next Thursday 11/5/23. This story centers around a 6 year old Faye that gets separated from her mum Sive and siblings in a busy London tube station. You are fully absorbed in the plight of the parents and the layers of backstory and history is slowly revealed like layers of an onion keeping you guessing as to what could have lead to this desperate situation. I flew through this as each chapter ended on a tantalizing note making you want to read just a few more pages….⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 many thanks to @netgalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers and @andreamaraauthor for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

I can’t imagine what it must be like having to manoeuvre two children and a buggy through the tube system in London. I can barely tolerate the tube and I’m allegedly a fully functioning adult. No One Saw A Thing is the first of Andrea Mara’s books that I have read and on this showing, it certainly will not be the last.

Mara makes great use of pace in this domestic thriller that keeps you guessing all the way through.

Sive, a journalist and her husband Aaron, a high profile criminal barrister, have brought their three children to London from Dublin for a reunion with Aaron’s old flatmates.

But one morning at Bond Street Station their lives are completely disrupted when Sive tries to take her son Toby in his buggy and both her daughters, Faye (6) and Bea (2) on the tube. Momentarily distracted, Sive loses sight of her daughters until she sees them on the train which is leaving the station. Her stomach plummets and she has many very anxious moments as she waits for news from the next station. While her 2 year old, Bea is found there safe and well, there is no news at all of Faye.

Andrea Mara’s nail-biting psychological thriller plays on this nightmare scenario as the couple frantically search for answers about what could have happened to Faye – and why?

With a tight cast of characters Andrea Mara’s novel takes us back to that flatmate reunion and Aaron’s former flatmates, Dave, Scott, Maggie and Nita. As with any tight knit group of friends, there are secrets, there is competition and in this case, a huge helping of one-upmanship.

Mara weaves the story of this friendship throughout the search for Faye and she does not hesitate to load her plot with so many false leads and suspicious activities that everyone becomes a suspect.

Mara does great job of showing Sive’s increasing levels of panic and the frantic search for answers as she and a journalist try to work out why Faye has disappeared. Sive here is vulnerable and Aaron fails to come across as sympathetically as he would like. No-one escapes scrutiny, however, and as deadly secrets are revealed it becomes a race against time to find the perpetrator and rescue Faye.

I read this on holiday and enjoyed the break-neck pace and the layered plotting which leads to an understanding of the past in order to inform the present.

Verdict: A fast-paced psychologically thriller that tugs at the heartstrings while twisting and turning every few minutes. Great holiday fare.

Every parent's worst nightmare, a missing child. I really enjoyed this one although it is pretty complex and needs concentrating on!
I enjoyed the multiple pov over the couple of days leading up to the disappearance of the child. Your perceptions of the characters change as their true motivations and actions are revealed. Lots of red herrings and surprises!

Andrea Mara's ability to keep the reader hooked and guessing is in full force in her sixth novel, No One Saw A Thing. I read it over 3 humid days in London, mostly on the Underground, which added to my reading experience tenfold - would recommend if you can do it.

Sive is a loving wife to high-flying Aaron and a busy but devoted mum to 3 small kids: baby Toby, two-year-old Bea and six-year-old Faye. On a family trip to London, Faye is taken off the tube when the two girls get on without Sive and so the nightmare begins: I am not a mother but this situation put the fear of god in me. Mara ratchets up the tension from there, interweaving family secrets that Sive and Aaron have held close to their chests with wider possibilities of what could have happened to Faye.

There are so many options that the reader is, like the protagonists, left in complete confusion as to what has happened to this little girl. In the hands of a lesser thriller writer, the multiple possibilities could get very messy and hard to read, but Mara keeps things in hand. It's an impressive feat, especially considering that No One Saw A Thing unfolds over several timelines. These worked well, especially combined with the short chapters, to keep me turning pages late into the night.

Sive is our POV character and I didn't find her overly compelling - Aaron's high-flying friends, the reason the family are in London, were fascinating to me, though. It's Succession levels of horrible rich people and they were so much fun to read about - doubly so when they (mostly) get their comeuppance in the end.
Another banger from Andrea Mara: addictive, tense and impossible to predict, I'm really impressed with this one.

If you’re looking for a tense, twisty thriller, Irish author Andrea Mara has you covered. Her books are well-plotted mysteries, with lots of interesting characters and red herrings to keep you guessing until the last page.

Her new book No One Saw A Thing is set in London over a weekend, where an Irish couple and their children are visiting for a reunion with old friends. Sive and Aaron are a power couple, she’s a journalist and he’s a high flying criminal defence lawyer.

On Monday morning, Sive is getting on the Tube with her three children in tow when the Tube doors close leaving her stranded on the platform and her daughters on the Tube. The alarm is raised but when the train arrives at the next station, six year old Faye has gone missing and, as the title says, no one saw a thing. Every parent’s worst nightmare - the absolute fear 😰.

As the plot unfolds, it emerges that any number of acquaintances of theirs could have taken Faye - Aaron is not short of enemies.

I read this in a couple of sittings, flying through it. Whilst it’s not my favourite of Andrea’s, this one is perfect for holidays or when you’re looking for something compelling between heavier, longer reads. 3.5/5 ⭐️

Holy Moly this is a great read!! Andrea Mara is in my opinion one of the best drip feeders ever. She gives you just enough to keep you at the edge of your seat and you can neber quite work it all out.

No One Saw a Thing finds us in London at the reunion of a group of university friends. It’s very much a case of keeping up with the Joneses as they try to outdo each other with Aaron the alpha male desparate to keep himself on top. With lots and lots of secrets and half truths when Aaron’s eldest daughter goes missing anyone of his “friends” could have taken her.

Fabulously written, I couldn’t put this down. It’s another 5* Andrea Mara book for me.

