A superbly gripping page-turner, ostensibly about the disappearance of an eight-year-old girl, but covering also a much deeper range of topics. Atkins teaches an MA in Creative Writing at Oxford, which puts her in a strong position not only to comment on the city where she teaches — and the novel is set — but also to craft a multi-layered novel where the reveal was not evident right until the end. Atkins succeeds in undermining many of the pretensions associated with Oxford college life, demonstrating clearly that there is an ‘other’ Oxford, even if often (willfully) ignored by the academic community. Further, regardless of background, all the characters have the same set of aspirations — the hope for stability in family life. Tolstoy's famous maxim naturally springs to mind when reading this work. There is a distinct sense of loss and longing evoked with regularity — but there is also closure (of a sort) too. Nine out of ten.
By Lucy Atkins