Mark Timlin is a British author best known for his series of novels featuring Nick Sharman, a former Metropolitan Police officer who takes up the profession of private investigator in South London. He is also a renowned book reviewer and literary commentator. His most recent work is REAP THE WHIRLWIND. In his early years he did various jobs including work as a member of the road crew for THE WHO, including working backstage at Woodstock in the 1960s on the lighting cranes
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Rachel is a middle-aged teacher, married, with one teenage daughter. She’s restless. Her job doesn’t satisfy, her husband Tim is absent on business, and her daughter Mia is on the cusp of fleeing the nest.
Then, one blazing hot summer’s day, her daughter’s best friend Lily goes missing. At first, it’s assumed she’s just being a kid, then that some sinister figure has spirited her away for his own ends. But then it becomes obvious she’d left of her own accord with nothing more than the clothes she stood up in, some lipsticks, and a lacy teddy from her mother’s underwear drawer. So, she wasn’t kidnapped. As the pages fly by, we learn that Lily had a secret life. This is no spoiler, because there’s plenty more secrets and lies to savour before the kicker of an ending. You see, Rachel knows what happened. But how and can she tell, or keep the secret to herself?
This one does a good job of capturing Rachel’s dissatisfaction with what seems on the outside to be a perfect life. But life isn’t what was promised on the side of the packet. Sorrow, rage, anger where there should be sweetness and light. Altogether a satisfying and ingenious read, although sometimes Rachel’s self-indulgence does grate, and it’s a pity there’s no one there to tell her to get a grip.
