The Girl You Lost by Kathryn Croft

Out Now
Published by Bookouture
Purchase from Amazon here

The Blurb:

Eighteen years ago your baby daughter was snatched. Today, she came back. 

A sinister and darkly compelling psychological thriller from the No.1 bestselling author of The Girl With No Past. 

Eighteen years ago, Simone Porter’s six-month-old daughter, Helena, was abducted. Simone and husband, Matt, have slowly rebuilt their shattered lives, but the pain at losing their child has never left them. 

Then a young woman, Grace, appears out of the blue and tells Simone she has information about her stolen baby. But just who is Grace – and can Simone trust her? 

When Grace herself disappears, Simone becomes embroiled in a desperate search for her daughter and the woman who has vital clues about her whereabouts. 

Simone is inching closer to the truth but it’ll take her into dangerous and disturbing territory. 

Simone lost her baby. Will she lose her life trying to find her? 


My Review:

2016 has been a great year so far for psychological thrillers, and The Girl You Lost is another to add to the list. I have seen lots of people on social media saying just how much they enjoyed it, and I have to agree. It was brilliant! I know it's cliche, but I found it hard to put down. It also reminded me not to be such a smart arse in thinking that I had sussed things out, as you never know what might happen.

Simone is our leading lady. She and her husband Matt had a baby eighteen years ago. But this baby was abducted when she six months old, and has never been seen, or heard of again. That is until one day a young woman, Grace appears, and tells Simone that she knows what happened to her baby.

This starts a whole series of events whilst Simone battles to find out if she can believe what Grace has said, or if she is leading her up the garden path. What Simone doesn't realise at the start is just how much of a mess she is going to become embroiled in, and what dangers searching for the truth might put in her way.

This is the first book I have read by Kathryn Croft, but it won't be my last. She is a great storyteller, who I felt cleverly built the storyline up to a crescendo, and there were elements of surprise that I really didn't see coming!

The cast of characters allows us to flit between them and wonder who is good and pure, and who is more sinister and potentially a danger to Simone. This also changed for me as the characters grew, and we got to understand the links a bit better. It really did grip me, and had me trying to guess exactly what was what.

The Girl You Lost is a gritty, fast paced, and definitely thrilling read. I really enjoyed being the reader, cum detective, trying to bring it all together, and looking for a happy ending. I also loved the twists in the story that kept blindsiding me. Very clever!

Thank you to Bookouture who kindly provided a copy in return for an honest review.