Never Came Home by Gretta Mulrooney

This is a detective story which looks into the disappearance of a single mother. After the initial set-up, with perspectives from the daughter of the missing woman (an 18-year-old on her prom night) and her nine year old son, the story jumps ahead about seven years and focuses on the detectives looking into the re-opened case and the woman's family. We see how the dynamics have changed, how the daughter has married the boyfriend her mother didn't approve of, and the son who has become increasingly withdrawn.

There are a lot of characters in this story, some deliberately unlikable or odd and two-dimensional, while there are plenty of well-rounded ones. The story is set in a fictitious market town and seaside resort called Berminster, in Sussex. There are many perspectives as the story is told, often briefly, from their point of view. It is good that the central characters in the police investigation have rounded lives without being too intrusive into the story. My favourite is the weird teenaged son. His thoughts, actions and speech are very plausible.

This is a good detective story with new characters appearing throughout, making the whodunnit aspect intense. Maybe one or two descriptions could be cut, but this is a good read. Recommended.

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Published by Joffe Books on 6 October 2020.
​Advance review copy supplied by the publisher.

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