Why do i do this to myself? The first book i choose to read after the arrival of baby number 3 is about a baby being kidnapped….

What the sleeve says:

Your neighbour told you that she didn’t want your six-month-old daughter at the dinner party. Nothing personal, she just couldn’t stand her crying. Your husband said it would be fine. After all, you only live next door. You’ll have the baby monitor and you’ll take it in turns to go back every half hour. Your daughter was sleeping when you checked on her last. But now, as you race up the stairs in your deathly quiet house, your worst fears are realised. She’s gone. You’ve never had to call the police before. But now they’re in your home, and who knows what they’ll find there. What would you be capable of, when pushed past your limit? How well do we ever know those around us?

The novels opens brilliantly and you are instantly hooked. You feel the panic and the urgency as the police arrive to the house. They find tyre tracks in the garage and the motion sensor in the back garden has been tampered with although they can find no evidence that anyone else has been in the house. Cadaver dogs are employed and the sense of dread and despair deepens. Are the parents, Anne and Marco Conti, themselves falling under suspicion? Something doesn’t ‘feel right’ to the detective about Marco’s behavior and Anne who is clearly very distraught has been quite lost and depressed since the birth of her daughter.

Anne’s parents who are very wealthy arrive on the scene and the possibility of this being a kidnapping for ransom begins to open up and with that a sense of hope that the baby , Cora, is still alive. As the story starts to unfold, new evidence and avenues of investigation start to emerge quickly throwing shade on this family and suggestions of multiple motives, senarios and suspects.

So far so good but when Lapena starts to deliver the answers the novel starts to slip and the big ‘whodunnit’ moment is a bit of an anti-climax. My interest did start to wane although i continued with the novel quickly hoping that the initial pace and intrigue that she started with would return but sadly it does not . Nonetheless this is a better than average novel and i give it a 3 star * DublinMummy rating.

Have you read it? Did you love or loathe it? Let me know in the comments and if you have any good book recommendations i would love to hear them.

Happy reading,

Dublin Mummy x

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* DublinMummy book rating guide
1 star = don’t waste your time or money | 2 star = fair | 3 star = good
4 star = very good | 5 star = excellent