A review by beate251
Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? by Nicci French

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Apart from the first 60 odd pages, I read this in one sitting. I just couldn't put it down. This isn't a simple whodunnit but a psychological thriller that examines what happens when a wife and mother simply disappears and the police can't be arsed to investigate properly, especially when they link a second death and just decide a conclusion without ever doing proper police work. The impact on her family and the community as a whole is examined but it looks like there will never be a resolution, until, thirty years later, the sons of the second dead, a suspected suicide, decide to rake things up again with a podcast. When a third person is murdered, a young police woman from London is sent to take over the investigation. And thank God for that, because things suddenly start happening.

I have to say I was in the dark until the last few pages of the book as we weren't given too many clues to figure anything out in my opinion. Or maybe we do and we just don't recognise them as clues? It speaks for the quality of the writing that I still read on with fascination and sadness, just being told what had happened to the families in the aftermath of the tragedies.

I loved strong police officer Maud who gets stones thrown in her way at every turn, from her misogynistic colleagues to her own boyfriend, and she still stoically gathers her evidence and finds the murderer.
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