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Among the Missing
An accident can end a life. The same accident can begin one.
When a bridge collapses in the Highlands of Scotland, dozens of commuters vanish into the freezing river below, swept by the currents toward the sea. A woman who had sold her car only hours before it fell, is presumed to be among the missing. Now she can begin life over.
Free from her past, she takes the name Annabel and begins living in a spartan cabin on the bank of the river. Here she meets Ron, the boatman, and Silva, an illegal immigrant whose predicament is compounded by the disappearance of her husband and their child. Together they create a fragile sanctuary in the shadow of the bridge that has changed their lives.
Among the Missing is a masterly novel about the invisible ties that bind us to our identities, to our histories, and to one another. Morag Joss spins a tale of damage and reparation, suspicion and salvation.
When a bridge collapses in the Highlands of Scotland, dozens of commuters vanish into the freezing river below, swept by the currents toward the sea. A woman who had sold her car only hours before it fell, is presumed to be among the missing. Now she can begin life over.
Free from her past, she takes the name Annabel and begins living in a spartan cabin on the bank of the river. Here she meets Ron, the boatman, and Silva, an illegal immigrant whose predicament is compounded by the disappearance of her husband and their child. Together they create a fragile sanctuary in the shadow of the bridge that has changed their lives.
Among the Missing is a masterly novel about the invisible ties that bind us to our identities, to our histories, and to one another. Morag Joss spins a tale of damage and reparation, suspicion and salvation.
255 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2011
28 people are currently reading
490 people want to read
About the author
Morag Joss
20 books65 followersShe is the author of six novels, including the Sara Selkirk series, and the Silver Dagger winning Half Broken Things. She began writing in 1996 after a short story of hers was runner-up in a national competition sponsored by Good Housekeeping magazine. A visit to the Roman Baths with crime writer P.D. James germinated the plot of her first novel, Funeral Music, the first in the Sara Selkirk series, which gained a Dilys Award nomination for the year's best mystery published in the USA.
Series:
* Sarah Selkirk Mystery
Awards:
Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger
◊ 2003: Half-Broken Things
Series:
* Sarah Selkirk Mystery
Awards:
Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger
◊ 2003: Half-Broken Things
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 232 reviews
July 12, 2011
I really had to sleep on this one before I reviewed it. Among the Missing is NOT a light book. It is dark and, at times, pretty depressing. From the first page, the author sets you on an emotional roller coaster that doesn't stop until the end. I had to immediately read a light fluffy romance after this to lighten my mood. I have a feeling that this book will stay with me for a long time. I find it really hard to review this book without giving away any of the plot. So, I'll do this instead:
What I liked: The concept of the story. I'm sure we have all wanted to disappear without a trace at times. Although, I'm just not sure how they could all live in the cabin for months and not be discovered. I did like how the author told the story through the 3 characters. We hear from "Annabel" through her point of view. Silva tells us her story through letters to her husband, and Ron's is told in third person. The flow of the book was smooth and is beautifully written.
What I didn't like: I ended up not really liking any of the characters. "Annabel" was just too naive for a 43 year old woman. Her choices from the beginning just made me shake my head. I just couldn't muster any sympathy for her. Really, if you see someone burning your shoes, shouldn't that be a clue that something is wrong? While I sympathized with her on the loss of her family, I felt Silva was just plain crazy and cruel. I think Ron was the only one that had any common sense. I HATED the ending. Then, I have never been a fan for endings that are left open to interpretation. After putting the reader through all that the author did, I felt we deserved something more than what we were given.
If you are looking for some light easy reading, you probably won't want to read this book. In the end, I'm still not sure I liked it. I'll just go with liking aspects of it and leave it at that. You will have to judge for yourself.
What I liked: The concept of the story. I'm sure we have all wanted to disappear without a trace at times. Although, I'm just not sure how they could all live in the cabin for months and not be discovered. I did like how the author told the story through the 3 characters. We hear from "Annabel" through her point of view. Silva tells us her story through letters to her husband, and Ron's is told in third person. The flow of the book was smooth and is beautifully written.
What I didn't like: I ended up not really liking any of the characters. "Annabel" was just too naive for a 43 year old woman. Her choices from the beginning just made me shake my head. I just couldn't muster any sympathy for her. Really, if you see someone burning your shoes, shouldn't that be a clue that something is wrong? While I sympathized with her on the loss of her family, I felt Silva was just plain crazy and cruel. I think Ron was the only one that had any common sense. I HATED the ending. Then, I have never been a fan for endings that are left open to interpretation. After putting the reader through all that the author did, I felt we deserved something more than what we were given.
