Mergaitės, kurias pamiršo

by Emily Gunnis, Ieva Albertavičienė (Translator)

1944-ieji, Blečlio Parkas. Patriotiškai nusiteikusi Olivija atvyksta dirbti depešų kurjere. Jaunatviško įkarščio kupina mergina nenumano, kokie išbandymai jos laukia. Žino viena: ji nori pamatyti pasaulį, o ne sėdėti namie, kaip mama.

2015-ieji, Soltdinas. Nuošalioje vietovėje randami merginos palaikai. Policijos inspektorė Džo Hamilton įtaria, kad jie – septyniolikmetės Holės Mor, prieš trisdešimt metų dingusios Morgeito našlaičių namų globotinės. Ištisus dešimtmečius ši mįslė nedavė Džo ramybės. Kaip ir penkiolikmetės Džemos Smit mirtis. Dabar Džo tarnybos laikas baigiasi – ji turi tik penkias dienas išsiaiškinti tiesą. Tik kodėl visi įkalbinėja šią bylą palikti ramybėje? Kodėl viršininkas slapukauja, o aukos sesuo atsisako bendrauti su policija? Maža to, hospise gęsta Džo motinos gyvybė, tad Džo teks rinktis, kam skirti savo jėgas ir laiką.

Tai sukrečiantis pasakojimas apie dešimtmečius saugomas paslaptis ir negyjančias žaizdas, kurios alina sielą net ir po daugelio metų. Apie nenumaldomą laisvės troškimą ir kartu poreikį kam nors priklausyti, sulaukti palaikymo, būti mylimam. Apie meilę. Žudančią. Ir teikiančią jėgų.

Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction, Book Club, Fiction, Thriller, Crime, Mystery Thriller

384 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2023

About the author

Hello everyone,

Thank you for checking out my author page. Even writing this is a dream come true for me.

I’ve wanted to be a published author since my mother, Penny Vincenzi, got her first book deal, when she and I would walk and talk about everything plots and stories together.

Fast forward thirty years and I have discovered it is slightly more difficult than she made it look. But still, I got there eventually, because it is in my blood, and also, because I have always existed, slightly, in a world of my own, and reading and writing books allows me to make a living from that. I still remember my eleven-year-old self, a little at odds with the world, sitting on the cold parquet floor of St Lawrence Junior School utterly gripped as Mr Thomas read us all Boy by Roald Dahl.

After graduating in Journalism in 1997 I began writing scripts and had two episodes of BBC Doctors commissioned, but I wasn’t keen on all the endless drafts and input from Script Editors and Producers. So, while I worked as a PA at the BBC and the Daily Mirror newspaper I learned as much as I could about storytelling until it all became fodder for my debut novel, The Girl in the Letter.

I really hope you enjoy it, and my follow-up novel which I am busy researching as we speak. I live in Brighton, Sussex, with my husband Steve, an architect, and my two crazy, beautiful girls, Grace and Eleanor. We read a lot of Julia Donaldson and Roald Dahl, in between walking Merlin our whippet on the beach but when I’ve got a deadline I rely on their tablets rather a lot and feel incredibly guilty most of the time.

If you’d like to get in touch, please do visit me on Twitter @EmilyGunnis and Instagram @emilygunnis.

And if you’re really stuck for something to do, feel free to review my book. I would love to know what you think.

Keep reading!

Love Emily x

Reviews

[Rosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a Nutshell: A historical mystery developing over multiple timelines and culminating in the present. Has its merits but also has loopholes. A fairly entertaining read, though not a mind-blowing one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Story Synopsis:

In 1975, while summoned to a domestic dispute, constable Jo Hamilton mistakenly started a fire at the location. The two little girls at the house, Holly and Daisy, are saved, but their parents are killed. The girls are sent to the local children’s home named Morgate House, an old Victorian residence at the edge of a cliff. Jo tries to keep tabs over the girls, but Daisy is soon adopted. In a few years more, Holly goes missing, the mystery of which has stayed unsolved all this while.
Now, forty years later, some bones have been discovered at a digging site, and Jo, now a superintendent just a few days away from retirement, knows in her guts that they belong to Holly. Can the investigation finally come to a close with this new information?
The story comes to us from multiple timelines (1945, 1975, 1985, 2015) and the third person perspective of multiple female characters.

