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Nina Landry is a single mother living on a small island just off the UK east coast with her children Charlotte and Jackson. It's almost Christmas and the family are just about to jet off to Miami for a holiday with Nina's new boyfriend Christian. But suddenly Charlie is missing and no one seems to be taking Nina's concerns seriously. The action takes places during one tumultuous day and feels at times like a lo-tech domestic version of 24, with Nina hurtling round the island. Come to think of it, you never see her go to the loo either! It's a claustrophobic story, set on the small Sandling Island and featuring a fairly small cast of characters. Most of them seem to be paraded before us in the first few pages, as Nina, who is 40 that day, finds that Charlie has organised a surprise party for her – but isn't there herself. Amidst the party, and packing for the holiday, and phonecalls from whining ex-husband Rory and the arrival of rather pathetic cousin Renata, Nina tries to find out what happened to Charlie who'd been at a sleepover the previous night and then had gone out on her paper round. Despite the instant 'throw the reader straight into the story' technique, I found LOSING YOU slightly slow to get going. It wasn't helped by the fact none of the characters particularly grab you. The police seem particularly one-dimensional and inert. I could never remember which adult was which, although I had better luck with the sharply-drawn portraits of the other teenagers, including sad Goth Eamonn, nasty little bully Tam, and Charlie's tearful friend Ashleigh. Once the story was into its stride, though, it clipped along at a good pace, and was particularly strong on the atmosphere of a holiday island out of season. And Nina's growing sense of fear and desperation soon filters through to the reader. I found myself much more engrossed by that stage as some neat plotting pulls several seemingly irrelevant strands together. Nicci French is husband-and-wife writing team Nicci Gerrard and Sean French. Apparently they don't tell anyone who writes which bit. I couldn't see the join!
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, January 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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