If you are looking for some light easy reading, you probably won't want to read this book. In the end, I'm still not sure I liked it. I'll just go with liking aspects of it and leave it at that. You will have to judge for yourself.
October 6, 2012
I've been reading a string of unsatisfying books, and thought that this one would get me on an upswing. It's well-written, with beautiful descriptions, mature and interesting characters, a believable and intriguing plot, and a brooding setting. I kept thinking this until the very end, when -- it just ended. Without giving important plot elements away, the book ended right at the climax. So we got involved in these characters' lives, care about what happens to them, and are extremely disappointed. There's no satisfying resolution that shows us where they are going in any sustainable sense. I don't need a happily-ever-after ending where everything is clear. But this book left loose ends hanging way down the cliff. It was so abrupt that (I was listening to it in audiobook) I actually screamed an obscenity when the reader said, "The end." So skip this one unless you like staring into deep crevasses wondering what's down there.
June 21, 2012
This was a tough one. On the plus side, the writer really nailed the creeping horror of guilt and madness. On the other hand, the writer really nailed the creeping horror of guilt and madness, and it made me really uncomfortable. It gave me mood swings: One minute, I wanted to put the book down and stop reading it, because it was so disturbing, and the next minute, I couldn't put it down, because I had to know what happened, next.
The characters were insidiously powerful and well-written, but I mostly didn't like them and occasionally had trouble understanding them. (Just like real people, now that I think of it.) They made me consider how different other people might be, from me, and also how unfounded are my assumptions about how I would handle being in a particular situation. Would I *really* handle it any better than Anabel, or Silva, or Ron, if I were in their shoes? I'd like to think I would, but....would I?
I can't say I enjoyed the book (hence, the three stars) but it was powerful, and I think it will stick with me for awhile (possibly in the form of nightmares.)
Also: Ambiguous endings suck.
The characters were insidiously powerful and well-written, but I mostly didn't like them and occasionally had trouble understanding them. (Just like real people, now that I think of it.) They made me consider how different other people might be, from me, and also how unfounded are my assumptions about how I would handle being in a particular situation. Would I *really* handle it any better than Anabel, or Silva, or Ron, if I were in their shoes? I'd like to think I would, but....would I?
I can't say I enjoyed the book (hence, the three stars) but it was powerful, and I think it will stick with me for awhile (possibly in the form of nightmares.)
Also: Ambiguous endings suck.
September 4, 2014
Spoiler vibe here.
Funny thing with mysteries. When the writer is no good, there may still be an intriguingly tricky plot. Something they've hit on by mistake, or stolen, or overheard at a Radisson Hotel bar. The book won't be any good, but still, you're getting a 5o-5o return on your wasted time.
With good writers the worst that can happen, really, is that the author may take a wrong step here or there, blow an alibi or a clue, but odds are that's going to be forgettable in a book that is good. The work is solid, the characters, atmosphere, milieu are all okay and you forgive.
The strange thing is that the best a reader can bank on from a good mystery writer is a close call; there is only the hope for a sharpening or refining of the edge that was achieved the last time out. The best hope is for a string of ever-so-slightly-better books, narrowing ever closer to something resembling Life. We're talking murder here, so Life In Extreme Disarray, let us say.
While that sounds like a confining aspect to the genre, with the highest goal a studious or workmanlike repetition of the same elements, it works out not to be so. Or it works out to be a more subtle, nuanced thing than, say, explosive groundbreaking novels of 'real' writers. You know, the recluse ones, whose photos aren't available anywhere, the ones with three names, the Significant ones.
Back in the less-grandiose land of Mystery writers, the tools are different for the various branches (hard-boiled, procedural, manor-house, historical, policier, locked-room, paranormal, etc)-- and the risks of being absolutely pointless run high. At this point in the game, a lot has been explored, a lot mixed and refashioned, so it's hard to find much that is original and not cute or daft.
All of which finds us here, with the very good writer Morag Joss-- who knows how it's done. Put simply it is the dual task of keeping the plotting aligned with the telling, all the while leading the reader down the path. Since there is always going to be that Extreme Disarray we talked about, it is important for the reader to know there is a calm center somewhere, a moral reference point, even if it's a felt thing and not stated or outlined. Joss gets it; her branch is the psychological mystery, and here are some of the tools...
First, of Restraint. In the sense of knowing where to lavish information and where to withhold it; whether from narrator to reader or from character to character, or across time-frames-- it is a difficult target to hit with precision (certainly judging by the squads of mystery writers who don't).
For example, in Among The Missing the author has an illegal foreign couple, who most lesser writers would have milked for the "spirited Chechen partisans" kind of thing, setting the soundtrack on balalaika or whatever. Morag Joss does not; she doesn't see the need to stipulate that, and she's right.
