‘Two children get on the train. Only one gets off…‘
– No One Saw a Thing
[ About No One Saw a Thing ]
No one saw it happen.
You stand on a crowded tube platform in London. Your two little girls jump on the train ahead of you. As you try to join them, the doors slide shut and the train moves away, leaving you behind.
Everyone is lying.
By the time you get to the next stop, you’ve convinced yourself that everything will be fine. But you soon start to panic, because there aren’t two children waiting for you on the platform. There’s only one.
Someone is to blame.
Has your other daughter got lost? Been taken by a passing stranger? Or perhaps the culprit is closer to home than you think? No one is telling the truth, and the longer the search continues, the harder she will be to find…
[ My Review ]
No One Saw a Thing by Andrea Mara was published May 11th with Bantam/Transworld and is described as a ‘twisty and unputdownable new crime thriller ‘. Topping the recent Irish bestseller list for a few weeks (and also flying it in digital sales), Andrea Mara has become synonymous with a guaranteed solid and entertaining read, one you can rely on to keep you turning the pages at speed and her latest doesn’t disappoint.
No One Saw a Thing begins with a nightmare scenario for any parent. The doors of a train on London’s Underground close before a mother can get on to join her two small children who are already on board. Andrea Mara’s inspiration for this latest novel came from an incident during her own childhood when she and her younger sister became separated from her parents on a family visit to London. It really is the most frightening situation for both parent and child.
In this case it’s a frazzled Irish mother, Sive, on a few days break in London from Dublin, with her husband, Aaron, as he catches up with old friends. Aaron is a high-flying criminal defence lawyer and Sive writes lifestyle pieces from home, allowing her the time to care for her children, while also maintaining some bit of independence for herself. Aaron has been very successful in his career providing the family with a very comfortable life. This trip to London is very important to Aaron as he likes to polish his feathers when in the company of this particular bunch of old friends.
Sive has had a stressful few days minding Faye (6) and Bea (2) while also trying to be sociable but she is exhausted. On a busy Monday morning, she navigates the Underground but a work call distracts her. Faye and Bea hop on the train ahead of her, and with pure horror, Sive watches the doors close and the train pull away with her two babies alone. The pure panic is palpable off the page as Sive looks left, right, anywhere for someone to help her. But her nightmare is only beginning, when Bea is returned to her, with no one having any memory of seeing Faye. Distraught, Aaron joins Sive and, with the help of their friends and the London police, a huge search is orchestrated. Was Faye taken? Was she lost? Was she injured? How is it that no one saw a thing?
No One Saw a Thing is a very fast-paced and layered thriller. Crossing timelines, Andrea Mara creates a complex web of deception and lies, with red herrings aplenty, baiting the reader and successfully leaving you flummoxed on more than one occasion. There is an intensity to this tale, a fear-inducing panic that refuses to die down as the tension ramps up and more secrets are revealed.
Losing a child is a terrifying scenario and Andrea Mara plays on these feelings of pure terror when Sive and Aaron can’t find Faye. With a smart and detailed plot, No One Saw a Thing is another nail-biter, a heart-stopping page-turner that will entertain any reader of this genre.
[ Bio ]
Andrea Mara is a Sunday Times and Irish Times top ten bestselling author, and has been shortlisted for a number of awards, including Irish Crime Novel of the Year.
She lives in Dublin, Ireland, with her husband and three young children, and also runs multi-award-winning parent and lifestyle blog, OfficeMum.ie.
Hide and Seek, her second thriller to be published in the UK and internationally, became an instant top ten bestseller.
Twitter ~ @AndreaMaraBooks
Great review lovely! I really want to read this one and your review has made me bump it up my list!
Thanks Jo. A great read! Delighted to hear that x
This is a brilliant idea for a book, but I think it might give me nightmares!
Julia it’s panic inducing material alright!! The thought of it Andrea Mara wraps it all up well though.
This is definitely a nightmare for both parents and kids. Amazing review!
Oh thank you!! It most definitely is xx