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chantelleatkinswriter 's review for:
No One Saw a Thing
by Andrea Mara
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a fast-paced page-turner, and though slightly formulaic at times, it did hold my interest from start to end, and I found myself reading on further every time I planned to put it down. The story starts by introducing Sive, who is on holiday in London with her 'top Irish barrister' husband Aaron, and their three children, 6 year old Faye, 2 year old Bea and 4 month old Toby. They're attending a reunion with Aaron's old housemates. The reunion itself is spread out over a few days with breakfasts, lunches and tourist excursions all thrown in. The book starts in a very dramatic fashion with Sive watching in utter horror as her two small daughters leap onto a tube train ahead of her and the doors close before she can follow. Stuck on the platform with the pram and the baby, Sive is in complete panic. Everything seems fine however when a guy on the tube seems to understand what has happened and gives her a thumbs. As the authorities gather around and assist, Sive is relieved when little Bea is handed back to her at the next stop. But where is Faye? The 6 year old is missing and no one claims to have seen her on the tube at all.... What follows next is a fight against time as Sive and Aaron, aided by Sive's journalist friend Jude, and Aaron's highly competitive and dysfunctional old friends, try to solve the mystery of what happened to Faye. Red herrings and clues are dropped all over the place and I have to admit I had a few suspects in mind very early on and I turned out to be right. I couldn't figure out how or why though, which was enough to keep me reading. Sive was a likeable character, as was Jude, but the rest were just awful, as is often the case in thrillers like this. Aaron is arrogant, rude, controlling and definitely hiding something, and all of his old friends are annoying or vile one way or another. I sometimes get a bit tired of the formula used in thrillers where very unlikable and very upper middle class people behave very badly. It's often hard to like the characters and this puts me off. The friends are all lying about something - that much is determined early on - but who would have taken Faye and why? I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would, and went on to order another book by this author to read next. If you like fast-paced, twisty thrillers, you will love it.