Missing Richard

by Janet Hamer

Alice, approaching fifty, wakes after a holiday siesta to discover that her husband of fifteen years has gone missing. The unexpected holiday was supposed to mark a more optimistic phase in their lives. Richard had been made traumatically redundant from the firm for which he had worked, very successfully, for years and as a result their whole life together had had to be redrawn. Having weathered the emotional and financial turmoil Alice now believed that the worst was over.As the story develops she is confronted with the realisation that nothing about her life with Richard had been as it seemed. As she investigates his behaviour each revelation serves to confirm to her that he was not suffering from some post-traumatic breakdown but fulfilling a carefully constructed intention to start a new life without her. The more she learns about her missing husband, the more he becomes a stranger to her. His deviousness and the developing picture of his recent activities, leaves Alice to face the horror of betrayal and her own naivety, alongside the prospect of having to rebuild her life. The story follows her attempts to start again, forming friendships and easing herself back into the world of work. Throughout the story Alice finds herself constantly faced with the unexpected, no more so than at the end of the novel.

162 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 31, 2014