BOOK CLUB 10: HAS ANYONE SEEN CHARLOTTE SALTER? | NICCI FRENCH 🎧

Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? by Nicci French
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

October's pick of Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? piqued my interest immediately. Instead of reading I plumped for the option of listening along on Spotify, and I finished it within two days!

Laid out in a Then and Now setting, the book happens across three parts, and I couldn't help but imagine each one as a standalone TV episode. I'm unsure if this notion was enhanced with it being listened to rather than read, but it was a book that was brilliantly brought to life full of genuine intrigue. The scenery was beautifully descriptive, the characters were well fleshed-out, and the air of mystery ran along a strong undercurrent throughout.

Part One is set in 1990 and focuses on the direct aftermath of Charlie's disappearance. Her husband Alec is wildly unbothered, while her kids Etty, Niall, Paul and Ollie are desperate for their mum to come home. Outside characters are introduced, secrets are revealed, and the whodunnit had me clueless.

Part Two comes back thirty years later. Alec is an old man with dementia who doesn't realise Charlie's gone, and his kids are all grown up. They've all gathered at the family home, and are in the process of clearing it out as Alec is being moved into a care home due to his illness. Obviously the past is never far away, and a podcast being started by the Ackerley brothers that revisits Charlie's disappearance and their own dad's death kickstarts a move for the case to be reopened.

Part Three shifts focus and becomes more like a police crime drama, with the attention honing in on the investigation. A detective sent from London is determined to crack it and get answers for both the Salters and the Ackerleys. Every village character excluding the Salter siblings flashed into my mind as potential suspects, while the actual culprit genuinely was an outlier to me. It pleased me that I hadn't fully pinned them down, and the suspense continued at a really good pace.

In fear of spoiling too much I shall end this review here, and encourage you to pick this one up if you fancy a genuinely thrilling whodunnit to pass some autumnal evenings. 

Rating: ✨✨✨✨✨