All The Missing Girls By Megan Miranda

[amazon_link id=”1501107976″ target=”_blank” ][/amazon_link]’All The Missing Girls’ is the debut book by Miranda Megan.

Twenty-eight-year-old Nicolette Farrell returns to Cooley Ridge, North Carolina, ten years after her best friend Corinne disappeared without a trace. Nic plans to tie up loose ends and care for her ailing father, but she is soon plunged into a new drama that reawakens Corinne s case and breaks open old wounds that have not healed. The decade-old investigation focused on Nic, her brother Daniel, boyfriend Tyler, and Corinne s boyfriend Jackson. Since, only Nic has left Cooley Ridge. Daniel and his wife, Laura, are expecting a baby; Jackson works at the town bar; and Tyler is dating Annaleise Carter, Nic s younger neighbor. Then, within days of Nic s return, Annaleise goes missing.

I’ll be honest, when I initially started this book, I found it hard to get into. Primarily it was the timescale of the story that confused me, it flowed backwards, as each chapter is the day before the next day, so as I started each chapter I had to think what happened the previous day. For me, this was hard to get into, as so much was crammed into each day, but gradually as the I delved further into the tale. I found myself relaxing into it and began to enjoy the story.

The story is seen solely through the eyes of Nicolette Farrell, she left her home town of Cooley Bridge, ten years ago when her best friend Corinne, suddenly disappeared without a trace. She returns to the town to help her brother sort out their childhood home to sell to help raise funds for their sick father. It’s whilst Nicolette returns home, that another woman suddenly disappears in the same suspicious circumstances as Corinne. Nicolette finds herself in the middle of the investigation, as she reflects back days leading up to Corinne’s disappearance.

Ever since, Nicolette left home, she’s made a new life for herself, she’s now a counsellor and engaged to a successful lawyer. Her life is finally in order but it all comes tumbling down, when she receives a mysterious letter from her father. In the stages of the dementia, his memories are vague and sometimes don’t make sense, but when he starts to remember things from ten years, Nicolette fears that her father maybe responsible for Corinne’s disappearance. But as Nicolette settles back into the community that she ran away from, old emotions and feelings return as she reconnects with her first love, Tyler and with this old troubled memories arise.

The story also travels back to the time when Corinne was still in Nicolette’s life and it shows just how dark and obsessive their friendship was.

Cleverly crafted and with a smart and suspenseful plot line, the story flows at a pace that makes for unexpected and thrilling. As a lead character, Nicolette was a complex character, she portrays a life of perfection but when she returns home, we see a darker side to her, she’s drawn to her old life where she was reckless and wants to impress her best friend. When another woman goes missing in the town, she becomes obsessed with the disappearances and begins her own investigation.

With its backwards take on writing, this psychological and original story will leave the reader stunned with its dramatic ending, ‘All The Missing Girls’ is a thrillingly dark and poignant tale that makes for gripping reading

You can pre-order [amazon_link id=”1501107976″ target=”_blank” ]All the Missing Girls from Amazon [/amazon_link] and will be available to buy from good bookshops from 31st January 2017.