Lara is dissatisfied. The outward idyll of life in Cornwall, married to Sam, is a mask. She resents giving up her London life and career for a support role as wife and mother, especially now no babies have arrived and the IVF has failed again, leaving them unfulfilled and in debt. Her only local friend, acquaintance really, is Iris, in whom Lara recognises a similarly troubled soul.
When an opportunity arises for a job back in the city, she argues the case for taking a six-month contract to clear the debts. She can commute, getting the Sunday night sleeper from Truro to Paddington, sleep at her sister’s flat during the week, returning on the Friday night sleeper. Sam reluctantly agrees.
She falls into the routine, enduring her sister’s company midweek while revelling in the Friday night sleeper scene, enjoying gin and tonics with new friends Ellen and Guy. Then one week she does not arrive back in Truro, and the train is declared a crime scene when it gets to Penzance. Lara is missing, a victim or perpetrator. The police favour the latter, so it is up to Iris to find her and clear her name.
In the first third of the book Lara’s first-person narrative, up to her disappearance, is compulsive as her Jekyll and Hyde character emerges. Then the point of view switches to Iris and becomes less satisfying as she stumbles her way towards locating Lara. In the process the backstories of both women emerge, explaining their respective current issues. The helter-skelter finale ping-pongs between them to provide a tense climax.
It is a decent
enough mystery thriller, the first part sufficiently intriguing to carry
readers through some mediocre stuff to discover the resolution. The settings of
Cornwall, London and somewhere else (no spoiler) seem authentic but of the
characters, only Lara and to a lesser extent Iris, engage.
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