After Anna - Alex Lake

Read from April 10 to 17, 2016 

 

 

A five year old girl is missing. Taken in broad daylight right outside her school gate.

 These things happen. Way to often in this day and age. Thanks to the media, it doesn't take too much imagination to sketch  a vivid picture in our minds of what can happen when a five year old girl disappears. You hope and pray that the child will be found alive. Maybe it's a bit much to ask that she'd be returned unharmed as well. But that is exactly what happens with little Anna. One week after her abduction, she is returned to her mother. Unharmed. To quote the book description; "This is where the nightmare starts".

Talk about a twist in the tail. There are plenty of psychological thrillers these days with twists and turns that will make a circus pig jealous.

               

Part of me believes that the main reason for the popularity of thrillers like Gone Girl, The girl on the train and Just what kind of mother are you? is the probability thereof. Most of us do not see the twists coming and when it hits you right in the face, you realize that although this is fiction - it is quite probable. And that makes it scary. After Anna is no exception. This one was different, but oh so probable.

It was a slow start and I was getting worried that the fictional "week" in which Anna is abducted is going to last for a month on my reading schedule. Just get through the week! It's worth the read. The characters were well developed and intriguing. Although I wanted to kick Brian more than once, or throw my cat at him for a well deserved scratch (oh come-on - he would have turned the other cheek). I had a lot of sympathy for him too. I knew someone who had very similar circumstances and boy oh boy - you do not want to have a mother like that. Or a mother-in-law. Or a grandmother. My biggest regret with this book is that my mother isn't alive to read it. She would have freaked out and enjoyed a psychological field day after reading this one. 

Caution alert: If you do not have the best relationship with your mother-in-law, maybe don't take this one with for the weekend visit.