Losing Leah

by Sue Welfare

[Leah]

Losing Leah is one of those books that keeps you hooked from start to finish. Sue Welfare has written two thrillers now, both of which have been incredible reads, and a change of genre has definitely worked for her, because she writes compelling, thrilling books that will keep you on the edge of your seat for the duration. I was secretly pleased to read this book, because there’s something pretty incredible about seeing your name in print, as a character in a book. It’s very rare when you have a name like Leah, so I savour it every single time it occurs.

What made this book so intriguing was the fact that, at the beginning, Chris Hills seems so sincere in his bid to find his wife. They’re headed to Wales, on a regular trip they take whenever they have the chance, but when they stop off at a service station, Leah disappears. He’s found in the women’s toilets, looking under stalls, trying to find her. The police are called in and the search for Leah is soon under way, but all isn’t as it seems and some home truths are going to come out sooner rather than later. I was so intrigued by the plot. Where had Leah gone? Had she even been in the car? Was she alive? Dead? Would she kill herself? There were so many unanswered questions, not helped by the fact that, despite Chris’s sincerity, he hand a tendency of forgetting things and/or outright lying to the police, and it just kept the questions mounting up. The tension was palpable as DS Mel Daley tried to figure out exactly what had happened to Leah and it honestly went places even I wasn’t expecting.

There’s a bit of a B-plot going on with DS Mel Daley, from what we knew of her though it seemed wildly out of character? I mean, would she really do that? Was she REALLY that kind of person? And it kind of disappointed me. Because here’s the thing: You get to know a character, you relate to them, you want them to do a good job and they seem like nice people but then this big thing is revealed about her personal life and I was like???? I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU. Sure, it’s her life, etc, but damn. That’s stone cold and that is all I’ll say on the matter.

Losing Leah was such an intriguing read. From start to finish, I could barely put the book down and I managed to finish it in just one day. I really love Sue’s books. She writes so well and you get properly caught up in her stories. Whether that’s her rom-coms or her thrillers, she hits it out of the park and I thoroughly enjoyed Losing Leah. The mix of third- and first-person narrative, the plot, the characters, and that ending! I nearly died when I read the last page, turned for the next one and saw the acknowledgements. *Applauds* Bravo, Sue Welfare, bravo!