Second, call this one Nuance: there is no highway to hell. The one-way trip to the finale is a Noirist's delight, but the Psych mystery does a little better with a more natural arc. Joss takes a ferocious pleasure in letting the wiggly-waggly, circuitous real-life things take her narrative almost away from her control sometimes. Thus introducing, coincidentally, the feeling of realism. Accidental aspects can then just drift toward that thing that will be unnerving, the Disarray thing, and in the most unnerving of ways.
Third, Balance. Self explanatory; if you're going to play the expectations of the reader like a stradivarius, you must lay the foundations like a set of scales, deliberate and familiar, finding their own level every time. Even the deletions, pauses, and glitches need to fit, find a place, settle into the setup.
Finally, and encompassing all of the above, Poise. In the telling of a commonplace world where there will be a full-on, no-joke disaster, there has to be the ability-- the reader has to sense it-- to navigate the stormy waters along the way. Joss dials it in, beautifully.
What is left is where the spoiler comes to wreak havoc on all this very accomplished dialing-in and fiddling-away and balancing-up. Joss gets to the end and asks herself this question: "Have I built my mystery-castle stone by stone, carefully and stealthily, have I guarded against any imposters or usurpers? What shall I do now that I have everyone assembled on my throne of expectation within?"
She decides the most dramatic closure will come of smashing it all up, opting for a bloody, grand-guignol finale that will please maybe no one, or maybe only the makers of the Hong-Kong action version of this novel. Rather than opting for, dare I say a kind of de-Maupassant-style set of twists and ironies, she gives us splatter-- blood and tears, flesh, afterbirth and agony, at maximum pitch.
Which won't do at all. I would say to Ms Joss that she brought intelligent readers too close to a perfect mystery to end it in horror movie style; I would respectfully note that when it does become a movie, they will change it to their liking anyway, perhaps to something that befits a Reese Witherspoon vehicle...
So really, why not close a well-voiced Bach-style-sonata as, for example, Bach would-- with that final, inevitable, softly harmonic chord, rather than Chaos.
Hollywood will do the chaos anyway.
Funny thing with mysteries. When the writer is no good, there may still be an intriguingly tricky plot. Something they've hit on by mistake, or stolen, or overheard at a Radisson Hotel bar. The book won't be any good, but still, you're getting a 5o-5o return on your wasted time.
With good writers the worst that can happen, really, is that the author may take a wrong step here or there, blow an alibi or a clue, but odds are that's going to be forgettable in a book that is good. The work is solid, the characters, atmosphere, milieu are all okay and you forgive.
The strange thing is that the best a reader can bank on from a good mystery writer is a close call; there is only the hope for a sharpening or refining of the edge that was achieved the last time out. The best hope is for a string of ever-so-slightly-better books, narrowing ever closer to something resembling Life. We're talking murder here, so Life In Extreme Disarray, let us say.
While that sounds like a confining aspect to the genre, with the highest goal a studious or workmanlike repetition of the same elements, it works out not to be so. Or it works out to be a more subtle, nuanced thing than, say, explosive groundbreaking novels of 'real' writers. You know, the recluse ones, whose photos aren't available anywhere, the ones with three names, the Significant ones.
Back in the less-grandiose land of Mystery writers, the tools are different for the various branches (hard-boiled, procedural, manor-house, historical, policier, locked-room, paranormal, etc)-- and the risks of being absolutely pointless run high. At this point in the game, a lot has been explored, a lot mixed and refashioned, so it's hard to find much that is original and not cute or daft.
All of which finds us here, with the very good writer Morag Joss-- who knows how it's done. Put simply it is the dual task of keeping the plotting aligned with the telling, all the while leading the reader down the path. Since there is always going to be that Extreme Disarray we talked about, it is important for the reader to know there is a calm center somewhere, a moral reference point, even if it's a felt thing and not stated or outlined. Joss gets it; her branch is the psychological mystery, and here are some of the tools...
First, of Restraint. In the sense of knowing where to lavish information and where to withhold it; whether from narrator to reader or from character to character, or across time-frames-- it is a difficult target to hit with precision (certainly judging by the squads of mystery writers who don't).
For example, in Among The Missing the author has an illegal foreign couple, who most lesser writers would have milked for the "spirited Chechen partisans" kind of thing, setting the soundtrack on balalaika or whatever. Morag Joss does not; she doesn't see the need to stipulate that, and she's right.
Second, call this one Nuance: there is no highway to hell. The one-way trip to the finale is a Noirist's delight, but the Psych mystery does a little better with a more natural arc. Joss takes a ferocious pleasure in letting the wiggly-waggly, circuitous real-life things take her narrative almost away from her control sometimes. Thus introducing, coincidentally, the feeling of realism. Accidental aspects can then just drift toward that thing that will be unnerving, the Disarray thing, and in the most unnerving of ways.
