Author: Susan Allott
Published: April 2021 by The Borough Press (paperback edition)
Category: Literary Fiction, Historical, Mystery, Book Review
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A missing woman
30 years ago, in the suffocating heat of a Sydney summer, the Greens’ next-door neighbour Mandy disappeared without a trace.
A cold case reopened
In 1997, in a basement flat in Hackney, Isla Green is awakened by a call in the middle of the night: her father is under suspicion of Mandy’s murder.
A devastating secret
How well does Isla know her father? Is he capable of doing something terrible? And is there another secret in their community – a conspiracy of silence which stretches deep into Australia’s past?
After reading FictionFan’s review I knew this would be a book I’d enjoy, and I certainly did! In 1997 Isla Green was living in London and, awakened at 2am one night by a phone call from her father in Australia, she knew immediately something was wrong. Her father never called. He hated the telephone and always wrote letters.
Thirty years ago, when Isla was living with her parents in Australia, their next door neighbours were Mandy and Steve, another young couple. When Mandy disappeared suddenly it was thought she was escaping from a broken marriage to begin a new life, but she hasn’t been seen or heard from since and her family are trying to contact her. The police now believe Mandy’s disappearance was suspicious, and since Joe Green was the last person to see her alive, he is a person of interest.
She sits cross-legged on the carpet, in the middle of her life, in its crisp central crease. She is thirty-five years old, tall and lean; striking, people say. A body that has been neglected but is still strong, surprisingly resilient. A thick head of hair, cropped short at the back; blonde strands on top that grow up and out, like a dandelion. A woman whose life took a nosedive, who is getting herself together, who needs to be careful. Whose father is silent at the end of the line, asking her wordlessly to come home.
Wasn’t this a stunning debut novel! Glad you loved it. ❤📚
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It absolutely was!
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Surprisingly my very inadequate library had this one so I’m picking it up this afternoon. Great review!
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Thank you! I hope you enjoy 🙂
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Oh, I’m so glad you enjoyed it – isn’t it a great debut? I suspect it will end up in my Best of the Year round-up. I didn’t know that that had happened in Australia either, although I knew a very similar policy had been in place in Canada. Thanks for the link! 😀
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You’re welcome 🙂 I was really impressed.
I’d only heard of children taken from orphanages which is bad enough but to take them from their family is beyond belief.
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