Losing You [Mass Market Paperback]

Nicci French (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 3, 2009

It’s the morning of Nina Landry’s fortieth birthday. She’s supposed to have her kids ready to leave for the Christmas holidays with her new boyfriend. But her fifteen-year-old daughter, Charlie, is not yet home. She spent the night at a friend’s, and now she is nowhere to be found. As time passes slower and slower by the hour, Nina’s worry builds to panic.

Has Charlie run away, or has something worse happened? And why won’t anyone—not the cops, not Charlie’s friends, not Charlie’s father—take her disappearance seriously? As day turns to night and a series of ominous revelations leads Nina from sickening suspicion to blood-chilling certainty, she comes to the desperate realization that she has no one to turn to…but herself.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. A mother fights to keep her composure as she hunts for her missing child in this nuanced, literate thriller from the husband-wife writing team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French (Killing Me Softly). Shortly before Christmas, Nina Landry, a divorced mother of two living on isolated Sandling Island somewhere in the south of England, is getting ready for a family vacation in Florida that will include her new marine biologist boyfriend. Blindsided by a surprise 40th birthday party, Nina is further disconcerted when her 15-year-old daughter, Charlie, who was supposed to help with the packing, fails to come home from a slumber party. Nina's seamless first-person account of the next 24 hours mines the frustration and feelings of helplessness that come with any investigation slowed by the rigmarole of police work. This engrossing read captures the importance of the often overlooked and underappreciated minutiae of everyday life while commanding a deeply personal reaction in readers. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

 “Lose yourself in this smart nail-biter of a tale about a mother’s desperate search for her missing teenage daughter.”—People magazine

“A seamless first-person account…This engrossing read captures the importance of the often overlooked and underappreciated minutiae of everyday life while commanding a deeply personal reaction in readers.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“What gives Losing You its chief distinction…is its unusually emotive color and its flinty protagonist.... Nina is the parent we’d all like to be under duress, and I find I’ve become nearly as protective of her as she is of her daughter.”—Salon.com

 “The pace and tension accelerate as the identity of Charlie’s abductor remains deliciously uncertain. This is a quick, enjoyable read.”—Library Journal

“[French] renders psychological chillers that manage to generate great suspense… This latest offering is sure to keep readers furiously flipping pages through the night.”—Booklist

“The novel’s greatest strength is its cool-eyed portrait of an English village”—The Washington Post  

“Nicci French know[s] exactly how to maintain the tension…You live through every nail-biting minute.”—The Guardian  

“The heart pounds from the first page…This is a book that keeps you reading into the small hours.”
—The Observer (UK)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (March 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312943164
• ISBN-13: 978-0312943165
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #724,199 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars tense thriller as Nina's life goes from joy to terror in a short span, April 19, 2008

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Losing You (Hardcover)

On Sandling Island, England, divorced Nina Landry raises her two children, fifteen years old Charlie and Jackson. Nina is looking forward to a Christmas vacation in Florida with her boyfriend marine biologist Christian and is pleasantly stunned when he and others arrange a surprise fortieth birthday party for her.

However her joy turns to concern when Charlie fails to come home from a teen pajama party. Not only is this out of character for her daughter, but Charlie also promised to help pack for the Florida trip, a vacation the teen was looking forward to. Nina goes to the police, who provide her with platitudes about teens and nothing else just like friends and family did earlier. Each minute that passes with no news is like a nuclear bomb exploding in her stomach, but nothing except helplessness and fear happen.

This tense thriller is told predominantly by Nina so that the audience sees her dread grow rapidly and out of control because she is frustrated and fears the worst. Fans especially parents will empathize with Nina, as she not only prays for the safe return of her daughter, she offers deals to the Lord to make it happen. This is a winner from Nicci French as Nina's life goes from joy to terror in a short span.

Harriet Klausner

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars LOST HOLIDAY, April 4, 2008

By 

BARBARA GERSHENABUM "BOOK MAVEN" (CONNECTICUT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Losing You (Hardcover)

Nina Landry, her daughter Charlie, and son Jackson along with Christian, Nina's love interest are supposed to be getting ready to leave Sandling Island for a Christmas vacation in Florida. Coincidently, today happens to be her fortieth birthday, too. Their plane is scheduled to leave Heathrow at 6p.m., thus the whole family thinks it has plenty of time for last minute errands and packing. And the last thing on Nina's mind or agenda is a morning surprise birthday party planned by her daughter, who has not been seen since she left for an overnight pajama party the evening before. As soon as Nina realizes that Charlie is really missing she asks the celebrants to leave the house and she begins a frantic search for her. She tries to get help from the local constabulary, her ex-husband and Charlie's friends. Unfortunately no one believes that the teen is really in trouble.
Nicci French (husband and wife writing team of journalists Nicci Gerrard and Sean French) has never let her readers down. The first few lines grab the reader and keep her/him glued to the book. Fast pacing, spare prose and a story every parent can identify with make LOSING YOU another winner for fans.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Can't put it down, edge of your seat kind of mystery..., June 14, 2008

By 

Kel "acountkel" (Charlotte, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Losing You (Hardcover)

This was one of the most suspenseful mysteries I have read in a long time. It's Nina's birthday and she is getting ready to take her kids and her boyfriend to Florida for Christmas. While trying to get everything ready for the trip, a surprise birthday party occurs supposedly put together by her daughter, Charlie. When Charlie doesn't show up for the party or for the departure of the trip, Nina becomes frantic with worry. The first thing she does is go to the police but they don't believe Charlie is in danger. Just another teenager who is trying to make a statement with her parents by hiding out for a night. Nina doesn't believe it so she takes it upon herself to try and find her daughter. As a mother, Nina's gut feeling is, something is drastically wrong here. As a mother, the thought of a missing child can suck the life right out of you. I was pulling for Nina every step of the way.
This is a quick read and it keeps you on the edge of your seat right up until the end. Highly recommend.