Third, Balance. Self explanatory; if you're going to play the expectations of the reader like a stradivarius, you must lay the foundations like a set of scales, deliberate and familiar, finding their own level every time. Even the deletions, pauses, and glitches need to fit, find a place, settle into the setup.
Finally, and encompassing all of the above, Poise. In the telling of a commonplace world where there will be a full-on, no-joke disaster, there has to be the ability-- the reader has to sense it-- to navigate the stormy waters along the way. Joss dials it in, beautifully.
What is left is where the spoiler comes to wreak havoc on all this very accomplished dialing-in and fiddling-away and balancing-up. Joss gets to the end and asks herself this question: "Have I built my mystery-castle stone by stone, carefully and stealthily, have I guarded against any imposters or usurpers? What shall I do now that I have everyone assembled on my throne of expectation within?"
She decides the most dramatic closure will come of smashing it all up, opting for a bloody, grand-guignol finale that will please maybe no one, or maybe only the makers of the Hong-Kong action version of this novel. Rather than opting for, dare I say a kind of de-Maupassant-style set of twists and ironies, she gives us splatter-- blood and tears, flesh, afterbirth and agony, at maximum pitch.
Which won't do at all. I would say to Ms Joss that she brought intelligent readers too close to a perfect mystery to end it in horror movie style; I would respectfully note that when it does become a movie, they will change it to their liking anyway, perhaps to something that befits a Reese Witherspoon vehicle...
So really, why not close a well-voiced Bach-style-sonata as, for example, Bach would-- with that final, inevitable, softly harmonic chord, rather than Chaos.
Hollywood will do the chaos anyway.
November 6, 2013
Were there two different authors writing this book or was the roller coaster ride feeling intentional?
To me it seemed the story started with a plodding, tediously slow start. The story got interesting when the bridge collapsed and Annabel made her decision to use it to her advantage. You could see that happening in real life; using that kind of an opportunity to slip away from an unhappy life. Then, friendships form, romance tentatively blossoms and they settle into a routine. You are thinking "This could work out. They might all be able to find their happily ever after. You are rooting for them to find happiness in the simplicity of their lives. Months pass, and then WHAM! It is as if another writer has taken over and all of a sudden -- completely out of nowhere -- we read the most twisted, harrowing can't-stand-to-read-it, can't-bear-to-put-it-down account of events one evening. Then, abruptly, it's over.
Liked:
Disappear from your disappointing life during a natural disaster
Annabel choosing the life of her baby over her pathetic husband and pathetic marriage
Ron's character - broken, lonely, good guy
Col's change of heart and remorse
Didn't Like:
A sweet romance was developing between Ron and Annabel and then it just stopped with no real explanation
Silva's UNBELIEVABLE jump to conclusion about Annabel’s role in her husband's death
Col's change of heart was UNBELIEVABLE and completely out of his character
Too much ambiguity in the ending
To me it seemed the story started with a plodding, tediously slow start. The story got interesting when the bridge collapsed and Annabel made her decision to use it to her advantage. You could see that happening in real life; using that kind of an opportunity to slip away from an unhappy life. Then, friendships form, romance tentatively blossoms and they settle into a routine. You are thinking "This could work out. They might all be able to find their happily ever after. You are rooting for them to find happiness in the simplicity of their lives. Months pass, and then WHAM! It is as if another writer has taken over and all of a sudden -- completely out of nowhere -- we read the most twisted, harrowing can't-stand-to-read-it, can't-bear-to-put-it-down account of events one evening. Then, abruptly, it's over.
Liked:
Disappear from your disappointing life during a natural disaster
Annabel choosing the life of her baby over her pathetic husband and pathetic marriage
Ron's character - broken, lonely, good guy
Col's change of heart and remorse
Didn't Like:
A sweet romance was developing between Ron and Annabel and then it just stopped with no real explanation
Silva's UNBELIEVABLE jump to conclusion about Annabel’s role in her husband's death
Col's change of heart was UNBELIEVABLE and completely out of his character
Too much ambiguity in the ending
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 15, 2011
Joss is so good at making you uncomfortable with her characters. (Or is that uncomfortable for her characters?) She's subtle but you cringe.
Now that I'm finished, I'll write more details and impressions later.
So much is invisible. p. 7
... and we laughed in the way people laugh when they want to show something doesn't matter but it does. p. 57
How dare he appear in this way, as if some truly dreadful blow had been dealt him, when all he had lost was me? p. 118
She was rationing my knitting to an hour a day because, she said, pregnant women who knitted too much could produce confused babies. p. 205
... but our silence strikes me now as more like generosity tongue-tied than disappointment throttling itself before it can cry out. p. 222
Now that I'm finished, I'll write more details and impressions later.
