The Missing One - Couverture souple

Atkins, Lucy

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 184866320X ISBN 13 : 9781848663206

Editeur : Quercus, 2014

Synopsis

The loss of her mother has left Kali McKenzie with too many unanswered questions. But while clearing out Elena's art studio, she finds a drawer packed with postcards, each bearing an identical one-line message a Canadian gallery owner called Susannah Gillespie: thinking of you. Who is this woman and what does she know about Elena's hidden past? Desperate to find out, Kali travels with her toddler, Finn, to Susannah's isolated home on a remote British Columbian island, a place of killer whales and storms. But as bad weather closes in, Kali quickly realises she has made a big mistake. The handsome and enigmatic Susannah refuses to talk about the past, and as Kali struggles to piece together what happened back in the 1970s, Susannah's behaviour grows more and more erratic. Most worrying of all, Susannah is becoming increasingly preoccupied with little Finn ...A tense, thrilling novel about a family divided by secrets, and the lengths a mother will go to protect her child.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

In this gripping debut, The Missing One, Lucy Atkins takes us on one woman’s terrifying journey to the beautiful and rugged Pacific Northwest to discover the dark secrets of her family’s past so that she can understand and accept herself. Kal McKenzie was never close to her mother Elena, whose coldness towards her spoiled any chance of a good relationship. When Elena dies of cancer, Kal feels forlorn: how do you mourn a mother who, inexplicably, just didn’t seem to love you?
 
While clearing out Elena’s art studio, Kal finds a drawer packed with postcards, each bearing an identical one-line message from a Canadian gallery owner named Susannah Gillespie: “Thinking of you.” Who is this woman and what does she hold the key to her ruined relationship with her mother?
 
Conflicted by her grief and shaken up from recently seeing a covetous text from an old girlfriend on her husband’s cell phone, Kal impulsively sets off with her toddler Finn to Susannah’s isolated home on a remote British Columbian island. A place of killer whales and storms.
 
Soon Kal quickly realizes she has made a big mistake. The striking and enigmatic Susannah will only share a few scraps of information about Elena. Unbeknownst to her, she discovers that her mother was a pioneering orca researcher—an activist trying to save these powerful and dangerous creatures.
 
As Kal struggles to piece together her mother’s past and what happened between Elena and Susannah in the 1970s, Susannah’s behavior grows more and more erratic. Most worrying of all, Susannah is becoming increasingly preoccupied with little Finn. Kal’s uneasiness soon proves true and Kal must confront the biggest threat to her family she has ever experienced.
 
Told in two competing narratives, The Missing One intermixes Kal’s present day journey to with that of her mother’s awakening as an independent woman, scientist, and activist. As these two narratives converge the novel transforms into a white-knuckle thriller where the secrets of the past imperil the lives of the present.
 
Interweaving local lore of how orcas protect those who travel away from home, and guides them back safely, in The Missing One Lucy Atkins wrestles with the question of how the past influences the present, and who has the right to own one’s history.

Revue de presse

Praise for Lucy Atkins:

Horribly, horribly compulsive. Brilliant (Fiona Barton, author of The Widow)

A gripping page-turner (The Sunday Times)

Taut, tense, and beautifully written. I held my breath between chapters and didn't sleep until I reached the end (Clare Mackintosh, author of I Let You Go)

A complex, creepy and insidious novel (The Guardian on The Night Visitor)

The rich characterisation makes for an alarmingly plausible riches-to-rags tale (Sunday Times on The Night Visitor)

Elegant, clever, beautifully written. Lucy Atkins is, quite frankly, a genius (Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep)

Thrillingly creepy and darkly funny, The Night Visitor set me racing through the chapters with its brilliant plotting and characters that crackle off the page. A cannot tear yourself away novel (Kate Hamer, author of The Girl in the Red Coat)

Addictive . . . a pace so relentless that you'll want to inhale this novel in one uninterrupted sitting (Sunday Times on The Other Child)

This atmospheric, propulsive novel creeps up on you like footsteps in the dead of night... a tingling layer of gothic suspense (Metro on The Night Visitor)

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Quercus
• Date d'édition: 2014
• ISBN 10: 184866320X
• ISBN 13: 9781848663206
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 576