Apologies for the general email, but I desperately need your help.
My goddaughter, Coco Jackson, disappeared from her family’s holiday home in Bournemouth on the night of Sunday/Monday August 29/30th, the bank holiday weekend just gone. Coco is three years old.
When identical twin Coco goes missing during a family celebration, there is a media frenzy. Her parents are rich and influential, as are the friends they were with at their holiday home by the sea.
But what really happened to Coco?
Over two intense weekends – the first when Coco goes missing and the second twelve years later at the funeral of her father – the darkest of secrets will gradually be revealed…
My Thoughts:
First of all I have to say how good Alex Marwood is at creating characters that the reader will loathe. I have read books before where I struggled to like anybody but the ones in this book were the most despicable that I have ever come across. There were a handful that I liked. Mila, Ruby, Joe and Claire. Apart from Claire they were all children in 2004 when Coco disappeared.
The story covers two events. The weekend of Sean’s 50th birthday party when Coco disappeared and twelve years later at his funeral. Mila has very reluctantly agreed to accompany Ruby to the funeral so they can say their goodbyes to the father they never really knew. Mila spends some of the time suspecting that she is more like him than she wants to admit. She questions why the friends she socialises with have been absent since the news broke about her father’s death. She also enjoys the time she spends with Ruby who she hadn’t really got to know.
The revulsion I felt towards the other characters was there all the way through but at one point I actually felt sickened by Sean. If you have read the novel you would probably be able to work out which part of the novel I mean. If you haven’t you will just have to read it to find out. Another character was a manipulator who would turn the situation into something that would make them look wonderful and they could control everything.
It’s a cracking read and very addictive. Each chapter focuses on a different character and covers both periods in time. You want to read another chapter so you can go back to the period that interested you to see what happened next.
I have read all the books by this author and this is my favourite one. Not the easiest topic to read but it didn’t really focus on Coco and an investigation. It was more about the people who failed her.
Thanks to the publisher for the copy received, I have since purchased the book.
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