Gilly Macmillan

9 giorni

In her enthralling debut, Gilly Macmillan explores a mother’s search for her missing son, weaving a taut psychological thriller as gripping and skillful as The Girl on the Train and The Guilty One. In a heartbeat, everything changes… Rachel Jenner is walking in a Bristol park with her eight-year-old son, Ben, when he asks if he can run ahead. It’s an ordinary request on an ordinary Sunday afternoon, and Rachel has no reason to worry—until Ben vanishes. Police are called, search parties go out, and Rachel, already insecure after her recent divorce, feels herself coming undone. As hours and then days pass without a sign of Ben, everyone who knew him is called into question, from Rachel’s newly married ex-husband to her mother-of-the-year sister. Inevitably, media attention focuses on Rachel too, and the public’s attitude toward her begins to shift from sympathy to suspicion. As she desperately pieces together the threadbare clues, Rachel realizes that nothing is quite as she imagined it to be, not even her own judgment. And the greatest dangers may lie not in the anonymous strangers of every parent’s nightmares, but behind the familiar smiles of those she trusts the most. Where is Ben? The clock is ticking...

A Novel

What She Knew

brie

this was way too long for how little it said and the story ran around in circles too much. however, i enjoyed the procedural aspects because they were very well done. the mystery was not anything mind blowing either. i definitely expected more from this one and it could have delivered a little bit more!

I liked the rest of the book but one thing I appreciate (sorta) is that it isn’t a 100% happy ending. Now I am the first to say I require happy ending. If I read a spoiler that tells me it’s going to be a gut wrenching ending then I will either dnf the book or just not pick it up. With this book I liked that [spoiler] Ben returns home so there is a happy ending but there is also a realistic element in how he behaves once home.

Somya Verma

Jessicamarie Fox

Super slow up to the halfway point, however improved and read the second half within a few hours.

Vanessa Arenas

I am not even a mom and this book got me paranoid about child abduction. It shows statistics and you can tell the author researched well the topic before writing the book. As you read you really get to feel the emptiness and desperation the mother feels when her child goes missing. It also shows you the reality of the media and the people outside judging the parents and playing cop themselves. The book starts with the abduction of little Ben and the remaining 400 pages are the whole investigation. If you like suspense and mystery this book is for you. The whole time you are trying to figure out who the abductor is and if little Ben is still alive. With many twists, you would never expect the ending. I don't give it a 5-star review because I thought it was a little extensive and it didn't really become a page-turner until it was close to the end. However, it was a very interesting book with all the facts it has on child abduction and I loved the suspense and twists. Let me know your thoughts if you have read it!

erica

Ho amato follemente questo giallo un po' psicologico. Fin dall'inizio si viene catapultati nella storia e non se ne esce più; ti fa venire voglia di andare avanti, di sapere, di non fermarti, seguire le indagini. Ho amato il modo in cui noi lettori possiamo seguire il caso passo per passo, i cambi di POV, analizzare ogni singolo personaggio.

Nedu

This was a page turner and one where I actually didn't guess who the perpetrator was (I know I'm shocked too). Rachel's narrative draws you in from her first sentence and you really go on this journey with her.

Jill Basilone

An interesting look from the perspective of the victim's family. Enthralling! Kept my attention throughout and I enjoyed all of the characters. First time in a long time I didn't get bored with a book 1/2 way through.
Great job!

Lauren Attaway

This book more than met my expectations, and I'm so mad it took me this long to read. Suspenseful, sincere and I couldn't stop reading. I didn't want it to end.

Oh, this was bad.

It's not the narration in the audiobook. I was glad for it, because I could simply speed up the narration instead of having this be a DNF, but it got close.

Main Character was a horrible character, in that she just had so much raw emotion and pathos driven passages that I stopped feeling bad for her early on, and switching around the POV was annoying and frankly, confusing. I think it would have been better to switch between the mom and the abductor, or the cop and the abductor, rather than ignoring the abductor until the very end.

I wouldn't recommend it personally. I think it was slow, didn't give the message it was so desperate to tell the reader, and allowed it to fizzle to wishing something would happen, even if it was bad for the kid.

Nash

I really like this book much more than what I was expecting. This is the story of mother fighting to find her abducted child. It’s a regular day and Rachel is walking in the park with her son Ben. Nothing about that day stands out from their regular routine. That is until she lets Ben run ahead of her. When she keeps walking and there is no sign of Ben, Rachel just thinks that he is hiding from her, playing a prank, like a kid does. She starts calling his name but gets no response. It doesn’t take her long to understand what is happening. As soon as the police gets involved and the media gets a hold of the story, everyone is fast to get to conclusions and point fingers. Rachel gets accused of multiple things. Secrets that she couldn’t even imagine begin to surface and she finds herself lost and doesn’t know what do to to get her son back to her. BUT, she’s resilient, she doesn’t stop, she doesn’t give up and even when the police is not taking her seriously she does everything in her power to find Ben. This story, more than a thriller, is about doing the impossible for the people you love and the lengths mothers are willing to go for their children. It was wonderful listening to the audiobook and now I want to own the physical copy and re-read it. Give the characters “my own voices” and enjoy it better. To my understanding, this book is the first of the Jim Clemo series? He is the detective in charge of Ben’s case. It’s called Odd Child Out. I already have it on my shelf and will be starting it soon. So excited. Give it a try and let me know what you think! ✨

Devyn Price

Mitz

Rachel Jenner turned her back for a moment. Now her eight-year-old son Ben is missing. But what really happened that fateful afternoon? Caught between her personal tragedy and a public who have turned against her, there is nobody left who Rachel can trust. But can the nation trust Rachel? The clock is ticking to find Ben alive. WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?

9 giorni

Reviews