Stolen

 

It’s been awhile since I’ve had so many different “Look over here!” moments whiplashing my brain back and forth.  Tess Stimson could open her own fish market with the number of red herrings she packed in this book.  Ah, but they were all delicious!

The story sets up brilliantly with a prologue that prepares you for a riveting finale.  The sense of dread is palpable from the get-go, and the rest of the story the reader is along for the ride just waiting to get back to that prologue and make sense of it. 

Lottie Martini is a willful, stubborn, preternaturally clever three-year-old girl who demands every ounce of energy her mother Alexa, a high profile attorney, can give her.  Alexa doesn’t come by mothering naturally - Lottie wasn’t planned - but she would give life and limb for this little ball of fire she gave birth to.  After losing her ex-husband and Lottie’s father, Luca, in an accident, she’s doing all she can to raise her daughter, but things don’t always go as planned: 

Like the day of her friend’s wedding. The day her daughter disappears.

The judgement of Alexa’s parenting is swift, as was the case in the referenced real-life case of Madeline McCann.  Why wasn’t Alexa watching her more closely at the wedding reception instead of having a romantic interlude with a handsome fellow attendee?  Mothers, of all people, should know where their child is every second of every day, right?  Life doesn’t work that way, but tell the media/social media “jurors” that.  

Alexa’s  journey through judgement, pain, madness and fear as she searches for Lottie is agonizing, and as the years go by, you feel her pain and desperation, even if she isn’t always likable in her pursuit.  You want the happy ending, but you’re never sure if you’re going to get it, and as the story progresses, you’re increasingly unsure you can believe any of the narrative presented to you, which kept me off-kilter enough to not guess the ending. Stimson threw one major twist at me that had me doubting every single event I’d read up to that point, and I LOVE when authors can do that!

While child abduction stories are never fun and light, this was a fantastic and dynamic, edge-of-your-seat story that had me rooting for Alexa the whole way.  The ending requires some suspension of disbelief, but it totally worked.  If you like twisty turny,  flip-you-on-your-head mystery/suspense, I highly recommend this!

★★★★ ½ 

Many thanks to Avon UK Publishing, NetGalley, and author Tess Stimson for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.  This is due for publication August 5, 2021.