Close Your Eyes by Teresa Driscoll

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Another gripping novel from this British author who specializes in psychological thrillers.

Matthew’s and Sally’s worlds come crashing down when he receives a call from his sobbing spouse telling him that their 8 year old daughter, Amelie, has gone missing during a shopping trip. He’s a private investigator and former police officer used to finding lost children but on this occasion he struggles to sit on the sidelines as the authorities move fast to find Amelie. The nightmare worsens as we learn that Matt left the police force after a woman blames him for her son’s death and promised that he too would one day feel her pain.
The clock is ticking fast towards the 48 hour deadline for finding their daughter alive. We get to know the perpetrator quite soon and discover he’s gone off the grid, off his medication and has taken his daughter, his granddaughter together with Amelie to a run-down trailer where he waits for the voices in his head to tell him what to do.

The author descriptions of the couple’s utter despair and their feelings of mutual guilt are heart rending; Matt interferes in the investigation and ruins his chances of returning to the police force; Sally is so grief stricken that she spends most of the time crying and hugging herself. They start blaming each other for their daughter’s disappearance.

The police struggle with several false leads resulting in the investigating officer being humiliated by her immediate boss while we learn more about the kidnapper’s frame of mind and location from his daughter’s monologue with the reader. It’s not usual for a thriller to reveal the criminal so soon in the story but it works well in this novel.

Shawn Callon, author of The Simon Montfort Spy Series, wrote this review.



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Close Your Eyes