This novel raced home to a place on my shelf but I did find it got off to a slow start and didn't really pick up its pace (or grip my interest) till halfway round the course.
However, the tension was beautifully tightened, and occasionally slackened to increase suspense, throughout the book. And the atmosphere swung between chillingly creepy and friendly good humour which all worked very well to keep the reader guessing. I did guess a few things right but was hit with a wallop of surprise several times toward the end so the story undoubtedly played out well. I just wished I hadn't needed to work quite so hard to stick with it in the first half.
Lexie Elliott's motif of starting every chapter with a carefully thought-through scenario is quite brilliant. Each gives a possible present location and lifestyle which Ailsa has imagined over the many years of her father's disappearance.
However, the tension was beautifully tightened, and occasionally slackened to increase suspense, throughout the book. And the atmosphere swung between chillingly creepy and friendly good humour which all worked very well to keep the reader guessing. I did guess a few things right but was hit with a wallop of surprise several times toward the end so the story undoubtedly played out well. I just wished I hadn't needed to work quite so hard to stick with it in the first half.
Lexie Elliott's motif of starting every chapter with a carefully thought-through scenario is quite brilliant. Each gives a possible present location and lifestyle which Ailsa has imagined over the many years of her father's disappearance.