So much is invisible. p. 7
... and we laughed in the way people laugh when they want to show something doesn't matter but it does. p. 57
How dare he appear in this way, as if some truly dreadful blow had been dealt him, when all he had lost was me? p. 118
She was rationing my knitting to an hour a day because, she said, pregnant women who knitted too much could produce confused babies. p. 205
... but our silence strikes me now as more like generosity tongue-tied than disappointment throttling itself before it can cry out. p. 222
Read
September 6, 2015An eerie book I had to restart a few times but could not push through to finish.
May 16, 2011
With a deep rumble and roar, the bridge near Netherloch Falls in the Scottish Highlands comes tumbling down. The license plates of the cars that went into the river are captured on CCTV footage that is played and replayed on the evening news. Thirteen people escape their vehicles and survive the collapse, 9 bodies are recovered, and seven others are listed as missing and presumed drowned in the four cars that remain tangled in the underwater wreckage. One of the missing is a middle-aged woman on her honeymoon who had rented one of the cars that remains in the river. In the days and months that follow the tragedy, no one questions that she was indeed in the vehicle when it drove onto the bridge.
With Among the Missing, Morag Joss has created a searing narrative of three wounded souls with no fixed abode, no recognized existence in the social fabric that defines us as distinct individuals. Ron, released after serving a 5-year sentence for criminal negligence, is a drifter living in his Land Rover. Silva, an illegal immigrant, ekes out a bare existence alongside her husband and year-old daughter, squatting in an abandoned trailer by the river. The middle-aged newlywed (aka Annabelle), has no other family besides her new husband, Colin, who has just informed her he does not want the baby she is carrying. After the bridge collapses, by fate or by chance, these three—Ron, Silva, and Annabelle-- form a tenuous family centered on the arrival of Annabelle’s baby while Silva waits for her husband and daughter to return, for they too went missing on the day the bridge went down.
Ultimately, Among the Missing is a story of landscapes, both interior and exterior. The river is a constant character that flows symbolically through the lives of the three castaways who do not look beyond the arrival of the baby. In beautifully descriptive language, through the tangled current of their stories, Joss examines what it means for someone to be counted as “missing.”
With Among the Missing, Morag Joss has created a searing narrative of three wounded souls with no fixed abode, no recognized existence in the social fabric that defines us as distinct individuals. Ron, released after serving a 5-year sentence for criminal negligence, is a drifter living in his Land Rover. Silva, an illegal immigrant, ekes out a bare existence alongside her husband and year-old daughter, squatting in an abandoned trailer by the river. The middle-aged newlywed (aka Annabelle), has no other family besides her new husband, Colin, who has just informed her he does not want the baby she is carrying. After the bridge collapses, by fate or by chance, these three—Ron, Silva, and Annabelle-- form a tenuous family centered on the arrival of Annabelle’s baby while Silva waits for her husband and daughter to return, for they too went missing on the day the bridge went down.
Ultimately, Among the Missing is a story of landscapes, both interior and exterior. The river is a constant character that flows symbolically through the lives of the three castaways who do not look beyond the arrival of the baby. In beautifully descriptive language, through the tangled current of their stories, Joss examines what it means for someone to be counted as “missing.”
February 24, 2012
When tragedy strikes a small Scotland town, the lives of three are united in a circle of secrets and despair. A woman whose husband demanded she terminate a pregnancy he doesn’t want, an illegal who is in denial that her husband and daughter are not coming home and an ex-con who just wants to start a new life. They find solace in each other’s company and consider themselves a family. But when the town starts to rebuild after the devastation, the truth starts to come out, assumptions are made and their bond comes to an horrifying end.
Among the Missing was a rollercoaster of emotions. It was written well, as I was starting to get comfortable with the direction, it changed. The characters were impressive with great emphasis on their different backgrounds. Though the story was a little long in areas, the exciting moments carried the book through to the end. I always love a story which ends unexpectedly.
We learned a lot about the two main women characters in the story, however, I think the author left out a lot of information on Ron, the women’s hero/caretaker. He had secrets that were never revealed and I think that kind-of let him off the hook. Whether the women would have accepted him as he was or turned their back on him is a void for me as a reader.
Among the Missing was a rollercoaster of emotions. It was written well, as I was starting to get comfortable with the direction, it changed. The characters were impressive with great emphasis on their different backgrounds. Though the story was a little long in areas, the exciting moments carried the book through to the end. I always love a story which ends unexpectedly.
