Alison James

I very much enjoyed this twisty unputdownable novel. Juliette and Hugh seem to have the perfect life in a beautiful manor until one evening during a dinner party a long lost cousin of Hughs named Alexis shows up at their doorstep with a large silver suitcase. Juliette is a bit put out when Hugh offers her a room to stay in at the manor, but she is polite and accommodates this surprise guest for what she thinks will only be a couple of nights. But when Alexis's stays stretches on into weeks show more she becomes alarmed. Who is this long lost cousin and what does she really want? The story is told from four of the main characters points of view which is a lot of fun to read what all the characters are really thinking about each other. Very tricky. Highly recommended with lots of plot twists and surprises. Thank you to Net Galley for the opportunity to read/listen to this advanced copy. show less

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

DI Rachel Prince and her DS Mark Brickell work for some police organization I didn't quite grasp; previously Interpol possibly, or now incorporating Interpol or something. Anyway, here they are asked to help out Surrey police, who have been trying to locate missing 6 year old Lola Jade for some months. Lola Jade's mother claims her estranged husband must have taken their daughter, and now he has disappeared too.

This was very, show more very good; well-plotted, with decent clues for the reader to pick up on and only minimal amounts of traumatic detail/suffering of children. The pace was brisk and I read it in one sitting, keen to find out what would happen. I liked Rachel and Mark's working relationship, and the fact that both Rachel and the female DS in Surrey were competent and worked well with others. There was quite a lot of Rachel's personal life (a slightly excessive amount perhaps), where she was less competent and worked less well with others, and behaved quite oddly really.

Highly recommended. show less

Lola Jade has vanished from her home and months later the search is going nowhere. As Surrey police scale down the enquiry a team is brought in from London to investigate whether or not there is a bigger issue here. Lola's parents are estranged, the mother has accused the father of kidnap, both families have secrets to hide. DI Rachel Prince and her DS Brickall are both driven individuals determined to find out what has happened to Lola Jade.

Frustratingly this book is listed under three show more different titles on different websites but the blurb for each is the same, this could confuse readers. The story itself has many twists and turns, in fact one could say too many and for this reason I didn't find it as good as it could have been. There is a lot of potential here, the central characters of Prince and Brickall are suitably complex and engaging, there is a good storyteller - just too much story. show less

Dutch businessman, Dries van Meijer is heartbroken to learn that his daughter, Emily died while on a youth cultural trip to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh. When the Scottish police declare the death an accident due to intoxication, Dries insists that someone reinvestigate - because his daughter didn't drink and he refuses to believe she would ever take her own life. Detectives Rachel Prince and Mark Brickall are tasked with finding the truth.

If I thought the first book was a trainwreck, show more it had nothing on this one. The crime was interesting, I saw where it was heading, but it was mostly well plotted. I felt sorry for Emily - she was clearly a smart girl who was willing to stand up for herself and others and it was sad that she didn't get a chance to name her attackers. And I felt sorry for the parents because they were obviously pretty close with their daughter.

As for the private life of Detective Rachel Prince, it was absolutely absurd. So the husband. In the first book I was annoyed that it was never revealed exactly why she left the husband. And I mean left in the literally left kind of way since she apparently is still married to him and just cut off contact for 17 years. Like wtf? In the very early pages of this one, I came to the conclusion she left him because she was pregnant and she either miscarried or terminated. Boy was I wrong.

That would be silly. She was pregnant and had the fkn child!!! Her reasoning for not wanting children I could get behind. A woman has the right to choose, simple as that. That was fine. She found out too late to terminate so she had to have the baby. She decided she was not capable of looking after a baby. I get that. Again, perfectly fine. But why put up the child for adoption? Her husband who always wanted children, had a well paying job and was actually capable of looking after a baby had a right to know about the child and to actually make his own decision as to whether or not he would look after the child. WTF? I was appalled at the complete disregard she showed for everyone involved. Oh and she made her family promise not to tell the father where she was or that she was pregnant.

I get that she didn't want to be involved. I respect that actually. But there was still another parent available and before putting the child up for adoption she should have at least broached the subject with him. Frankly his response was much more monitored that mine would have been. I was angry just reading it. Her whole entire life is a fucking train wreck. She is a train wreck. The sister is right about everything. Frankly I mainly kept reading just to find out how much worse it was going to get and it just kept snowballing.

Her relationship with Howard has blossomed into an actual relationship. I found that weird. She was so adamant in the last book about being against commitment and apart from that, Howard's whole thing about leaving his wife that he wants kids and she didn't. If that was the dealbreaker, why get with someone else who clearly doesn't want kids? Plus I just didn't like them. But it didn't last long and I did enjoy the bit about the writing being on the wall.

When they left work at six, Brickall headed straight to Forest Hill to fetch the dog and Rachel sought out an off-licence to buy wine. She had put off Howard the night before on the grounds that it was late by the time she arrived back from the airport, but had agreed that he could come over that evening. When she had unlocked the front door to her flat the night before, she had known before she was over the threshold that something had changed since she left for Edinburgh. She could smell it – literally. She switched on the lights to find that Howard had painted a black chalkboard on the section of wall behind her kitchen table. He had chalked ‘Welcome Home!’ onto the board, adding a heart and a smiley face. It wasn’t that she didn’t like what he had done. She actually liked it quite a lot – it looked great as a backdrop to the off-white table and chairs. It was that he had come here and done it behind her back, without consultation. What was it she had said to Brickall about her relationship with Howard while they were in Edinburgh… that the writing was on the wall? Well, now it really was. Or on the chalkboard. Of course he still had no idea that he was coming over this evening to be dumped. After she’d wiped away his chalk message with a damp cloth, Rachel set out bowls of snacks and opened a bottle of the wine that Howard liked, painfully aware that this was unlikely to soften the blow.

