Book Review: THE MISSING ONE by Lucy Atkins

Title: THE MISSING ONE

Author: Lucy Atkins
Publisher: Quercus Books
Read: March 2020

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2

Book Description:

The loss of her mother has left Kali McKenzie with too many unanswered questions. But while clearing out Elena’s art studio, she finds a drawer packed with postcards, each bearing an identical one-line message a Canadian gallery owner called Susannah Gillespie: thinking of you. Who is this woman and what does she know about Elena’s hidden past?

Desperate to find out, Kali travels with her toddler, Finn, to Susannah’s isolated home on a remote British Columbian island, a place of killer whales and storms. But as bad weather closes in, Kali quickly realises she has made a big mistake. The handsome and enigmatic Susannah refuses to talk about the past, and as Kali struggles to piece together what happened back in the 1970s, Susannah’s behaviour grows more and more erratic. Most worrying of all, Susannah is becoming increasingly preoccupied with little Finn . . .

A tense, thrilling novel about a family divided by secrets, and the lengths a mother will go to protect her child.

What attracted me to this book:

I absolutely adored Lucy Atkins’ latest book MAGPIE LANE, so it was a no-brainer that I wanted to devour more of her writing. With a premise of family secrets and an atmospheric coastal Canadian setting, this one sounded very much up my alley!

My musings:

I am happy to say that THE MISSING ONE was a winner for me from beginning to end. I immediately connected to the main character Kali, a young mum whose own mother Elena has just died of breast cancer. Kali and her mother had a distant, trouble relationship, so when Kali clears out some of Elena’s things and comes across some mysterious postcards and letters from a woman she has never heard of, she realises how little she knows about Elena’s life before marriage and children. Kali’s father is no help, so Kali travels to Canada to track down one of her mother’s old friends in the hope of getting an answer to some of her questions.

This all rang so true for me! My mother died as a child, so I could relate to Kali’s frustration of not ever knowing her mother as a person, her hopes, her dreams, her history. I also related to Kali’s travels with a small toddler, and some of the scenes made me laugh and cringe in turn. Her misadventures, her fears, her anxieties – it read like my own story in parts. I too have relied on the kindness of strangers to take me in when I missed public transport and found myself stranded in a foreign country with a toddler. I was LIVING this story!

Even thought the middle of book was a bit slow in parts and perhaps bogged down with detail, the last 1/3 of the story really picked up pace and was quite nerve-wrecking. Suzanne, the woman Kali is staying with in British Columbia, was such a mysterious, fascinating and disturbed character that I literally had to hold my breath as the full extent of past secrets unfolded.

Apart from the mystery, the armchair travel component of this story was exquisite. I now simply HAVE TO go to Vancouver Island to see the rugged coastline and perhaps also the orcas, about which I learned so much by reading this story. As far as armchair travel goes, it doesn’t get much better than this, so if you are a fan of wild and remote settings this should definitely be on your list.

Summary:

In summary, THE MISSING ONE ticked all the right boxes for me. With a main character who seemed to share so much emotional baggage with me and an atmospheric setting, the heart-pounding finale to the mystery capped off an all-around good story. I want to read more from this author!