Bookish Yays:
😍 Most of the main characters aren’t classifiable as typical good or bad persons. They are flawed. Even Jo, who is a capable police officer, is very judgemental in her thinking. Regardless, these flaws make the characters more nuanced.

😍 Jo’s role as a women police officer offers plenty of insights about the inherent misogyny and patronising in a male-dominated profession. Through another character named Olive, we get to see how women dispatch riders functioned for Bletchley Park in the WWII era. Reading these unusual career perspectives in a fictional work was very interesting.

😍 There are many mother-daughter relationships in the book.; But unlike most historical fiction works, not a single one of them is a positive relationship. I liked this complicated portrayal of family dynamics.

😍 The book also highlights the apathetic attitude of the governing agencies towards orphans and abandoned kids in children’s homes and foster care. It’s sad that decisions about children were taken keeping adult conveniences in mind.

😍 There are a couple of death scenes in the story, and these are written brilliantly. The unnatural deaths gave me the creeps.


Bookish Mixed Bags:
😔 I enjoy historical books with multiple timelines. So seeing this book span four timelines was a surprise, especially as the blurb offered no hint of its being a saga. Keeping track of the timelines isn’t too difficult as the character voices are in third person. However, I feel that the 1945 timeline set in Bletchley Park wasn’t necessary at all. It had nothing concrete to offer to the core plot and felt like a way of padding the back story of one of the characters.

😔 Remembering the characters in each timeline is also not tricky as the characters recur in other timelines as well. They are also written distinctly enough as to not create confusion. However, some of the links between the characters across timelines are farfetched and coincidental. Even some secrets become obvious because of the extensive overlap. For two major characters, their personality undergoes a 180-degree shift in the final chapters.


Bookish Nays:
😒 The main mystery regarding the identity of the killer is fairly easy to solve. If you have read even a few mystery novels, you’ll figure it out very early in the proceedings. This is a major disappointment as the mystery is supposed to be the main focus of the book.

😒 The ending is too rushed and yet incomplete. It patches up things too neatly and abruptly, without bothering about filling in some missing gaps. Moreover, the mystery reveals the person but not the agenda or the modus operandi. These plot gaps reduce the impact of the ending.

😒 There are some prejudicial comments about topics such as stay-at-home mums and people with lazy eyes. These might be said/thought by the characters, but they sounded hypercritical and biased.


🎧 The Audiobook Experience:
The audiobook, clocking at 10 hrs 23 min, is narrated by Clare Corbett. Overall, her performance is pretty good. She has a great voice, and she enhances it further with varied accents and pitches for the characters. The only thing I didn’t like about her performance was when she was reading the more emotional scenes – her reading tone didn’t reflect the emotion, which made the emotion fall flat.
There are plenty of phone and despatch radio conversations in the book, and these are presented with a special effect that made them sound genuine. While this was fun at first, it became annoying as it went ahead .
I can still recommend the audio version, but only to experienced audiobook listeners. Newbies will get all muddled by the plethora of timelines.


All in all, this is a good historical mystery, which will work well as long as you don’t overanalyse it. The characters and their backgrounds are more compelling than the mystery itself, so better read as a historical drama than as a mystery-thriller.

3.5 stars, rounding up for the audio version. (It would easily have been a 4+ star read had the mystery been a bit more complicated and the timelines a bit more simplified and the ending a bit more detailed.)


