Book Review: The Missing Hours by Emma Kavanagh, beautifully atmospheric, sneakily twisty

The Missing Hours is a delight to read.  It starts with the poignant grief of a child coping with the death of her father and her heightened anxieties when she realises her mother is missing.  A fantastic opening that set the bar high for the rest of the novel... thankfully Kavanagh pole vaulted the bar with aplomb.

Selena Cole heads up a kidnap negotiation company that

negotiates the release of kidnap ransom victims in trouble spot areas.  Recently bereaved, she disappears one day and on her return can't remember anything about her missing hours.
Meanwhile newly promoted DS Finn Hale investigates the murder of a prominent lawyer and could really do with the support od his sister DC Leah Mackay on this case.  Leah however is obsessed with discovering what happened to Selena Cole during her missing hours.
This is a fantastic book, with excerpts from the Cole kidnap and ransom case files lending a brutal reality to the story.  Smoothly delivered twists kept me hooked and, just when I though I had it all sussed Kavanagh tripped me up with a curve ball (excuse the mixed metaphor).
Deliciously credible, dangerously real... highly recommended by The Crime Warp.

Available on Amazon Kindle £9.99 HB £14.88, PB £6.99 Audio Download free and Audio CD £20.41 Click here to follow link