We learned a lot about the two main women characters in the story, however, I think the author left out a lot of information on Ron, the women’s hero/caretaker. He had secrets that were never revealed and I think that kind-of let him off the hook. Whether the women would have accepted him as he was or turned their back on him is a void for me as a reader.
September 3, 2013
What is with these books that are pretty good, then have horrible endings? Ugh! Additionally, the voice was completely inconsistent. I mean, it was terribly confusing at first, so I'll just tell you (and not ruin anything), the character "Silva" speaks as if she's talking to her husband ("Stefan"), using "you" all the time, whereas "Ron" and "Annabel" speak to the reader, and then, just for randomness' sake, the author takes over a couple times and a whole chapter will be written in third person from his POV. Really? It made my brain hurt.
February 5, 2015
This was a solid 5 star listen with top notch performances from Kate Reading, Cassandra Campbell and Robin Sachs (RIP).
Thought provoking, elegant writing, enhanced with audio performances from three top notch performers, which are consistent as regards pronunciations, accents and tone. A recording triumph!
Thought provoking, elegant writing, enhanced with audio performances from three top notch performers, which are consistent as regards pronunciations, accents and tone. A recording triumph!
February 12, 2015
Amazing story especially the last hour it made the whole book!
Have you ever thought about starting your life over? What if by a chance of fate you could start anew? When unbeknownst to her husband a pregnant woman sells her car and soon after that car is being shown on all news outlets plunging into the river after a bridge collapses, her husband was not happy about the pregnancy so she decides to stay “dead” and becomes Annabelle. The only problem is she sold the car to a man who had a child with him and they are actually the ones who went into the river, and the guilt of this is hard on her. She makes her way along the river and ends up at the cabin of a woman named Silva, who also happens to be wife and mother of the man and child in the car. There she tries to make a new life never telling Silva the truth and her only other companion is Ron the boatman the 3 of them and their secrets fill the cabin. But secrets never quite stay hidden and when all these secrets come out there is no telling what may happen.
This is not a happy book these three people are all mourning something and keeping secrets and dealing with guilt, however this is a beautifully written book that kept my attention from beginning to end. And as I said the last hour was edge of my seat, nail biting, tummy flipping suspense when one secret bubbles to the surface yet is misunderstood and the tension is palpable.
The narration is wonderful and really enhances this sad story I had forgotten how much I love Robin Sachs voice, his narration was superb he had many different accents and the Scottish man working on the bridge was great, and the ladies Kate Reading & Cassandra Campbell WOW great accents, and such a great range of emotions that make you feel everything these women go through. This is a book to listen to just for the fabulous narration if nothing else. But I did like this story yes it is sad but it is also a very powerful story of what ifs.
Highly recommend this audio!
4 stars
5 Stars Narration
Have you ever thought about starting your life over? What if by a chance of fate you could start anew? When unbeknownst to her husband a pregnant woman sells her car and soon after that car is being shown on all news outlets plunging into the river after a bridge collapses, her husband was not happy about the pregnancy so she decides to stay “dead” and becomes Annabelle. The only problem is she sold the car to a man who had a child with him and they are actually the ones who went into the river, and the guilt of this is hard on her. She makes her way along the river and ends up at the cabin of a woman named Silva, who also happens to be wife and mother of the man and child in the car. There she tries to make a new life never telling Silva the truth and her only other companion is Ron the boatman the 3 of them and their secrets fill the cabin. But secrets never quite stay hidden and when all these secrets come out there is no telling what may happen.
This is not a happy book these three people are all mourning something and keeping secrets and dealing with guilt, however this is a beautifully written book that kept my attention from beginning to end. And as I said the last hour was edge of my seat, nail biting, tummy flipping suspense when one secret bubbles to the surface yet is misunderstood and the tension is palpable.
The narration is wonderful and really enhances this sad story I had forgotten how much I love Robin Sachs voice, his narration was superb he had many different accents and the Scottish man working on the bridge was great, and the ladies Kate Reading & Cassandra Campbell WOW great accents, and such a great range of emotions that make you feel everything these women go through. This is a book to listen to just for the fabulous narration if nothing else. But I did like this story yes it is sad but it is also a very powerful story of what ifs.
Highly recommend this audio!