My thanks to Headline and NetGalley for the ALC of “The Girls Left Behind”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog | The StoryGraph | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

[Marilyn (not getting notifications) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Girls Left Behind by Emily Gunnis was a gripping mystery thriller. I was initially drawn to the eye catching cover but as soon as I began listening to the audiobook I was hooked. The audiobook was well narrated by Clare Corbett. The Girls Left Behind was well plotted, fast paced and had several twists. I particularly enjoyed that The Girls Left Behind centered around the lives of three strong female characters. The time line alternated between the 1940’s when Olive, Jo’s mother was working at Bletchley Park during World War II, the 1970’s-1980’s when Jo Hamilton was a young rookie constable and present day. All three time lines wove together flawlessly by the end of the book.

Jo Hamilton was days away from retirement. She was the Superintendent of the Sussex Police department and had earned the right to retire. There was one case, though, that had haunted Jo Hamilton throughout her career. More than forty years ago, Jo Hamilton was a young constable. She responded to a case of suspected domestic violence. As she entered the identified house, Jo witnessed an irate husband, a cowering wife and two scared and frightened daughters. As Jo tried to get the two daughters out of the house and away from their out of control father, a terrible accident occurred. Jo accidentally knocked over an ashtray and before she realized what she had done the room was engulfed in flames. Jo was able to get the girls out of the house safely but their mother was not as lucky. Even though the fire was an accident, Jo blamed herself. She took full responsibility for the two young sisters. Jo Hamilton realized she had no choice but to take the sisters to a children’s home. Not long after the girls were placed in the children’s home, the older sister disappeared, never to be seen again. Jo never got over the guilt she felt about the fate of the two sisters. Now just days away from her long awaited retirement, Jo Hamilton learned that bones belonging to female victim had been discovered near Saltdean. Could the bones belong to Holly, the older sister, who disappeared all those year ago? Jo became determined to finally bring closure to this case. Could she finally solve this case that had haunted her her entire career? Jo knew that she had to locate Daisy, Holly’s younger sister, to get the answers she desperately needed to finally solve this case. While Jo immersed herself in trying to determine whether the bones that had been uncovered belonged to Holly she also had to come to terms with the fact that her mother was dying. Olive, Jo’s mother had harbored secrets her entire life. Was she ready to divulge them now that she was dying?

Emily Gunnis masterfully wove together the stories of these three strong female characters. The ending was brilliant! I never would have guessed it. I was greatly bothered by the conditions and treatment of the young children at Morgate House, the children’s home where Holly and Daisy ended up. The Girls Left Behind touched on the themes of sisterly love, friendship, deceit, lies, secrets, friendship, guilt, child abuse and determination. I really enjoyed this audiobook and highly recommend it.

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to listen to the audiobook of The Girls Left Behind by Emily Gunnis through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Josephine Jarman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This felt like a long listen by a talented narrator. There were interweaven stories from different timelines wirh atrong narration bring characters their history and emotion fully alive.
The sound quality was top notch . The story flowed well.. At times i felt i had worked it out but the final reveal was breathtaking. I enjoyed every second of this audio book and would highly recommend it the time gies quickly and the skillful writting shines through this twisted novel.
Thank you netgallery and publisher and author and narrator for a cracking 5 star listen

[Knygu_burtai · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5⭐️
Labai gaila, bet šįkart Emily Gunnis nuvylė. Iš pradžių istorija atrodė daug žadanti ir pakankamai įdomi, bet kuo toliau skaičiau, tuo viskas darėsi nuobodžiau. Pagrindinės dvi veikėjos erzinančios, o viena iš jų ypatingai. 😅 Ir ne gerąja prasme, deja. Šiek tiek nustebino su žudiku, tačiau manau, kad tikrai dalis skaitytojų nesunkiai galėtų atspėt, kas jis, o ir pati atomazga manęs neįtikino.

