Jane Shemilt

'I don't know why. I still don't know why we had to check. Did we really think you would be there, curled up and sleeping on the stage? That we could wake you and that you would smile and stretch, sleepy and stiff, with some explanation about taking too long to change? That we would put our arms round you, and take you home?' Naomi has vanished, leaving her family broken and her mother Jenny desperately searching for answers. But the traces fifteen year-old Naomi's left behind reveal a very different girl to the one Jenny thought she'd raised. And the more she looks the more she learns that everyone she trusted has been keeping secrets. Who is the real Naomi? And will discovering the truth help to find her?

Daughter

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER AND RUNAWAY RICHARD & JUDY PHENOMENON There's a stranger in your daughter's room. It's your daughter . . . Naomi is missing. Her mother Jenny is desperately searching for answers. Is finding her the only way to put their family back together? Or will discovering the truth about Naomi finally tear them apart? 'We absolutely loved this' Richard & Judy Book Club 'Thrilling' Sunday Express 'Taut and thought-provoking' Woman & Home 'Clever' Sun 'Utterly gripping' Mail On Sunday

I really liked it. I was a little disappointed there was no final closure at the end, but I still enjoyed it. Naomi was a bit of a spoiled madam though.

Sarah Chauvidon

A riveting psychological thriller about a mother's obsessive search for her missing daughter. Jenny is a successful doctor, the mother of three great teenagers, married to a celebrated neurosurgeon. But when her youngest child, fifteen-year-old Naomi, doesn't come home from a school play, Jenny's seemingly ideal life begins to crumble. There is a nationwide search with no success. Naomi has vanished, and her family is broken. As the months pass, the worst-case scenarios--kidnapping, murder--seem less plausible. Yet more than a year later, a desperate Jenny is still digging for answers--and what she finds disturbs her. Everyone she's trusted, everyone she thought she knew, has been keeping secrets, especially Naomi. Piecing together the traces her daughter left behind, Jenny discovers a very different Naomi from girl she thought she'd raised. Jenny knows she'll never be able to find Naomi unless she uncovers the whole truth--a twisting, painful journey into the past that will lead to an almost unthinkable revelation... --Tess Gerritsen, bestselling author of Last to Die

The Daughter

shellybn

** spoiler alert **
           Spoiler Alert!!

This started out to be an intriguing mystery. I did not like the way it was resolved. There were also plot points that served as red herrings that I did not think need to be included.

For example, one thing that bothered me was the description of Theo's photography portfolio. It included some topless/nude photos of his sister. While these were described as being artistic and posed outside in trees, I cannot believe that any brother would ask his sister to pose nude for him, and that any sister would agree to do so. Maybe I am a prude, but it was very much outside of my comfort zone and made me go "ick." It tainted the book for me. I think this is why I dropped the score from a three to a two. I'm sure this was included to make Theo a viable suspect, but I thought it was unnecessary. If that does not bother you, stop reading this review now and read the book. 

In the last 75 pages, one fact that would have solved the mystery a year earlier was finally revealed. The solution to the mystery was unsatisfactory. I found the resolution preposterous, and the idea that an entire group of people would lie to cover up for a stranger who technically was the reason for police action that cost the life of a beloved member of that community, is also implausible.

It was as if Shemlit wanted to create an intriguing missing person mystery (which she did) but at the last minute was too afraid to put her characters through the brutal tragedy of losing a relative in a heinous way. Lisa Jewell addressed this kind of a scenario in a much better way in "Then She Was Gone." 

I enjoyed the story, other than the ick factor and the resolution. It isn't enough to keep me from reading more of Shemlit's work, but she probably will not be first on my list, either.

katie 

** spoiler alert **
           I didn’t like how this book was written in chapters separated by the past and the present it really confused me and I forgot what was going on. (specially if I went to get a cup of tea and then I came back the book wouldn’t make sense straight away and I’d have to re read a bit of the book.) In my opinion she should have split the book into part 1 and part 2. Part one should have been the past and Part two should be he future. I didn’t really get how the book ended!?! I know that that was Naomi at the end of the book but why didn’t Jenny go over and talk to her. The whole point of the book was that she was trying to find her daughter and bring her back home. How could she leave her 6 month old granddaughter and her 16 year old daughter behind. Didn’t she want family?? As all her family had left her and all she had was her dog?? How come even after a year she was still trying to find her daughter and even when she had found her she just left her and ignored her.

Carli Dunbar 

Mitz

Lorraine

Melany Gironelli 

Jenny is a successful family doctor, the mother of three great teenagers, married to a celebrated neurosurgeon. But when her youngest child, fifteen-year-old Naomi, doesn't come home after her school play, Jenny's seemingly ideal life begins to crumble. The authorities launch a nationwide search with no success. Naomi has vanished, and her family is broken. As the months pass, the worst-case scenarios—kidnapping, murder—seem less plausible. The trail has gone cold. Yet, for a desperate Jenny, the search has barely begun. More than a year after her daughter's disappearance, she's still digging for answers—and what she finds disturbs her. Everyone she's trusted, everyone she thought she knew, has been keeping secrets, especially Naomi. Piecing together the traces her daughter left behind, Jenny discovers a very different Naomi from the girl she thought she'd raised. Jenny knows she'll never be able to find Naomi unless she uncovers the whole truth about her daughter—a twisting, painful journey into the past that will lead to an almost unthinkable revelation. . . .

Daughter

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