It's Monday morning on the London Underground, Sive and her husband Aaron have travelled from Dublin with their three children for a reunion with his old friends and Sive is rushing to get the tube with her two young daughters, Faye and Bea and her baby boy, Toby to go and meet Maggie. She urges them to rush ahead and jump on the train but before she can board herself the train doors shut, leaving her on the platform. After alerting security, they intercept the train at the next stop and two year old Bea is returned safely, but six year old Faye is not there and so begins every parents worst nightmare. The police are called and a widespread search of all the stations and surrounding areas are checked, but Faye has vanished and no one saw a thing...

No One Saw a Thing is the latest thriller by this author, with events unfolding over the course of the day, but also the three days leading up to that fateful time. My heart went out to Sive, as I felt every emotion that poor woman was going through and the fact that everyone around her appeared to be lying, who was she meant to trust to help find her little girl? It's a fast paced read with lots of surprises and red herrings along the way which makes for a very intriguing read, just as I thought I'd figured it out Mara threw in a curveball which I did not see coming. I loved her previous book, Hide and Seek, so was excited when I saw this one and it did not disappoint, now looking forward to her next one!

I'd like to thank Random House UK, Transworld Publishers and Netgalley for the approval, I will post my review on Goodreads now and Amazon on publication day.

"Everyone lies."

Sive, her husband Aaron and their three children take a trip from Dublin to London for Aaron's housemate reunion.

Sive doesn't really know her husband's friends from all those years ago, but they've met a few times and she gets along with the group, and so the trip goes well. Booze flows, the friends play the the age-old "whose life turned out better?" game and they reminisce about good old times.

But as the reunion comes to an end, two of Sive's children get on the Tube without her... And only one gets off.

Six-year-old Faye is nowhere to be found, and no one saw a thing.

What follows is a frantic search for a little girl who could be anywhere, as each passing hour reveals more and more secrets.

In a narrative that jumps back and forth and with a list of characters longer than my arm, there's a lot going on in Andrea Mara's 'No One Saw a Thing'.

Each character comes with their own baggage and as the line goes - "everyone lies". It can be tricky to keep up with everyone, but once I was about 30% in, I really started to get to know the characters.

There are several layers of deception and while I sussed out a few as I read, there was a lot about this novel that surprised me too.

Although I really enjoyed the plot and its many threads, the end felt a bit neat to me to really feel believable or enjoyable. I wanted more from Maggie's side of things, and I don't know that a certain character received a fair punishment.

Overall, though, Mara had me glued to the page and I'd be keen to read more of her work.

I inhaled this in one day. ‘No one saw a thing’ is the first book I have read by Andrea Marr but it definitely won’t be my last. This is perfectly paced - the reader is thrown into finding the missing child strsiaghtaway. Each chapter flips between present day events and the beginning of the family’s trip to London and the reunion of friends three days earlier and ensures that you can’t put the book down. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this fantastic read.

Andrea Mara hits the nail on the head yet again with "No One Saw A Thing."

Thrust into the action from the very first chapter, we go on a rollercoaster with Sive and Aaron as they try to figure out where six-year-old daughter Faye is after she accidentally gets on the tube with just her younger sister Bea, but only Bea is found when they finally get to her.

We alternate between past and present events, with Aaron's friends (the reason the family is in London) and possible suspects introduced every other chapter, and the events leading up to the disappearance slowly detailed. Current events are happening within the few hours of Faye's disappearance, adding to the sense of urgency pervasive throughout, and the past events are necessary interruptions to the frantic search - adding the juxtaposing elements of 'stop taking us away from the search from the child but we are also desperate to know all of these past details'.

The plot manages to be both incredibly slow (the agony of the parent's evident throughout the chapters) while also never pausing, building to something big, as all of the small details and events converge. The reader learns as much about the mystery as the characters do as the plot progresses which adds to the overall drama.

I couldn't put this book down once I picked it up properly - yet again, an action-packed thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end.

📖BOOK REVIEW📖
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

#NoOneSawAThing by #AndreaMara

⏩for synopsis

My second offering from this author and it didn’t disappoint… well not really…

Mara offers plenty here; the story, characters, situations, thrills were all on point and plentiful. Her writing is immersive, easy to follow/read and cliffhanger chapter endings kept you turning the page. The story although not unique, felt very fresh and different. It was whole without fault and completed satisfactorily.

The only disappointment for me was I guessed everything and I mean everything - I’m a seasoned thriller reader so this might not be the case for everyone, but yea it played out exactly as I knew it would. I will say I still enjoyed reading it but I was praying for a twist to surprise me or to be proved wrong but wasn’t to be…

Despite this, I still really enjoyed reading it and would recommend it to everyone who likes a good thriller!

With thanks to the author, @netgalley and #bantambooks for allowing us to read this one early!
@penguinrandomhouse

RELEASING: May 11th

-EMILY

@the_book_girls_1

Lots of twists and turns and thoroughly enjoyed this one. Felt slightly rushed at the very end but feel that's the nature of the story. Overall worth it and I'll be reading more of Andrea Mara's work

In a split second Sive's Monday morning dissolves into fear and panic when her 2 young daughters get on the tube ahead of her and the doors close while she's stuck on the platform. And on arrival at next stop only one daughter is there.
Sive, husband Aaron and 3 children are in London meeting Aaron's University friends, The weekend has been a mild success with back biting between the men and Sive just wants to be back in Dublin. But all of this fades into the distance when Faye goes missing.
The main story is set over one day and this keeps you enthralled in the story, you feel Sive's panic and worry. Lots of theories are in play and doubled up with the friends back stories it's hard to know who Sive and Aaron can trust. And as the reader, just when you think you've got it all sussed, Mara throws another red herrings into the plot.
A great fast paced novel
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