[Pheadra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this through my online bookclub, Pigeonhole, and many readers enjoyed it despite much confusion. The confusion arose because of four different timelines: the 40s at Benchley Park, where Olive rode a motorcycle, delivering messages for code cracking. While there, she is impregnated by a married man who leaves her. She later marries another man with whom she has a daughter, Jo, who joins the police force. In the 1970s, we are transported to a children's home , Mortgage House, where orphans were maltreated, and one teenager, Gemma, went missing. At the same time, because of a fire accidentally started by Jo, who responds to a domestic call out, two sisters, Holly and Daisy, end up at Mortgate. Daisy gets fostered, and Holly tries to find her before she too goes missing.
In 2015, just days from retiring Jo is determined to solve the cold case.
Early on readers had determined who the baddie was, so there were no big reveals, and the ending failed to answer the questions of consequences for those responsible for cover-ups. 3 and a half stars

[Inga Gajauskienė · Rating 2 out of 5]

Man ši autorės knyga buvo labai silpna, palyginus su kitomis jos knygomis. Labai greitai praradau susidomėjimą, jau tikrai galvojau kad iki galo neperskaitysiu. Skaičiau iki galo tik kad sužinoti kas žudikas. Nustebino šiek tiek pabaigą, bet vistiek deja knyga šįkart nepatiko.

[Aiste Gashi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nuobodu... labai greitai paaiskejo, kas prie ko. Nelabai supratau knygos pagrindines minties. Nusivyliau, jauciuosi issvaisciusi kelis vakarus veltui.

[Nicki Beckman · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I really loved how there are a few stories in different time periods that weave together!! My jaw actually dropped when all was revealed. I thought I had it figured out, but I wasn’t even close😂. I really enjoyed this book, who doesn’t love a little history mixed with a little who done it?!

[Alayne Emmett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly disappointed with this one. I thought it would be fast-paced and interesting but, it was slow and had far too many characters which changed every chapter bouncing back and forth between decades. Shame as I have enjoyed her past books.

[Vilma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nesu skaičiusi šios autorės knygų, nors girdžiu tik teigiamus atsiliepimus. Tad susigundžiau naujausią jos knygą paimti į rankas.
Hmm. Įsivažiavau sunkiai. Daug veikėjų, keli laikotarpiai. Tik gerokai įpusėjus prasidėjo veiksmas ir visas įdomumas. Na vertinu taip vidutiniškai. Gal tikėjausi labiau kažko wow.

[Patricia McGrory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book, have had it in my to be read list for ages. Bought it cheap ages ago and hadn’t heard of the author. Will definitely look out for more of her books for the future x

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining read, but not overly memorable.

[Carigan Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was kind of slow and there were too many characters. It was hard to keep up with all of the different story lines. 3 ⭐️ because the last 25% of the book was great.

[Shauna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A historical fiction mystery set in England that spans several decades. A story entwined by heartbreak, murder, desperation and sadness. Morgate House is a home for orphaned children where we meet Gemma and Eve in the 1970’s, and Eve, Holly and Daisy in the 1980’s. All girls are separated at some point in time, but are connected in several different ways. Jo, is a police officer that spans the 1970’s to 2015. She is connected to all the cases and is in her last week before retirement when a body is found. A missing body from 30 years prior. A case that has haunted Jo her entire career and is desperate to get it solved. Jo’s mother is in hospice and we get a glimpse of her life during the 1940’s where she was a motorcycle dispatcher at Bletchley Park during WWII. As all the stories unfold and fall together, the reader is taken on a heartbreaking journey of murder, and bad decisions that alter lives for decades, and relationships that suffered because of those decisions.

I’ve read several Emily Gunnis books, and this is no different from her others. An interesting read, and one that is hard to put down. She never disappoints her readers!

[Rochelle Saldaña · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story was expertly woven into a perfect ending! It kept me guessing as I went along. My interest only got deeper as each detail was revealed.

[Vivienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to Headline Review for an eARC and to Headline Audio for a review copy of the unabridged audiobook edition, both via NetGalley, of ‘The Girls Left Behind’ by Emily Gunnis. The audiobook was narrated by Clare Corbett. I was also invited to take part in their publication week blog tour.

My thanks also to The Pigeonhole for hosting a group read of this novel, which allowed for a lively exchange of comments with my fellow Pigeons.

This work of crime fiction has quite a complex plot that enfolds between four timelines! In 2015, the novel’s present, Superintendent Jo Hamilton is due to retire from the Sussex Police. When the remains of a young woman are discovered in the woods close to Saltdean, she reflects on her early career as a constable when she had often been called out to deal with runaways from Morgate House, a local children’s home located on the Saltdean cliffs.

In 1975, Jo had attended a domestic incident that ended in tragedy. Sisters Holly and Daisy Moore were orphaned and housed at Morgate House. In 1985, Holly has become a troubled teenager desperate for love. When she meets a man who promises to take care of her, Holly hopes her luck has finally changed. Then she is reported missing and was never found.

In 2015 as the clock ticks down to her retirement, Jo recalls an incident when another female resident of Morgate had fallen from the cliffs. Jo has long been convinced the couple who had run the home before its closure were hiding something. She decides to track down Daisy and seek to re-open the case. The fourth timeline is set in 1944 as Jo’s mother, Olive, becomes part of the dispatch team at Bletchley Park.

While the chapters are clearly marked with the date and viewpoint character, this constant hopping about in time meant that close attention was needed to avoid confusion. There were also a few minor anachronisms with respect to period details, that proved slightly distracting.

In her Author’s Note Emily Gunnis shares that she drew on her mother-in-law’s experiences as a Sussex Police constable during the 1970-80s to highlight difficulties faced by women serving in the police as well as the inadequacies of social services, especially when dealing with vulnerable teenagers, who often fell between the cracks.

She also sought to highlight the roles of women who served as motorcycle dispatch riders at Bletchley Park. There are also explorations of the often fraught relations between mothers and daughters.

With respect to the audiobook, Clare Corbett is a highly experienced narrator with an impressive 350 titles to her CV. She is a very versatile reader and was able to confidently voice the novel’s many characters whose ages ranged from children to the elderly.

Overall, I found ‘The Girls Left Behind’ an engaging police procedural. However, while I appreciated that the author had wanted to focus on various historical social issues and character development, I felt that this resulted in rather a lot going on in its pages despite the modest length.

Having said that, I expect that it would prove a suitable choice for reading groups that are seeking a work of crime fiction that goes further than the search for whodunnit.

[Bookworm86 · Rating 5 out of 5]

BLOG TOUR REVIEW 


Review for 'The Girls Left Behind' by Emily Gunnis. 


Read and reviewed via NetGalley for Emily Gunnis, Clare Corbett and Headline publishers. 


Publication date 9th November 2023. 



This is the first book I have read by this author but it most definitely won't be my last!!! 



This novel consists of a prologue, 31 chapters and an epilogue. The chapters are short to medium in length so easy to read 'just one more chapter' before bed...OK, I know yeah right, but still just in case!



An absolutely epic read from the very talented Emily Gunnis!!! Absolutely rammed full of twists, tension and turns!! Congratulations Emily on a fantastic page turner!! 



This is an extremely well written book with vivid descriptions that will suck you straight into the storyline and captivated from beginning to end. The synopsis and cover worked perfectly with the storyline. 


