An author from my local area who discusses places you visit is a joy. I have only listened to KL Slater on audible prior to this. The story of Saffy and her complex life driven by life events and caring for those around her,receives athree messages that once she has read them are deleted. A cry for help from a friend -what shoudl she do. What follows is a puzzle that slowly unfurls and tests your nerve. The pages fly by The charachters are so well written you will love some,you will hate some and you will champion Saffy. Brilliant

Saffy and Leona have been best friends since school and they have shared so much in the years since. So when Saffy receives a WhatsApp message from her friend asking for help, even though the message is almost immediately deleted, she walks out of an interview to be there for Leona. However, when she arrives at Leona’s house, all seems to be okay even though Saffy can’t shake off a feeling that something is amiss. A few hours later, the police are knocking on Saffy’s door: Leona and her family have disappeared and there is a lot of blood on the scene. There starts a brilliant thriller, which had me hooked. The police are convinced Saffy is behind it all so Saffy’s best chance at her proving her innocence is to try and find out what really happened and where her friend is. This isn’t as easy as it looks and everyone is and has been keeping secrets! The story is told from multiple aspects, both in terms of characters and also timelines. We get a glimpse into the past, into Saffy’s relationship with Leona but also Saffy’s sister, Poppy, who suffered a terrifying attack just three years ago, which nearly left her dead - all bringing us to a very satisfying conclusion at the end. And just when you think, you might have it figured out…. think again! A fab, easy to read thriller - you will be turning the pages and reading “just one more chapter”.

I've recently gotten really into thriller books and when I got an email from netgalley advertising this book I found the concept really intriguing. We follow Saffy, who one day gets a couple of messages from her friend asking her to come quickly, but the messages get deleted as Saffy is reading them. When she gets to her friends house the friend acts as though she doesn't know what Saffy is talking about and you sort of assume this is because she is scared of her husband and doesn't want her husband to realise that she's asked for help. Saffy stays for a little while, plays with her friends daughter to make sure she's ok and then heads home. Then the next day the police turn up at her doorstep. Her friend, the husband and the daughter are missing and Saffy was the last person to see them. Throughout the story we follow Saffy as she becomes a suspect in the disappearance and we see how she tries to clear her name, as well as following a couple of other characters and what they've been getting up to. Having read a lot of thrillers recently I've learnt not to trust any character and almost every character we come across has a potential motive so for me it wasn't obvious who was responsible which I liked. When we do find out who it was, I appreciated that it was a character that did have a good plot line within the story as I've read other authors in the past were the perpetrator is someone who was barely even mentioned and sort of just appears from nowhere. So this tied everything up neatly and made sense. I will definitely read more by this author.

A great psychological thriller. Saffy is an anxious young woman and once we learn her back story you can realise why . She receives a strange message from her best friend Leona , so Saffy goes to see her . Leona seems fine and is adamant she didn’t send the message . Saffy doesn’t like Ash Leona’s husband and is convinced that he is abusing his wife . Later that day Leona and her family go missing and Saffy was the last person to see them and is the prime suspect for their disappearance. There are plenty of twists and turns that kept me gripped ! An enjoyable read! Thanks to NetGalley and Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House .