Publication Date: 22nd March 2018 from Mirror Books
Source: Netgalley
On a cold, dark February morning, Chris and Leah Hills stop for coffee at an isolated service station a stone’s throw from the Welsh Borders. While Leah heads inside, Chris locks the car and goes in to order their drinks.
Minutes pass. Chris waits and waits, but Leah doesn’t come back. When Sergeant Mel Daley and her boss, Detective Inspector Harry Baker, arrive to begin a search for the missing woman, their investigation calls everything into question. Is she alive? Did she leave the service station with someone else? Did Leah ever even leave Norfolk? While her husband becomes more frantic, the pair begin to unravel a tangle of dark secrets from the past.
I read Losing Leah today in two sittings – highly addictive and a clever crime drama in the way it played out, some well layered characters and a different vibe to the construction that made it difficult to put down once started.
I don’t think I ever had any doubt about what had happened to Leah – which was confirmed by the ultimate resolution – but that really wasn’t what intrigued me. Hence I loved it. An intelligent take on a crime thriller, an enigmatic puzzle of character rather than of happenstance with some engaging police characters and a hugely compelling psychological element.
Another huge strength was in fact the more procedural elements – an investigation playing out in front of your eyes in a highly authentic feeling way, the setting is also well described (and I actually know the small market town in Norfolk mentioned, I stayed there one year so that made it all the more fun to read) – so the addictive quality is there, the storytelling is brilliant and you’ve really got everything you could want from a crime novel right here within this read.
I’ve not read Sue Welfare’s other novels as yet – but if she writes more crime you can be certain I’ll be at the front of the queue.
Recommended.
Happy Reading!