James, Alison. Now She's Gone: An absolutely gripping crime thriller (Detective Rachel Prince Book 2) (p. 89). Bookouture. Kindle Edition.

Though I guess she gets props for deciding to break up with him in person - rather than over the phone - or you know - just not telling him and disappearing for 17 years. I mean at least this time she wasn't married to the guy.

I liked Dolly the dog. I was amused by the procession of passing off the responsibility of caring for the dog. Mark's pet sitting for a friend. Rachel ends up pet sitting for Mark. And then Eileen Prince (Rachel's mum - I get the feeling the author's a Potterhead) is pet sitting for Rachel. I mean also, poor dog but at least she found a good home in the end. Of course even the dog just highlights how selfish Rachel is. She turns up with the dog and doesn't even realise it's the anniversary of her dad's death.

Although she's always selfish, she kept finding new ways to surprise me.

‘But you haven’t spoken to my dad yet.’ Joe’s face fell. ‘I was hoping I might get a chance to meet up with him before I left.’ Stupidly, Rachel had been hoping that Joe had forgotten about Stuart. Obviously not. And she owed it to her son – and to her ex-husband – to make things right. ‘I’ll tell you what, why don’t you go and find a movie on the hotel’s cable channel, and I’ll go over to Stuart’s house now and talk to him. If he’s in, of course. After that, it’ll be up to him.’ Joe narrowed his eyes slightly. ‘How do you think he’ll react?’ ‘I’ve honestly no idea.’ Fifteen minutes later Joe was in his room watching Batman vs Superman and Rachel was in a cab on the way to Inverleith. She had weighed up texting Stuart first, but remembering his overwhelming need to control, decided against it. She wanted to retain the advantage of having him on the back foot.

James, Alison. Now She's Gone: An absolutely gripping crime thriller (Detective Rachel Prince Book 2) (p. 137). Bookouture. Kindle Edition.

How could Stuart possibly be more on the back foot than he's going to be to discover his wife of eighteen years who just up and left him without a word and without ever bothering to divorce him and he only recently tracked down and who still refuses to talk about why she left because she doesn't want to rehash things that were never hashed in the first place, had a child without ever telling him, even though he always wanted children and had a great paying job, that she then gave up for adoption and she still never freaking mentioned and forbid her family from ever telling him also? What the actual fk? This is just the most demented thing I've read. He honestly couldn't have been more on the back foot than he would be from just that. The least you could do would be to fkn text to warn him you're on your way over. I'm astounded at the sheer nerve. But she just continues to amaze.

‘Our marriage was over. I didn’t think it was right for us to be tied together forever. I thought the best option all round was for him to have a normal life in a stable home.’

James, Alison. Now She's Gone: An absolutely gripping crime thriller (Detective Rachel Prince Book 2) (p. 142). Bookouture. Kindle Edition.

How could their marriage be over when she never bothered to actually tell him that or get a divorce or even explain she was fkn leaving? She literally just left one day and never came back. As for the kid - there was no reason he couldn't have had a normal stable home with just the husband. Regardless of her decision to put him up for adoption - her and the husband were still going to be tied together because of the lack of divorce of their marriage and even with a divorce - she still had a kid. It doesn't erase the dna or the connection by giving him up, so they're still tied together forever regardless. Which also, she could've given him to the father and then had no contact, which would have still resulted in the same outcome. I can't believe the family didn't spill. I don't think I'd keep quiet if it was me. I honestly don't think I could. It's one thing if she decided not to have the kid but she did. At that point, unless there was an issue of the child's safety by admitting who the father was, he had rights and she should've respected them. The whole situation is just wrong on so many levels. And then this.

‘It’s no use, Stuart; clearly nothing I can say now is going to make things right. I can’t go back and change my decision, and I can’t undo the fact that Joe is here, and he wants to get to know us. The way I see it, we owe it to him to get our shit together and do our best for him now.’

James, Alison. Now She's Gone: An absolutely gripping crime thriller (Detective Rachel Prince Book 2) (pp. 142-143). Bookouture. Kindle Edition.

Wow. Stuart literally just has this bomb explode. The nerve to say that they should both get their shit together - Stuart dealt with her just walking away without a word, his wife just miscarried and he has just found out the wife that left him had a son that she didn't want and gave up for adoption without even telling him the boy existed. Stuart has every right to take a fkn minute to tell her off and she could've at least had the fkn decency to sit there and listen to it. Honestly the hits just kept coming and coming. It was incredible.

The whole thing with Giles was painful. Between the will they, won't they dance and the actual ending of the whole thing, I was just appalled.

I don't know that I actually did believe that he was just at the party by accident and Rachel's covering it up didn't make it any better. His resignation was about the only decent thing that occurred. It was literally his job to look after children. Between his turning up at that party or ignoring that his friend likes them young, he just wasn't. It was sickening. And Rachel's reaction to it all was worse.

Her outrage seemed to be much more focused on how it means she needs to end their flirtation than the fact a member of a child protection agency was caught at the actual type of events he is supposed to be protecting them from. Even then she doesn't pass on any of the details and quiets the person who sits in on the interview of the friend that supposedly took him there. At no point does she suggest they actually interview Giles and Giles does a freaking runner. Which no one even seems to think is weird as fk.


I can't say this was good but I can say it inspired a lot of feelings. It was an insane read. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. I was considering stopping, but with only one more book, seems kind of pointless not to finish it and cross it off my list. 2 stars. show less