“Murderers are rarely who you imagine them to be . . . ” One moment, Selena Cole is at the playground with her children . . . the next, she has vanished without a trace. The body of Dominic Newell, a well-respected lawyer, is found on a remote mountain road, blood oozing from the stab wound in his neck. In the sleepy borderland between England and Wales, serious crimes are rare. Which makes this … serious crimes are rare. Which makes this Tuesday morning, with two calls coming in to the local police station, even more remarkable. Detective Constable Leah Mackay and her brother, Detective Sergeant Finn Hale, soon find their respective investigations inextricably linked. And when Selena reappears alive and unhurt twenty hours later, the mystery deepens.
Selena’s work consulting on kidnap and ransom cases has brought her into close contact with ruthless criminals and international drug lords. But now, as Selena walks back into her life, blood-spattered, claiming no memory of the preceding hours, Leah can’t be sure if she is a victim, a liar, or a suspect.
Leah and Finn delve into each case, untangling the secrets and betrayals—large and small—that can lie just beneath the surface of a life, yet unprepared for where each trail will lead . . .
“We predict big things for Emma Kavanagh . . . addictive.”
—Good Housekeeping
“A born storyteller with room to grow.”
—Publishers Weekly
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This was a very predictable thriller, with a few twists. The characters were somewhat likable. Overall the book was just ok.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
A devoted mother of two disappears for two days. When she turns up, she cannot remember where she has been. If you are unaware of the K&R industry (Kidnap and Ransom), you will be by the time you finish this book.
This was a really interesting book and I liked that it centered around a topic that I know little about: kidnap and ransom.
The story itself has two central storylines. In the first, a mother of two young children goes missing. She’s gone for several hours and then is found. She cannot remember where she’s been or what happened to her during those missing hours. The second part is the investigation of a murdered solicitor. What appears to be two completely isolated occurrences start to weave together to create a captivating story.
The story is primarily narrated by the two detectives on each case, who just happen to be brother and sister. Each of them have things going on in their personal lives which impact the story as well. In between the feelings of the two detectives, the readers get case notes from various kidnap and ransom stories that used the assistance of the Cole Group (Selena Cole is the missing and found again woman). The kidnap and ransom stories add depth to the story and also (while unseemingly) provide insight and clues to what is really going on.
Overall, this was a good book. My main criticism was that I sometimes I got lost in the narration. I would have to reread bits to understand things like who was speaking, what point in time it is, etc.
As a whole though, a good book with unique subject matter!
Enjoyable thriller with limited graphic description of violence and limited if any obscene language.
Good plot but too much unnecessary info and plot jumping. I finished it because of the basic good plot
The Missing Hours started off really well with Heather finding her younger sister Tara all alone in the park and their mother, Selena Cole is nowhere to be found. The author pulls you right In with the questions of What happened to the Selena? Did she just leave her kids?
I must admit I had high hopes for this book with how it began but slowly this book lost me. The book went into perspectives of two different people DC Leah Mackay who is assigned the case of the missing Selena Cole and her brother DS Finn Hale who is investigating the murder of a lawyer which you find out later has connections to Selena and her family. At points I had trouble following who was who and I did skim through some paragraphs because I was so far into the book I had to know how it ended. It wasn’t an awful book it just added unnecessary things that I could have been okay without.
Overall I did eventually enjoy this book and the ended took me by surprise.
The Missing Hours by author Emma Kavanagh will keep you guessing as you read! Dr. Selena Cole, a young widow is at a playground with her two girls and mysteriously vanishes. A neighbor sees the little girls and takes them to her home and then calls Selena’s sister-in-law, Orla. DC Leah MacKay with the police is called in and this starts an investigation into the possibilities of what has happened to Selena. Orla is distraught at the disappearance of Selena within a year of the death of her brother Ed.
Across town the mysterious murder of a prominent lawyer, Dominic Newell has DS Finn Hale searching for answers as to why Dominic’s body was tossed along a deserted country road. As the cases progress Finn’s sister DI Leah MacKay thinks the two cases are linked in some way.
I won’t post spoilers, but the plot of the story is very interesting. Dr. Selena Cole and her husband were co-owners of a company with Orla and her husband Seth, The Cole Group. They worked as negotiators for a global Insurance company who covers the ransom for people of interest who have been kidnapped for money. Kidnapping for ransom has become a side business with drug cartels and military extremists in other countries. Since the governmental protocol is never to pay ransom to kidnappers, the only recourse for business with employees in high-risk countries is to have a private negotiator on call without police or government intervention.
There are several possibilities for Selena’s disappearance and for Dominic’s murder. Selena and Orla know Dominic but for different reasons. The mystery deepens the more you read.
The case studies for The Cole Group were very interesting to read and contained some well-hidden clues!