A northern seaside town, not the liveliest of places until a man disappears on the same day as a local teenager. Immediately people start assuming the worst and a witch hunt begins. Rebecca who has to bear the brunt of the ill will is shocked that her husband Chris could just walk out and leave her. She doesn't handle the situation well, takes herself off to a ramshackle caravan and drinks far too much. It was hard to feel much sympathy for her or the way she behaved. The sort of person that you would say "get a grip" to. It took me a long time to get into this book as it was a very slow burner and only really sprang to life after the half way mark. It was an interesting idea with great descriptions of living in a caravan out of season - the lack of facilities, the cold, being almost the only resident. A credible first book! ( )

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

When the story opens four months have passed since Rebecca's husband, Chris, disappeared. On the same day as his disappearance, a 14-year old girl called Kayleigh also went missing. There has been speculation that the two events are linked and Rebecca has moved out of her home and into a caravan to try to escape from public hostility.

I found the first third of this novel extremely slow and depressing and I would not have continued with it, had I not agreed to review it. Rebecca drinks too much vodka, goes for a swim, is treated kindly by the caravan park owner, is bullied by teenage friends of Kayleigh, ponders the fact that she has no money and is living off her credit cards, wonders where Chris is, drinks more vodka and so on and so on. Rebecca was hard to like and I never really worked her out - one moment she was brave and defiant, the next she was intimidated and afraid, she treated her best friend badly and often behaved in a way which seemed odd to me.

It picked up to an extent once we learnt more about what Chris had been like during the months before his disappearance, but this was revealed excruciatingly slowly and Rebecca continued to be her own worst enemy; I spent the whole time I was reading the story wanting to tell her to move back home, go back to work and stop feeling sorry for herself. On the plus side, the uncertainty she began to feel about Simon was well portrayed and I thought the novel was generally well-written.

The ending was a little underwhelming, but by then I was glad to have got to the end. ( )