Title: Gone AstrayAuthor: Michelle Davies
Series: DC Maggie Neville #1
Published by: Pan Macmillan on Sep. 5, 2017
Genres: Mystery/Thriller, Police Procedural
Pages: 450
Format: Paperback
Source: Publishers Group Canada
Book Rating: 8.5/10
What if someone thinks they deserve their life more than you?
When a Lesley Kinnock buys a lottery ticket on a whim, it changes her life more than she could have imagined. . .
Lesley and her husband Mack are the sudden winners of a £15 million EuroMillions jackpot. They move with their 15-year-old daughter Rosie to an exclusive gated estate in Buckinghamshire, leaving behind their ordinary lives – and friends – as they are catapulted into wealth beyond their wildest dreams.
But it soon turns into their darkest nightmare when, one beautiful spring afternoon, Lesley returns to their house to find it empty: their daughter Rosie is gone.
DC Maggie Neville is assigned to be Family Liaison Officer to Lesley and Mack, supporting them while quietly trying to investigate the family. And she has a crisis threatening her own life – a secret from the past that could shatter everything she’s worked so hard to build.
As Lesley and Maggie desperately try to find Rosie, their fates hurtle together on a collision course that threatens to end in tragedy . . .
Money can’t buy you happiness.
The truth could hurt more than a lie.
One moment really can change your life forever.
Review:
Suspenseful, absorbing, and skillfully executed!
Gone Astray is a well-paced psychological thriller set in Buckinghamshire, England that is told from multiple perspectives; Lesley, Rosie’s loving, distraught mother who is not entirely comfortable with her new wealth; Maggie, the dedicated, appointed Family Liaison Officer whose own personal life is in tatters; and finally a menacing, aggressive character whose hostility and anger towards the Kinnocks is escalating rapidly.
The writing is crisp and fluid. The characters are flawed, complex, and intriguing. And the plot, using alternating chapters, does an excellent job of intertwining, unraveling and building not only all the tension and increasing family drama but also the suggestions, clues, and procedures of the unfolding police investigation.
Overall, I think Gone Astray is a fantastic debut for Davies that definitely highlights money doesn’t always bring happiness and often we don’t know people as well as we think.
The second novel in the DC Maggie Neville series, Wrong Place, is due out later this fall and you can be confident it’s already on my TBR list.
This book is available now.
Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.
Thank you to Publishers Group Canada for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
About Michelle Davies
Michelle Davies has been writing for magazines for twenty years, including on the production desk at Elle, and as Features Editor of Heat. Her last staff position before going freelance was Editor-at-Large at Grazia magazine and she currently writes for a number of women's magazines and newspaper supplements. Michelle has previously reviewed crime fiction for the Sunday Express's Books section.
Michelle lives in London with her partner and daughter and juggles writing crime fiction with her freelance journalism and motherhood. The Maggie Neville Series consists of Gone Astray, Wrong Place, False Witness and Dead Guilty.
