Local Girl Missing By Claire Douglas - Book Review

Local Girl Missing

By

Claire Douglas

 Purchase here

Twenty years ago

21-year-old Sophie Collier vanishes one night.

She leaves nothing behind but a trainer on the old pier - 

and a hole in the heart of her best friend Francesca.

Now

A body's been found.

And Francesca's drawn back to the seaside town she's tried to forget.

Perhaps the truth of what happened to Sophie will finally come out.

Yet Francesca is beginning to wish she hadn't returned.

Everywhere she turns are ghosts from her past.

The same old faces and familiar haunts of her youth.

But if someone knows what really happened to Sophie that night then now's the time to find out - isn't it?

Except sometimes discovering the truth can cost you everything you hold dear - your family, your sanity and even your life . . .

Thank you to NETGALLEY and Michael Joseph/Penguin for my advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

The book is told from the point of view of the two main characters Francesca (Frankie) and Sophie. We find out early on that tragedy hit the pair when Sophie goes missing one night. She is thought to have fallen into the sea from the derelict pier in the town. Years later and Frankie has moved on and reinvented herself. She is the running her Father's business in hotels and has an apartment of her own. She receives a phone call from Sophie's brother - Daniel -who tells her that remains of what they think is Sophie's body have been found and he wants Frankie to return to her old home town to go with him to identify the body remains.
When Frankie gets there it is clear Daniel wants more. He wants to look into why his sister went missing and the nature of her death, Frankie experiences some strange things whilst staying in a holiday apartment that Daniel has rented for her. She can hear a baby crying through the night and she keeps having visions of Sophie. She sees Sophie on the pier, she sees Sophie at her apartment window and feels that someone has been n the apartment when she has been out. The apartment is also impossible to keep warm even with the radiators on and the fire blazing.

There is also the fact that Frankie and Sophie were hiding a secret from everyone and Frankie now has to come clean to Daniel about what this was. We also learn that something is going on concerning Frankie's Father who is currently lying in hospital after suffering a severe stroke. In fact there seems to be something going on with every character! 

Sophie's POV is obviously set in the past and Frankie's in present day, but it is pretty simple to navigate this. The characters are well written and the plot thickens and keeps you in suspense. I certainly had no idea about the ending and it came as a huge surprise. I also liked the explanation at the end in the form of a news report by Daniel.

Would definitely recommend this book and will be looking out for future work by this author.

 5*