In The Missing Hours, Emma Kavanagh has created a crime thriller unlike any others I have read. The K&R background, coupled with the more familiar underworld of drugs and murder, give this book an edge over other new releases. It is rare to find a book that deals with something entirely new, but this book does just that.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish this book, so don't feel able to give it a constructive review at this time, I will revisit at another time and review again

I would like to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book. I enjoyed it, it had plenty of twists and kept me guessing until the end.

Really enjoyable read. Good characters and a Good story. Well worth a read. Think others will. Enjoy

The Missing Hours is told from multiple points of view, has some fascinating characters, a fascinating background, a really engaging and well plotted mystery story and is beautifully written throughout.

Can the case of a missing woman and the murder of a solicitor be intertwined?
The policists are puzzled, too.
Then Selena Cole returns, with amnesia of the last couple of hours.
Yet, there is a bot too much of the unknown in the air. Is somebody lying? But who? To whom? And, the ultimate question - why?

3.5 stars.

This is a psychological police procedural, with the emphasis on the psychological. Much of its weight lies on the psychological aspects - feelings, intuition, the internal processes, thoughts and feelings of the characters. Which I very much like, I like my novels being deeper than just the sleuthing.
But the psychological aspect here is stronger than the real detection. The novel really is about something else that it says that it is, so to say. The murder mystery gets a bit backseated here - and I feel there should be more attention given into plotting it and solving it.
But all the thought, knowledge of people and the deep empathy behind all this work is too precious not to win the war of thoughts here. So yes, I vote for this novel as an interesting piece of police procedural mystery.
And I would read more of Ms Kavanagh. Fingers crossed for the same level of psychological knowledge and a bit more smartness in her detectives, too!

I really liked this book. The concept of a brother and sister (Finn and Leah) who are both police officers and work in the same office is a novel idea and as it is written in the first person you get to see the thoughts of both of these great characters. Leah is involved in a missing person case, Selena Cole disappears for 20 hours but when she returns Leah is unsure that she is being completely honest about her missing hours. When she is moved to another case she sees some connections between the two cases and the plot twists and turns and keeps the reader guessing along the way. Selena and her late husband are active in the Kidnap and Ransom Business and this adds an intriguing twist to the story. Does their risky business have anything to do with Selena's disappearance? Eventually Finn and Leah manage to answer that questions. A great read!

Surprisingly good, compelling novel.
I thought this was an excellent book - it was a crime/police novel but so much better than that can often be. It also had elements of thriller, psychological thriller and also what was, to me, the best things - finding out about something you didn't know much about. Sometimes that can be a country or a place; in this book it was the world of kidnap and ransom. Interspersed in the book are 'case notes' from the company featured - yes, this is a novel and they are all made up, but for me it indicated a certain level of research and careful thought. I thoroughly enjoyed this and found it very hard to put the book down, and hope that the author features the police brother and sister in other novels - I might overcome my aversion to police procedurals to read them. My only niggle is that I hate this trend for long titles 'A compulsive psychological...' but the book had been on my kindle long enough to forget that, and seeing what the author did, does explain a lot.

I didnt enjoy this book. I found it just dragged on and I unfortunetly had to give up half way.

Really enjoyed this crime thriller. Great cast of characters and a gripping and entertaining plot with enough twists and surprises to keep this reader guessing. I Couldn't put it down.

I really enjoyed this book. The Missing Hours is told from multiple points of view. British crime at it's best. Love to see what the author has next in store!

*Full review available on the blog*

A mystery novel that blends a disappearance case with a murder investigation, this book begs the question of what happened in the hours between the two crimes and questions whether they could possibly be related. The investigation is well thought out and the dual perspectives of the detectives ensure that the plot moves along quickly, with there also being case files along the way to give examples of how kidnap for ransom operates. This is an easy book to lose yourself in for a few hours if you’re a fan of the mystery genre.

A murky world that we are exposed to.
Serena Cole goes missing, leaving her children in the park. At the same time the body of a defence lawyer is found. Could there be links between the cases?
In this case, we know that's inevitable. This is rather more focused on us working out just how the two cases are connected, and who does what.
Told from multiple viewpoints this is a story packed full of intrigue. Alongside the investigation into a murder in Herefordshire we are exposed to the workings of a kidnap and ransom group.
I was hooked on this from the moment I picked it up. The shifting perspectives meant it was quite a slippery read, and I wasn't ever fully certain what revelation we'd get next. Sadly I felt some of the links were just too neat (ultimately) but the senseless nature of some of the events was quite upsetting.
Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for my review.

The plot of this book sounded so interesting! I thought it would be really fun to try and piece together someones whereabouts when they have absolutely no memory of what happened. However the story for me was just not gripping enough.

The twists in this book were pretty easy to guess, there were some parts where I was mildly surprised but the majority of the major twists were pretty easy to guess. Everything just seemed really obvious and that is not what you want during a crime thriller. I wanted action packed thriller where we know who did it but we want to find out why and how. Instead we get a slow build up that by the time you get there you've already figured it out and you no longer really care.

The murdered guy wasn't that interesting so finding his killer wasn't all that interesting. All the little red herrings that are supposed to throw you off can easily be seen through and so that ruined the story for me a bit.

However one of the main parts of this story is that there is a large emphasis in the kidnap and ransom business. Admittedly I was not aware that there were people who risk their lives to go out and rescue people, I just thought it was a professional negotiator with the police who handled all that. So that was really interesting to read about and was probably the most interesting aspect of the whole book.

All in all I felt as though the book could have been a lot shorter, I felt as though the ending could have been easily guessed and I just didn't really care for any of the characters. I think there are a lot more crime thrillers out there which are better than this.

Part of the reason that I loved this book was the inclusion of the various K & R case details, something that most of us know nothing about. So on top of the fascinating plot, readers were also able to enjoy some down to earth, possibly close to factual, information regarding the family line of business. Unfortunately I did forsee the ending quite early on for some reason, might have been nothing more than my excellent intuition skills, but nevertheless I highly recommend this book. The characters were presented in a way that you could easily visualise them and the police officers similarly so. Excellent read.

This book Was archived before I could read it and review it.

Unfortunately this book did not download on to my Kindle so I cannot give an honest review

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review. Life got in the way of reading this when I planned to last year, but what a treat for the early days of this year.
I have read several psychological thrillers written by psychology professionals and I love how detailed they are and Emma Kavanagh's writing is very good indeed.
No spoilers in this, I will just say that we have a convoluted plot with two seemingly unconnected strands that all come together. I didn't work out any of the plot, but on reflection, there were subtle clues. When I read my next book by the author, I will pay far more attention. I plan on reading everything she has written, that's how much I loved this novel.