Someone to Watch Over Me by Madeleine Reiss

The book starts with every parents worst nightmare; Carrie's young son Charlie disappears from a beach. The story then moves on three years and there's still no clue as to what happened to him. Carrie is now separated from husband Damien and runs a shop with her friend Jen.

Max was playing with Charlie on the beach the day he vanished. His Mum Molly brings him up alone since splitting up with her abusive husband Rupert.

I enjoyed the beginning and felt it described very well what it must be like to realise your child is missing. However I was disappointed, I expected this to be more of a thriller about the search for Charlie. In reality the story seemed to have more about Carrie's shop and the beginning of her relationship with neighbour Oliver. Others may like this to stop it being too dark and upsetting, but for me it didn't work. It seemed like the author couldn't decide what type of book to write. There was the Molly, Max and Rupert storyline but this became too far fetched.

Despite all of this I never felt like giving up and wanted to find out what would happen. The end when it came though was predictable.

Rating: 2 out of 5