I liked this, with reservations. It was an easy read based around an intriguing mystery – 20-something office worker Michaela undertakes a charity skydive, and on landing is baffled to discover that 6 years have passed since she jumped from the plane. Her family and friends have changed utterly, and for the most part are hostile to her when she ‘reappears’, believing she abandoned them six years previously.

I felt there were too many inconsistencies in the story for me to wholeheartedly love it. For example, Michaela’s disappearance was supposed to be big news, and one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of recent years – there were missing posters up in the pub where she goes first – and yet nobody there recognises her. The reception she receives at the nursing home beggars belief. And she herself seems able to turn her emotions on and off at the flick of a switch. Nobody could receive the sort of news she does about those closest to her and not have that at the forefront of their mind constantly, and yet she fits about quite happily before dutifully turning on the anguish and tears depending on where she is.

I would also have liked to have seen more of the characters in their original (ie six years previously) incarnations, in order to appreciate the change in them. I know the conventional wisdom of novel writing has the author starting as close to the end as possible, but as Michaela was struggling with the new situations of her nearest and dearest, to the reader they were simply new characters we hadn’t met before. Some of the potential impact of the novel was lost, I thought.

It cannot be denied, though, that the author has come up with an intriguing idea, and maximum respect to her for the daring way in which is concluded. I have absolutely no complaints in that department. ( )