Loved every word, every page and every chapter. I held on to this book and didn't let go. The Missing is C. L. Taylor's best book. Well my favourite. This is a must buy , must read.

i've finished reading "The missing" & it was fantastic it gripped me from the very first page,i couldn't put it down each page was hypnotizing, the characters was believable the story was addictive at times my jaw hit the floor with the twists and turns, i didn't want it to end but it did and it took my breath away! 5*

The Missing is the latest book from psycho thriller queen C. L Taylor, a book that will grab you from the first page through to the last. Cally Taylor has an innate knack of really getting under the skin of her characters and bringing out all their hopes and fears so it brings out the full psychological fears that we have that can be drivers for own actions. The Missing deals with the one thing that all mothers fear, that their child goes missing with no clear reason as to why. Billy Wilkinson disappears in the middle of the night for no real apparent reason. He has been in trouble with the police, school and family for attempting to be a graffiti artist. Claire like any mother blames herself for her youngest child to have run away without a trace. The Missing begins six months after Billy has gone missing and we see that his family are one that are in freefall all punishing themselves as the reason as to why Billy has gone missing. Claire feels this more profoundly than the rest and this begins to affect her mental health as the pressure really piles up on her. Claire rapidly becomes aware that each member of the household seems to have something to hide and she really needs to know what it is if she is to find Billy. Even though they all have their secrets, she still believes that Billy is alive and that none of her family are involved in his disappearance. With her mental health failing she seems to find herself all over Bristol and the surrounding areas, thinking she has just seen Billy alive. While she is having various issues she seems to find herself in different places for which she cannot explain and is unable to explain her behaviour. We feel the pain as she goes through it, we see her psychological breakdown and the torture that is going on in her mind. C. L. Taylor by writing a psychological thriller on the one thing that is precious to many women (as well as men), a child and then pressing all those buttons that equal fear and loathing as well as love and hope. To an extent The Missing is an examination of the modern family and that how we may all live under the same roof do we really know each other, however much we love each other. With the excellent use of social media, we see some of the messages that is commonly referred to as sexting, something that strike a chord of fear in any parent, and the dangers of the internet and the ease of availability of extreme hardcore pornography and abusive images. Cally Taylor once again builds strong characters and uses a strong female protagonist that is believable as are all her characters which really shows the skills of the author. All the way through the book the reader is kept guessing as to where Billy is and who was involved and every time you think you have solved the mystery Taylor throws something in to the plot to which undermines your own confidence in solving the mystery in the next chapter. Once again Cally Taylor has written an excellent thriller that really grabs you from the first page and holds on to you until the last. The Missing is her third psychological thriller and she is rapidly becoming the queen of the genre, she is even able to make Bristol sound interesting!

A family torn apart by the sudden disappearance of 15 year old Billy Wilkinson, son, friend, brother, loud, cheeky, just your normal 15 year old kid. There has been nothing for 6 months, now after a repeat appeal things go from bad to worse. The family is falling apart, Claire Wilkinson the mother is taking it hard, losing time and having blackouts and will stop at nothing to find out where her boy is. The family, as most do, have their own secrets and slowly things start to surface, the truth will always out but are the Wilkinson's ready for the truth and will any of it help to find Billy? The book opens with an online interaction between Jackdaw44 and ICE9 on 5/2/15, we then visit 5/8/2015, 6 months after billy has disappeared and Claire is getting ready for the appeal. The chapters flip between online interactions with those two users whom you can only guess at their identities the more you see the chats. The rest of the story follows the family, Claire, her husband Mark, Jake who is Billy's brother and Jake's live-in girlfriend Kira, how they are coping or rather not. The stress proves too much for Claire who begins to lose time and have blackouts, coming to and not knowing where she is. Claire is our narrator and we experience a lot of the emotions and scenes through her eyes although she herself is not exactly reliable due to her bodies response to the stress she is under. You are drawn immediately into a family in chaos, struggling to get through each day just trying to find their loved one. As the story progresses we learn more about the family members, their personalities and question almost every bit of information we are given. I really felt for Claire, the author does an amazing job of taking you through the emotional rollercoaster Claire is on, the desperate journey to find her son and learning some home truths along the way. This book for me was about family dynamics, how the absence of one family member can impact on those desperate to find their loved one. The strain on relationships it can have and like all families, even the smallest of secrets examined and questioned in case it was a precursor for Billy disappearing. It was a page turner for me, I was desperate to find out where Billy was, what happened, who the online chatters where and some closure on all of the issues that are dottered throughout the story. Taylor does a great job to engage and entice the reader from pretty much the first chapter, 4/5 for me this time. I have read all of this authors work and look forward to her next.

This is a really interesting take on the “missing child” story and for me was quite a slow burner, I was close to 100 pages in before I realised that I was hooked. The characters are well rounded, all interesting and all unreliable which made for a gripping yet realistic read. This book is well-written, well-thought out and with just enough mis-direction to keep my interest without being mis-leading. I think I suspected every character at some point in the book but still didn’t quite expect the ending! Good stuff! Thank you to TBC, Netgalley and Harper Collins/Avon for providing a copy of The Missing in exchange for my honest review.