Elizabeth is missing. Possibly. Her good friend Maud certainly thinks that something is wrong but Maud is both forgetful and old and so the chances of someone listening to her concerns are slim to none. Luckily, whether it be peach purchasing or friend finding, Maud doesn’t let her descent into dementia daunt her and so she sets off [repeatedly, slowly] to uncover the truth about Elizabeth’s whereabouts. As Maud potters through her investigation she has trouble remembering the clues that she has unearthed regarding Elizabeth but somehow finds her recollections of the past and the long ago disappearance of her beloved sister Sukey becoming distressingly more clear. Elizabeth is Missing is an interesting, sometimes frustrating, exploration of Maud’s mental decline and of the strength of her determination to uncover the truth despite her difficulties and the obstacles that other people might or might not be putting in her way. The location of Elizabeth is a puzzler but the true heart of the mystery plaguing Maud is the historical disappearance of her sister and how not knowing what became of Sukey has been praying on her mind far more than she ever realised.

This book is a fantastic one and really opens your eyes to dementia. I sadly lost a close friend recently who had developed demtia before she died. I wanted to read this book to get a better understanding of the condition and it definitely did not disappoint. It's funny in parts bit also serious and very educational. Well worth a read!

A really enjoyable read although not one of my favourite books. I found Mauds a really intriguing character. The story was heartbreaking as you follow her health and love for her sister and friend. Once the plot picked up I read 150 pages in one sitting because I needed to know what had happened in 1946.

'Elizabeth is Missing' follows the story of Maud; a determined elderly woman who doesn't quite know how rapidly her memory is deteriorating, all Maud wants to do is find her best friend Elizabeth. She doesn't know why she's gone or where she's gone, just that she has to find her. To help her remember things, Maud keeps little notes in her pockets to try and help remind her of what's going on, but they're not always much help. The story switches between the present and the past, when Maud was a little girl and she was trying to find out what had happened to her older sister Sukey (who also disappeared suddenly). This book by Emma Healey is painfully beautiful and incredibly written. The unclear transitions between the past and the present emphasises Maud's condition and how things become muddled in her own head. You can't help but feel heartbroken when Maud feels rejected and cast aside when nobody will tell her where Elizabeth is (she's been told several times, she just can't remember), and when she starts to forget who people are. I genuinely feel like this book has changed how sympathetic I am for the family members who are carers for sufferers of Alzheimers and Dementia, and how I might have treated people with this disease in the future. If that's not what makes a great book, I don't know what does.

I asked for this book to review because it has been splashed across book pages in the national newspapers, radio book programmes and the Internet as “the book to read this year”. What they do not say is that you will invest emotionally into the book – I was very emotionally attached to the character of Maud who is the main protagonist in the novel. Maud is in the middle stages of dementia (I have some personal experience of this as a family member suffers with this also). Maud is living in her own home, with a carer in the morning, with most of the caring being done by her daughter who comes in each day to check on her. Her son lives in Germany and comes only once a year to visit his mother. The premise of the book is that her friend Elizabeth is missing but there is another underlying mystery that Maud also wants to find out what has happened – that of her older sister Susan, known as Sookie, who disappeared when Maud was much younger, but nobody seems to know what has happened to her. There is also a lodger in the story, Douglas who comes to live with them after his house got bombed in the war. Maud’s mind deteriorates rapidly throughout the book, she relies more on the past rather than the present, which makes upsetting reading. I liked the cover of the book, I did not realise it at first, but these are clues that will help to solve the underlying mystery. The end of the book is quite choppily done, it could have a bit less barely laid out. Overall, an interesting concept which has been well executed, do not think this is a keeper book for me, I would be interested in seeing more of this author’s work in the future.