I had never read a book by Emily before this one but I am definitely hooked after and have already added all her books to my wish list. I was absolutely hooked throughout, a true page turner from beginning to end. Emily is one of those amazing authors who writes these epic books that when you are reading them you promise yourself one more chapter and then you'll go to sleep but each time she ends her chapters in a way that has you hooked so you have to read just one more, but then another and before you know it you have walked around all day with the book glued to your hands or your earbuds stuck in your ears in my case and have devoured it in one sitting!!! The fantastic Clare who narrates this book also brings the book to life with her dramatic voice that really brings the suspense to life perfectly with Emily's descriptiosn.The storyline was in depth and packed with suspense, history, murder, twists, family, tension, hate, grief, intensity, heartache, shocks and everything you could ask for in a page turner!!! It is an edge of your seat, nail biting and heart racing psychological thriller. Emily does a fantastic job of weaving the chapters written from different protagonists points of views and the ones from different timelines together perfectly to slowly drip feed the reader just the right amount of information they need to understand what is going on without giving too much away to allow the reader to work it out too quickly!!! There are also not one but several very clever and very unique storylines that are all weaved together perfectly so there is something constantly happening but not too much as to confuse the reader. I was absolutely hooked from start to finish. I read this book in less than 24 hours and I'm looking forward to reading more books by this fantastic author as well as listening to more books by the brilliant narrator. This book is an absolute rollercoaster ride filled with twists, action, murder, heartbreak, suffering, suspense and everything you could ask for in an absolutely thrilling page turner. I was mind blown when the killer was revealed so a huge congratulations Emily!! After reading hundreds of crimes and thrillers it's getting harder and harder to shock me but at no point did I even consider them!!! If you want to know more about this absolutely epic page turner which you will have to grab your copy today to get them!!! It is one of the best books I have read this year and I really enjoyed and loved the ending!!! Emily ensures there were no loose ends at the book and that everything was explained and tied up. It is one of my pet hates having loose ends at the end of a book so well done Emily!! I won't say more as not to spoil it for future readers. It is a true page turner that will leave you biting your nails on the edge of your seat with your heart racing.  Hope your busy typing your next book up Emily as I cannot wait!!! Thankfully I can get stuck into your previous books while I'm waiting!! This book would make an absolutely amazing and box selling movie that I would be first in line to see!!!


It is set over multiple time lines. When books show what has happened in the past and what is happening in the present I find it really helps the reader (if it is well done) understand why things are happening and what has lead to the present activities and decisions. It also shows the bigger picture


This is one of the few books that I have listened 100% on Audiobook. If I listen to a book on audiobook I usually also read the physical book between but I listened to the whole book and I was impressed! I must say a HUGE congratulations to the narrator Clare Corbett who did a great job bringing this story to life. I would listen to it in the car and while walking at any opportunity and Clare did a fantastic job on both male and female characters voices!!! I'm not only looking forward to reading more books by Emily but also to listening to more books narrated by Clare!


Clear your schedules as you will not be able to put down this heart racing thriller!!!


I loved meeting all the characters who were all strong, well defined and unique. I become completely invested in Detective Jo Hamilton and her mother Olive along with Holly and Daisy Moore Amanda plus all of the other amazing characters. I would absolutely love to see Detective Jo Hamilton to have her own series from when she was younger as I would love to meet her and her mum Olive again and get to know them more!! Hint, hint Emily 😉!!! In this book Jo is due to retire but is determined to solve the last case before being taken over by the males above her. That is one thing I loved about her is her fierce determination and the fact she refuses to back down when she knows the truth is waiting to be revealed!! She is one kick butt lady but also a compassionate one and a woman who is being pulled from all sides from the work she is being pushed out of to her family who want her home to babysit their children to her own mother who is being cared for in a home by Daisy Moore. My heart broke for both Daisy and Holly Moore who suffered greatly as children but I won't go into any further details s I don't want to spoil it for future readers. Emily's fantastic writing skills and Clare's brilliant narrative really do bring each of the characters to life and I won't be forgetting them anytime soon!! A fantastic group of intriguing, realistic and solid characters all brought to life by Emily's fantastic evocative writing skills along with Clare's narrative! 


This is exactly why I would like to welcome you to my favourite authors Emily!! Here is to your next guaranteed success 🥂!!


I could not praise this book enough and highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. Emily I cannot wait to read more of your very successful work!!! I would also love to see this book turned into a movie. Another absolutely addictive, compelling and gripping true page turner!!! 


