The Missing by C.L. Taylor

Today it is my stop on The Missing blog tour. Don't forget to check the the other stops on the tour. 


  The Missing by C.L. Taylor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

You love your family. They make you feel safe. You trust them.

But should you…?

When fifteen-year-old Billy Wilkinson goes missing in the middle of the night, his mother, Claire, blames herself. She's not the only one. There isn't a single member of Billy's family that doesn't feel guilty. But the Wilkinsons are so used to keeping secrets from one another that it isn't until six months later, after an appeal for information goes horribly wrong, that the truth begins to surface.

Claire is sure of two things – that Billy is still alive and that her friends and family had nothing to do with his disappearance.

A mother's instinct is never wrong. Or is it?



Sometimes those closest to us are the ones with the most to hide…



I have hear about how fantastic CL Taylor books were but I haven’t ever got round to reading one. When I was offered The Missing to read I jumped at the chance.

This book is about Billy Wilkinson, he went missing when he was 15, only 6 months ago. Since then the family have found this very difficult to deal with, over time each blaming themselves. We start the story 6 months after his disappearance when the family are getting ready for their second appeal to help find him.

I found the story to be well developed, this helped by the background information given along the way. The characters have been well established and although I found the story to lack pace in the beginning I can quite easily see why this was.

Throughout the story there are chapters which are written through instant messages/whatsapp messages. The reader doesn’t know who these are between, but this becomes clearer the further into the novel you go.

Claire, Billy’s mother is dealing with her own issues in the book, but also starts to question others. She begins to realise everyone in the household has something to hide. She is a mother and she wants to find out exactly what happened to Billy. Although she does believe others have secrets she doesn’t feel any of them could have anything to do with his disappearance. As a reader I was intrigued by the messages sent between the unknown characters.

I was hooked from the first page, although I prefer pacer books initially this didn’t put me off and I was captivated. I didn’t want to put it down as I was desperate to know what had happened and who was responsible – if anyone for Billy’s disappearance, more importantly I wanted to know if he was still alive! I can see this psychological thriller is going to be a big hit this year and if you like to read thrillers I would definitely recommend this one.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review and I am so pleased I could be part of the blog tour for this, thank you.