Having read and enjoyed The Baby Group, I was really looking forward to Five Days Missing and was eager to dive into my advance reader’s copy. Romilly Beach seems to have it all, a successful business, good friends, a supportive sibling, a handsome husband and a newborn daughter. But all is not as it appears at first glance. Something has caused her to vanish from the hospital where she has just delivered , abandoning her infant and leaving her stunned husband to wonder at her disappearance. Is Romilly suffering from post- partum psychosis like her own mother when she was born or is there a more sinister reason that she has left? Told from the point of view of Romilly, her husband, her best friend and co- worker and the friend’s boyfriend, the story is compelling and suspenseful and keeps the reader guessing as to who is telling the truth. Perhaps because of the multiple narrators, there is an annoying amount of repetition but overall, I found the this to be an enjoyable and satisfying read with a somewhat unexpected conclusion. Thanks to AVON and HarperCollins UK for the advance reader copy.

Five Days Missing is the third book I've read by Caroline Corcoran ,an author whose psychological thrillers are always above the average in the genre. Romilly Beach has just given birth to a baby daughter. Husband Marc is shocked and surprised when he arrives at the maternity unit the day after to find that Romilly has disappeared leaving the baby behind. Marc takes the baby home and with the help of sister-in-law Loll does his best to look after her with the couple's best friends Steffie and Adam offering moral support. Marc's theory is that Romilly is suffering from Post Partum Psychosis ,ignoring the theories of others, she's spotted getting on a plane to France and the search is on. The story is told from the perspectives of the different characters with timelines jumping backwards and forwards so the reader has to pay attention. Is Romilly really suffering from Post Partum Psychosis or is there something very different going on? At times it feels as if no-one in this book is the person they initially appear to be,then Caroline Corcoran turns it all around and again just when the reader has formed their opinion. I did feel the book got bogged down slightly at one point and Marc's banging on about Post Partum Psychosis grated after the umpteenth time but minor grumbles aside it's a clever and twisty tale that will keep you guessing right until the end.

Thank You to the p[ublishers and Net Galley for an advance copy. I found this to be quite an interesting read with the story told from the point of view of all the main characters. One of the main themes in the story is about a postnatal mental condition that was previously unknown to me The relationships in a close social group are laid bare and for most of the book it is hard to see which characters representation of the facts is in fact true. Although there are various clues throughout the book there are also a few red herrings thrown into the mix. The ending is very interesting and left me a bit surprised.

I much preferred her previous book. Having said that, I do enjoy her style of writing and her authors leadership pulling us reading along the path she wants us to take, however, this time I wasn’t fully in or on the path and the path lacked pace so I sort of waddled along behind the author not knowing if I wanted to continue at times. But I did because of course I wanted to know why after giving birth at the hospital a mother could abandon her newborn baby, her husband and just take off. No word, no explanation. It didn’t have me on the edge of my seat needing to know these things…more like nosiness. It’s not a new concept, authors have written this topic before yet there were some pretty good twists which had me saying “yep, that’s a good one”. I will still read her next book because I simply loved her book before this one.

Romilly disappears from hospital within hours of giving birth leaving her husband Marc, sister Loll & friends Steffie & Adam are in shock. What on earth would make her do this. She seemed happy & excited about being a mum. Could she possibly be suffering from Post-partum psychosis the way her own mother had? The first part of the story covers the five days after the baby's birth from the various characters point of view. The second part is from when Romilly is found. This was a good premise to a story & unreliable narrators always add to the narrative. However the first part did seem to drag an awful lot with the same ground being covered. Once Romilly is found things speed up. I found it hard to believe that she could physically manage the things she did, bearing in mind how she had reacted in the past. This was a book I had to finish but not one I was bowled over by. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.