Julia Crowne is going through every parent's worst
nightmare. A series of timing issues has kept Julia from
picking up her five-year-old daughter, Anna, from school on
time. Although, Julia had done everything possible to either
get there on time herself or find someone else to be at the
school on time, things just are not on her side. As a result
of her being several minutes late, she arrives to find that
Anna is nowhere in sight. She has simply vanished.
After a frantic search by Julia as well as the school staff,
she phones the police to report her daughter as missing. A
search is thoroughly conducted but Anna is nowhere to be
found. To make matters worse, Julia has informed her
husband, Brian, that she wants a divorce and they are not
exactly working together on things. Then there is Brian's
mother, Edna, who suffers from what can only be called a
superiority complex. She still orders Brian around as if he
was a child and, of course, she hates Julia.
A long week goes by and suddenly Anna walks into a small
shop several miles away from her home. Everyone rejoices to
find that Anna is alive and well. The only troubling thing
is that Anna has no memory of who took her or where she has
been for the last week.
This means that the kidnapper is still out there somewhere
and must be found before another child goes missing.
AFTER ANNA is a very unique and exciting book with a plot
that most people will not be able to figure out what is
actually happening. There is plenty of tense action as the
race is on to find little Anna before something worse
happens to her. In fact, I found it to be one of those
"sitting on the edge of your seat" type of plot lines. Once
I began reading it, I was captivated by the intensity of the
main character's actions. We all have those days when
nothing goes right and that is just what Julia Crowne is
having, although most parents do not have things spiral out
of control by having their child kidnapped.
I found AFTER ANNA to offer a very different twist to the
usual child kidnapping plot and was quite wrapped up in who
has taken Anna and if she will ever be able to help
authorities figure out who took her. This is one that you
never want to put down once you begin reading because it
draws you into the world of Julia and everyone around her.
I cannot say that it is a scary book but it has plenty of
suspense to offer and will keep you on pins and needles even
after you feel the ending has happened. Expect the
unexpected with AFTER ANNA.
The real nightmare starts when her daughter is returned…
A bone-chilling psychological thriller that will suit fans
of Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, Daughter, by Jane Shemilt,
and The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins.
A girl is missing. Five years old, taken from outside her
school. She has vanished, traceless.
The police are at a loss; her parents are beyond grief.
Their daughter is lost forever, perhaps dead, perhaps enslaved.
But the biggest mystery is yet to come: one week after she
was abducted, their daughter is returned.
She has no memory of where she has been. And this, for her
mother, is just the beginning of the nightmare.