Overall another absolutely captivating, engrossing page turner that is compelling and addictive by an extremely talented author!!! 



366 pages/10 hours 23 minutes 



This book is just £4.99 to purchase on kindle, £8.27 in paperback, £11.37 in Audible and £2.99 in Audible with membership via Amazon at time of review, which I think is an absolute bargain for this book!!! 



Rated 5 /5 (I LOVED it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook. 



Feel free to add me on Goodreads or follow me on my website or Facebook for more reviews 


 


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[Mandy Innes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part of me really enjoyed this book, and part of me found it a bit laborious.

The interwoven stories were one of the parts I enjoyed, however I think most of my dissatisfaction was because I could see where it was going extremely early in the book and thought it was extremely obvious who the perpetrator was.

There were some inconsistencies and I also thought some things were never fully explained.

Why did the couple who ran the children’s home not speak up when they obviously knew who was preying on the girls there, even though it was a policeman? What happened to make them such horrible people, when Lorna was a decent person at another point in time in the story? When their son joined the police why did he also not speak up and have a full investigation carried out? These may just be because those actions were a product of their time but it felt it lacked an explanation of these points.

[Beatriz · Rating 3 out of 5]

EB-ENG
2.5*
Soooo many plotholes, and characters, and the story is all over the place sometimes. The idea is very interesting, the ending is predictable, but too much, too many of everything.

[Sianne Wardle · Rating 5 out of 5]

The girls left behind, by Emily Gunnis, published by Headline Review

Emily Gunnis is a talented writer from United Kingdom who puts a lot of research into what she is writing about, and let me tell you it pays off.

If you have ever wondered how people’s lives intertwine this is the book for you, and it all starts with a police women answering a call for help.

The characters are very relatable (or hate-able) And it is because of this I was not able to put the book down. Following the lives of Jo, Gemma, Olive, Hollie, Daisy and Megan took me away from my world and into each of theirs.
I find some books, that try to have a twist, can be predictable and I carry on reading to confirm my predictions, Emily Gunnis, however, had me shouting at the book in pure shock. I even went back a couple of paragraphs to make sure I read it properly.

The book follows a police investigation but has so much more depth to it, it’s not just a ‘who did it?’ story, it explains how situations impact different people, and how without realising, they have been part of each others lives all along.

I didn’t find any lulls in the story, it was easy to follow and made me feel so many different emotions. When I finished the book I was sad it was over, I hope there is more to come from this talented author.

Now the nights have drawn in, get your favourite mug filled with hot chocolate, find the most comfortable spot and be prepared not to move until you have finished the book.

Thank you to Emily Gunnis, Headline Review and NetGalley for allowing me to read this amazing book ready for release.

Click here to view the book on Amazon

[Vanessa Wild · Rating 4 out of 5]

A multi timeline story about the disappearance and deaths of two girls from a children’s home in Brighton and the policewoman who has an invested interest in them and who tries to solve the mystery.

I really enjoyed this book which I read via the Pigeonhole app. I love a multi/dual timeline story so it was right up my street. This one was a little confusing at times and I felt I did need to be on my toes putting it altogether in my head. I had worked out who the culprit was early on but this didn’t detract from the rest of the tale. I enjoyed each separate timeline on their own merits but I particularly enjoyed the parts set in Bletchley Park. I found this very interesting. The characters were well drawn and the intertwining stories were woven together satisfactorily. It kept my interest throughout. An absorbing, easy and compelling read which ended on a high note.

[Vaida Kurpiene]

Kai tik kalba pasisuka apie mergaites, jų žalojimą, smurtą ar apleistumą man susisuka žarnos iš nevilties ir nepatogumo. Tad žvaigždutėmis nevertinsiu, nes knyga būtent apie visa tai.

