Two kidnappings, thirty years apart. Can Stacey face her own dark past in order to save her stepdaughter?

When Stacey’s ex-husband turns up on her doorstep begging her to help save his kidnapped thirteen-year-old daughter, Lyra, the terror is all too familiar. Stacey’s own violent kidnapping thirty years ago was never solved, and while a severe case of amnesia spares her from recalling the specific horrors, she remembers enough…

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Stacey knows her father never paid the ransom—she has the missing pinkie finger to prove it. She knows she was only saved because of an anonymous tip-off to the police. And she knows her captor was never apprehended.

Lyra’s kidnappers have made it clear the police must not get involved. But Stacey can’t shake the eerie similarities between the two cases, and she’ll use whatever she can, from her journalistic powers to her shady contacts, to save Lyra from the same nightmare. Desperate to find any link between Lyra’s abduction and her own, Stacey forces herself to revisit her forgotten, traumatic past for clues.

But can she make sense of the terrible secrets she unearths in time to save Lyra? And if she does, is she ready to face her own tormentor?

My Review

This was my second Carol Wyer novel and I wasn’t disappointed. It turned out to be far more complicated than a ‘simple’ kidnapping, so concentrate! It was also very different.

Kidnappings in the UK are far more common than I realised, BUT the majority are carried out by someone known to the victim. Estranged partners kidnapping their own children, drug related kidnaps etc. Children under sixteen kidnapped by total strangers to obtain a ransom are very rare in the UK and most of them are unsuccessful. So the idea that two related children are randomly kidnapped is statistically unlikely.

Stacey understands this, which is why she is convinced that when Lyra is taken, it has something to do with her own kidnap thirty years ago. But why would someone wait that long? It doesn’t make sense.

Ex-husband Jack (Lyra’s dad) is terrified that the kidnapper will kill his daughter if they call the police, so when he comes to Stacey for help, he insists no police. But Stacey knows they can’t do this on their own and enlists the help of two former police officers and a hacker.

One of the things that were missing from Stacey’s own violent abduction (apart from her amputated finger and part of her ear) was her memory of what happened. I loved the part where she tries to unpack her memories – I won’t say how – but it was probably my favourite part of the book, though I am biased. Again I can’t say why.

And why did her father Henry refuse to pay the ransom? The more she digs, the more she uncovers, and it’s very unpalatable.

This was a great book, well written and exciting with so many twists that I could never have guessed the outcome. Netflix, are you reading this? You should be.

Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the Author

USA Today bestselling author and winner of The People’s Book Prize Award, Carol Wyer’s crime novels have sold over one million copies and been translated into nine languages. A move from humour to the ‘dark side’ in 2017, saw the introduction of popular DI Robyn Carter in Little Girl Lost and proved that Carol had found her true niche. February 2021 saw the release of the first in the much-anticipated new series, featuring DI Kate Young. An Eye For An Eye was chosen as a Kindle First Reads and became the #1 bestselling book on Amazon UK and Amazon Australia.

Carol has had articles published in national magazines ‘Woman’s Weekly’, featured in ‘Take A Break’, ‘Choice’, ‘Yours’ and ‘Woman’s Own’ magazines and the Huffington Post. She’s also been interviewed on numerous radio shows discussing ”Irritable Male Syndrome’ and ‘Ageing Disgracefully’ and on BBC Breakfast television. She currently lives on a windy hill in rural Staffordshire with her husband Mr. Grumpy… who is very, very grumpy. When she is not plotting devious murders, she can be found performing her comedy routine, Smile While You Still Have Teeth.

To learn more, go to http://www.carolwyer.co.uk, subscribe to her YouTube channel, or follow her on Twitter: @carolewyer

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Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60588361-behind-closed-doors
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