The Missing Hours was a great story, told with a voice that had complete control of where it was going.
I loved the relationship between DC Leah MacKay and her brother DS Finn Hale. I could almost feel the sibling competitiveness between them both, underlined with what felt like a typical brother/sister dynamic. If I could read more books with these two in, I'll be a happy woman.
The missing person enquiry and the murder are slowly entwined with a delicious sense of tension and inevitability. The whole story just seemed to be like a ball of putty in Emma Kavanagh's hands, which she slowly moulded so that whilst you thought you knew what it was turning into, it didn't fully become clear until towards the end. I sort of knew what was going to happen but I wasn't totally convinced that my suspicions were correct until they stood eyeballing me. I have to say though I was very glad that I was proved right!
All the characters were fully drawn in my imagination, and I do mean all of them, not just those who were the main focus of the book. I liked that we were given the family dimension of Leah's life, and the fact that I could see how it influenced her work life. It gave her a proper fully-rounded character.
The case notes of the K&R team of Ed and Selena Cole added an extra sense of realism to the story. They were actually really interesting to read as stand-alone pieces I thought.
I was certainly drawn into 'the missing hours' mystery and I wanted to carry on reading whenever I had a spare 5 minutes from the demands of the family.
I really enjoyed this novel, and I'd totally recommend it.