Ne taip senai, vos 8-ąjame dešimtmetyje, kai aš gimiau, mergaitės, patekusios į vaikų namus tapdavo tik trukdžiu ir vaikų namų savininkų aukomis. Norėdamos ištrūkti į geresnį gyvenimą ar padėti mažesniems vaikams elgdavosi "netinkamai". Net jei skųsdavosi niekam nebuvo įdomu, o kam buvo įdomu - nieko negalėjo padaryti.

Kai jautiesi viena ir apleista taip trokšti būti mylima, kad ignoruoji visus ženklus ir nori tikėti, kad yra taip, kaip norisi. Kai supranti realybę jau būna per vėlu.

Paliesta ir seksizmo tema. Kaip moterų karjera nuleidžiama į klozetą vien dėl to, kad jos "privalėjo" sėdėti namuose ir auginti vaikus. Kad jų žodis ir iniciatyva nieko vertos. Žemesnė klasė.

DETEKTYVINĖ linija atrodė vystosi labai nuspėjamai ir aiškiai, bet čia tai suklydau ir stipriai.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Multiple storylines converging in the present time bring to life this very engaging mystery. There are four timelines, but it's not hard to keep track of the characters as they are all very distinctive.

And that's, for me, the book's main attraction; not the mystery but the lives of all these women, all these flawed characters who made mistakes and are less than perfect but, oh! so human!

I also enjoyed the multiple (and complex) mother-daughter relationships and the different jobs perspectives that highlight the prevalent misogynism in some lines of work.

I knew who the culprit was for a while before it was revealed, although that didn't make the story less enjoyable.

And the narration is particularly remarkable, it adds a lot to the story.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jo first meets Holly and Daisy when they were little girls and now a few days before she retires, Jo is finally given the opportunity to find out what happened to one of them and set right the wrong she felt she brought the girls. Can she bring to justice and find some peace for Daisy and herself before its too late? What secrets will she uncover along the way?

Multiple timelines, murder and a detective determined to solve the mystery before her retirement is the recipe for a good story and Emily nailed it!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

[Susan J. Barrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a gripping mystery that hopped backwards and forwards over three timelines, which kept the pace up and meant there was always something happening. From a romance at Bletchley Park, to sisters in a 70s children’s home, all the way to the present day (well, 2015) and a police superintendent only a week from retirement. Two mysterious deaths and more than one family secret make for a great storyline.
I guessed ‘whodunnit’ a little way before the big reveal but that didn’t spoil the story for me.
The Girls Left Behind is out now.
I listened to the audio, and would like to thank NetGalley for the chance to listen to an ARC.

[Lynda Woodfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

This sad story about two girls who went missing from a miserable, inadequate and neglectful children’s home is told over three time scales, although the events are not shown in a consecutive order, which I found a bit confusing at times, particularly in the parts that concerned Gemma and Holly, the two missing girls. It wasn’t immediately clear, either, what the relevance of the part concerning Olive and her employment at Bletchley Park during WW2 was. I guessed halfway through whodunnit but I wanted to keep reading to see how all the threads came together at the end, which they did, culminating in a slightly odd but tense chase. This was not my favourite of Emily Gunnis’s novels but it was a reasonably entertaining read.

[Jennifer Reasinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Get ready for a journey across these pages

This book drew me in and I enjoyed each of the stories. The back and forth for each chapter was annoying, but I understand why the author did it. I started to finally piece things together, and cried at the end. Great book!!!!

[Gail Mead · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fast paced and brilliantly plotted. It had many twists and was heart-wrenching at times . It is a story about the secrets we all keep hidden inside ourselves,Sometimes our entire life time as we wait for the right person or the right time to unlock them . A truly brilliant and moving read . I loved it ‘

[Sandy Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 I really enjoyed this book and read it in 2 days. It kept me engaged the entire time, and I found myself thinking of it when I wasn’t able to be reading! I did figure out who did it well before the end, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the read!

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love a murder mystery that spans the generations, this book is for you.