“You love your family. They make you feel safe. You trust them.

But should you…?

When fifteen-year-old Billy Wilkinson goes missing in the middle of the night, his mother, Claire, blames herself. She’s not the only one. There isn’t a single member of Billy’s family that doesn’t feel guilty. But the Wilkinson’s are so used to keeping secrets from one another that it isn’t until six months later, after an appeal for information goes horribly wrong, that the truth begins to surface.

Claire is sure of two things – that Billy is still alive and that her friends and family had nothing to do with his disappearance.

A mother’s instinct is never wrong. Or is it?

Sometimes those closest to us are the ones with the most to hide…”

This book grabs you by the throat from the opening chapters introducing you to the Wilkinson family.  Within a couple of chapters I was hooked and suspicious of every character I met along the way.

I’m disappointed to say that the feeling didn’t last very long.  I really wanted to love this book but I found Claire’s fugues/blackouts quite frustrating.

Fifteen year old Billy Wilkinson is missing and has been for 6 months.  Despite pleas from his family and a thorough police investigation no one has seen or heard from Billy.  But someone must know where Billy is.  Claire, his mother, is sure of one thing – he isn’t dead. He can’t be dead.  Each member of the family has a good reason for feeling guilty about Billy’s disappearance.  So the Wilkinsons do what they do best, they keep secrets from one another and tell lies….

Threaded throughout the chapters are pages of Whatsapp dialogue which kept me guessing.  It wasn’t until I neared the conclusion of the book that I realised who the female involved actually was (I was miles out!).  I was disappointed with the reveal, I was expecting something a little…meatier.

I can’t imagine the loss and grief of losing a child and C L Taylor has done a great job of handling a very difficult subject.  This is a book about how well you know those closest to you, do you really know them at all?  It’s a good read and I can see it appealing to a lot of people but I was left disappointed and wanting more.

This is my first book by C L Taylor and despite feeling underwhelmed I intend to read both The Lie and The Accident in the future.

Three out of five stars.

Many thank to Avon Books, C L Taylor and NetGalley for proving me with an ARC copy of The Missing in exchange for an honest review.

The Missing by C L Taylor is published in the UK by Avon Books on 7th April 2016 and is available in paperback, eBook and audio formats | amazon.co.uk | amazon.com | Waterstones