4 stars
5 Stars Narration
August 26, 2016
Audio version. Like other readers, I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, the author has a gift for telling a story. On the other hand, she lets the story get out of control. Part of an author's task is to rein in the characters and the plot when things start getting a bit haywire. (I do not buy the usual argument that the characters take control--okay, maybe on the first or second draft, but at some point the author has the authority and the obligation IMO to bring them back--these are words on a page, not real people--edit and "kill your darlings.") For me this tale requires way too much suspension of disbelief, particularly with the pregnant 40+ year old. I just can't believe the decisions she made subsequent to the bridge collapsing, when there was no real need for her to hide away in a shack with strangers living on the fringe of society. There has to be some element of reality to make a character and her motivations believable to the reader. I didn't care for Silva whatsoever, and Ron could have had a larger role--of the three, his story was the most worth exploring, particularly in the redemption angle. But, that story line didn't happen. The ending was heading towards a Titanic-style disaster, but seemed to right itself. BTW, did I read a different ending? Because I found the ending quite clearly leading in a specific direction, admittedly for only one of the main characters. I was fine with the ending; I needed this book to end on a rather pat note after all the emotional upheaval and melodrama.
June 30, 2011
“Already there was no such thing as unfilled space; it was impossible to see nothing” (3).
“The hiking couple were squabbling about distances over a map unfolded across their table and did not look up. The waitress was waiting to set down their plates. So much is invisible” (7).
“…thinking that to perform, however disinterestedly, an act of kindness might bring flooding back a former true impulse to be kind, the way he might swing a numbed limb to and fro hoping that movement would restore sensation” (14).
“Their company was easy because, he soon discovered, young people were curious only about themselves. He just had to keep quiet, as he was anyway inclined to do, and within minutes his passenger would launch into an account of himself that kept him chirping on for miles, as if Ron had demanded some justification for his being wehre he was at that precise point in his life” (15).
“She wasn’t like that, either. She was used to keeping clean easily and had never thought that having the means to do so might be a luxury” (93).
*Well-written, but after a promising beginning, I found my interest flagging...a lot.
“The hiking couple were squabbling about distances over a map unfolded across their table and did not look up. The waitress was waiting to set down their plates. So much is invisible” (7).
“…thinking that to perform, however disinterestedly, an act of kindness might bring flooding back a former true impulse to be kind, the way he might swing a numbed limb to and fro hoping that movement would restore sensation” (14).
“Their company was easy because, he soon discovered, young people were curious only about themselves. He just had to keep quiet, as he was anyway inclined to do, and within minutes his passenger would launch into an account of himself that kept him chirping on for miles, as if Ron had demanded some justification for his being wehre he was at that precise point in his life” (15).
“She wasn’t like that, either. She was used to keeping clean easily and had never thought that having the means to do so might be a luxury” (93).
*Well-written, but after a promising beginning, I found my interest flagging...a lot.
April 29, 2019
While interesting to hear from three different narrators the point of view of each lost soul the entire story goes completely off the rails at the end. The early story of poor immigrant from who knows where working in variety store while husband takes care of daughter seemed quite realistic as well as the plight of Annabelle who deals with her pregnancy and unwilling father. Ron's story of redemption as well seems to be going along well as he helps the ladies out, but as we reach the end the choices and circumstances get so outlandish that it defies logic. Who just leaves their phone lying around uncharged, then when charged doesn't think of the information contained on there? Burning shoes, walking in complete darkness over jagged rocks to get to rickety boat for a ride to who knows where? Not too bright to lack the ability to see that Silva was unhinged, and quite a coincidence that husband would keep coming back then at penultimate moment we are left hanging with now what? Lovely descriptions of nature and sounds smells of life on the fringes , just didn't quite hold together till the end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 21, 2021
what's among the missing is an ENDING. I hate books without a definitive ending. The author left multiple major plot threads entirely unresolved. If I read hundreds of pages of introduced issues, I want to see some sort of resolution. It isn't wise or profound to leave the story without an ending. It's merely lazy or incompetent writing. The author either doesn't know how to end her story, or doesn't want to be judged for choosing one possible ending over another, so she leaves the whole thing completely unresolved, no idea from all these multiple characters of what finally happened to them. I've read three books by this author. The first had an ending of at least the major character, though it was not firmly resolved. The last two have been this opened ended wishy washy, author too lame to resolve her plot situation. And that's it for me. When I buy a book, I don't pay for someone's unfinished works. The author does have some talent in setting scenes and characters, but she seems unable to come to a resolution. As a reader I feel cheated.
November 1, 2012
Kind of an eerie book. A recently married woman in her early 40s discovers she is pregnant, and her husband indicates he does not want children. She sells their rental car to an illegal immigrant with the hope that if she has money, her husband will be willing to accept the child. However, a bridge collapses when the man who bought the car and his small daughter are on it. The woman sees this as an opportunity to disappear and have her baby. She moves in with the wife of the man who has died in her rental car, and they are befriended by Ron, a loner who happens to be in the area. The story of this odd threesome - all of whom are alone in the world and lonely.
