Judy's Review:

This is probably one of the most tense, soul-shredding novels published this year. It plays to every parent’s darkest fears. Well, plays ON them, to be precise.

As Andrea Mara’s chapters unfold, part of you wants to close the book and walk away, but another part – easily the larger half – compels you to read on. It’s a triumph of blistering storytelling. No wonder Mara is a Sunday Times and Irish Times top-ten best-selling author.

A mother stands on a crowded tube station platform. She is tired, stressed, and preoccupied. Her two little girls, Bea and Faye, are in front of her.

But as their train pulls in, Sive – their mother – is distracted by an important incoming phone call on her iPhone. Before she can stop them, her daughters have jumped into the carriage – and the automatic doors slide shut behind them.

They are separated from their mother. And the train pulls away…

Richard's Review:

Can you imagine that? The panic that would flood through you? To her credit, Sive somehow manages to remain calm. She catches the next train, reasoning that her daughters – young, but intelligent – will have had the presence of mind to get off at the next station and will be waiting for her on the platform.

She’s half-right. Because only one of her daughters is standing there when she rushes out of her own train.

‘Bea! Where is Faye?’ Sive demands.

This chilling reply.

‘Gone,’ Bea says. ‘Faye gone.’

And so the nightmare begins.