November 11, 2016
A very different book, and one that will stay with me. I listened to it, and found myself very caught up in the idea of disappearing, and what that means in our modern society. I kept thinking of the movie the Misfits too, as everyone in this book had a past that they wanted to forget, or to at least not share.
April 9, 2020
Suspenseful book that keeps your attention from first to large page. It would also make a great movie, especially with the dramatic end ( no spoilers here). The technique of telling the story from the changing perspective of the protagonist is very well done. The images of the Scottish landscape makes on take a holiday in Scotland oneself.
July 13, 2012
It was a slow start getting into this book, but once I did, it was hard to put down.
June 3, 2015
3 stars. Good description of the characters state of minds
April 6, 2015
This book was pretty good throughout the body and the ending was very confusing. I would not recommend buying this book but if you can rent it from the library it would make it more worth your time
March 17, 2016
Another strong volume by Morag Joss, my favorite writer of disturbing mystery thrillers.
February 2, 2019
Sylva is an illegal immigrant with a husband and small child living in an abandoned trailer near a river in Scotland. Annabelle (not her real name) is a 42-year-old woman on holiday with her husband of not too many years. She discovers she is pregnant and he makes it very clear he doesn't want a baby. Ron has been in prison for 5 years for negligent homicide and is not welcomed back by his family upon his release so he travels around doing odd jobs. When a bridge collapses circumstances draw there three together. They all keep their secrets while figuring out a way to take care of each other's daily needs. Annabelle's secret has the potential to destroy her safety and their relationships. The tension builds as the bridge is rebuilt and the pregnancy progresses.
I liked the story but found the end incomplete and therefore unsatisfying. There needs to be an epilogue set a year later. The reader for this audio version is good.
I liked the story but found the end incomplete and therefore unsatisfying. There needs to be an epilogue set a year later. The reader for this audio version is good.
September 9, 2018
Like many reviewers of this bewildering book, I'm having a tough time rating it. A friend & I listened to the audio version on a road trip and soon became so enthralled that we didn't want to take road breaks. As one reviewer so eloquently stated, some of it was so uncomfortable that we wanted to turn it off, but we so wanted to know what happened that we kept it playing.
The end was SO abrupt & mystifying that, like others, we replayed the ending to see what we missed. I felt cheated. If I dwelt on that part, rather than the preceding story, I'd have rated it two stars, frankly. It's one thing to leave a bit of mystery at book's end. It's quite another to hurl the reader off the edge of a cliff. Yeeps.
The end was SO abrupt & mystifying that, like others, we replayed the ending to see what we missed. I felt cheated. If I dwelt on that part, rather than the preceding story, I'd have rated it two stars, frankly. It's one thing to leave a bit of mystery at book's end. It's quite another to hurl the reader off the edge of a cliff. Yeeps.
September 23, 2024
Tough to rate. Interesting story only slightly overly descriptive. Almost dnf because the pregnant character did not sound realistic. But i hung on and became invested in these people only to have the author stop the story mid climax. I did enjoy the writing and what the characters were thinking. 1) the missing ending and 2) every chapter is a different person speaking, and 3) the characters' personalities drastic shift near the end just didn't work for me.
I'd recommend for fodder for a group discussion topics.. immigration, the plight of a released felon, and many more. But it's not worth it if you want a whole story. A story with at least one thing resolved.
I'd recommend for fodder for a group discussion topics.. immigration, the plight of a released felon, and many more. But it's not worth it if you want a whole story. A story with at least one thing resolved.
July 26, 2019
hmmm. I really liked this book until the ending. I don't read reviews bc I don't want to know anything about most books before I read them, but I will bet I'm not the only one who didn't like this ending. Oh, well. I liked the characters (good and bad), and the story idea was great, if not a tiny bit unrealistic. I think the authors writing style was beautiful when describing the surroundings, was probably my favorite aspect of this book.
January 1, 2018
(Audible; Robin Sachs, Cassandra Campbell, Kate Reading) Three lost souls, on the verge of being losers, come together into a kind of family, in which no one asks too many questions. Too many secrets though, never a good thing, because one of the souls misconceives another soul's history. Well narrated.
October 3, 2021
I listened to this as an audio book while on a trip. It was very intriguing & full of twists. There were moments you were shaking your head in disbelief at the stupidity of the characters actions. The naive actions, cruelty, insanity however drew you into the story. The ending was rushed & left open. I needed more. I prefer closure. I would definitely try another book by this author.
August 3, 2024
I’m surprised to see so many negative or iffy comments on this book. I listened to the audiobook which was very well done. In the personal twists and turns of the three main characters there is a deeply complex emotional struggle which at times reduces the character’s lives to just barely surviving - not sure who to trust or turn to…
Very well done and highly recommended
Very well done and highly recommended
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