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The premise intrigued me especially as Rebekah's panic, puzzlement and confinement feels isolating, confusing and almost claustrophobic and eerie. The island and the adverse weather conditions lends itself well to her struggles to create an environment that is difficult to survive in. Wrought with tension, intrigue and clues, the missing pieces of the plot are uncovered and leave us with even more unanswered questions. This atmospheric and riveting story had me tearing through chapters trying to find out what happened next, and whilst some descriptions of the island and its landscape felt repetitive at times, the often jaw-dropping reveal of information and panic-charged situations made up for these lesser moments. The author manipulated the reader with red herrings. What on earth had the historian to do with it all? The annoying brother, too. Rebekah Murphy and her brother Johnny set out on a day trip to Crow Island, a small island just over one hundred miles from the U.S. mainland. This small place was inhabited for only half a year, mostly by fisherman. There were very few facilities on the island, which had been devastated by a hurricane in the 1980s. Johnny had set up a research interview with a local historian who was working on the island and Rebekah had offered to give him a lift. She had two very young children but was eager to spend time with her brother.
The Last Goodbye - Penguin Books UK
Different timelines, different sub plots, different chases but I felt the book quite literally lost the plot. So, in summary, the passive writing and extraneous telling need weeding out. As do the jumps between scenes and characters that happen with no warning. The final quarter of the book needs tightening up and shortening, and overall could do with a lot less character confessions, guesses, and monologues to speed up the pace. Things take a turn for the worse once they arrive at Crow Island and as the island is due to shut down for the winter the next day it all seems a bit eerie and very quiet. They must get the last ferry off the island at 5.00pm, or there is no other transport to get from the island to home, or they will have to stay overnight until the last ferry for the winter arrives the next morning. The last 40% however was a whirlwind! And I just wish the rest was like it too. There was twists and turns all over the place and most of my brain power was invested into it.What neither Rebekah nor Detective Travis realize is that each holds a missing piece from the same puzzle - and it will cost them everything to finally solve it . . . Bek spends months on the Island, trying to survive, trying to find a way off and to even find her brother. These characters are - as is usual with Tim Weaver - well rounded and have a good depth to them. The more I read the more determined I was to know why the events had occurred. The setting - much of it on the island with Rebekah - almost created another "character". I was steadily drawn in. Although this is the first novel without usual protagonist David Raker, it still feels very much like a typical Tim Weaver novel with its combination of missing persons and deadly secrets. I would like to thank Netgalley and Penguin Michael Joseph UK for an advance copy of Missing Pieces, a stand-alone thriller set, mostly on Crow Island off the coast of New York.
Missing Pieces - Penguin Books UK
We flit between present day Rebekah and her struggles, to past happenings in her life that gives us context to her current circumstances. We also see chapters from the perspective of Detective Travis searching for a missing artist. With two seemingly disparate protagonists, Missing Pieces had me intrigued from the offset, and I wanted to read on to find out how the pairs lives would converge and why. This is a bit of a slow burner as the story slowly unravels the complicated mystery that is told from the past and present viewpoints. A brilliant, strong start to the story, and great character development. Missing Pieces gets 3 stars from me, which I see as a positive review (see my notes below). Someone is trying to kill Rebekah Murphy because she knows a secret but doesn’t know what it is. She is trapped on an abandoned island cut off from her family and friends with someone trying to hunt her down and kill her. She is desperately trying to work out what she knows, who is actually trying to kill her and why is no one looking for her.
At this point she discovers that the last ferry to the island for the winter was on 30th October, not 31st October as Johnny had mentioned. You never find out why Johnny lied about this and you never find out whose grave it was under the roots of the tree that they saw when they found the historians body. What follows is an intricate mix of police procedural and psychological thriller with plenty of juicy red herrings thrown along the way. Each problem solved seems to engender two new ones. It is impossible not to get caught up in the various dilemmas surrounding the two very likeable protagonists. Stranded, no hope of escape, wondering what has brought her to this moment, Rebekah struggles for survival on a remote island. Tim Weaver brings the sense of isolation, the terror, the bleak landscape to vivid, stark life with his brilliant writing and the entire read is edge of the seat fantastic. When I recently took up a free trial with Audible I decided to start with Weaver’s Missing Pieces, which was released in book form earlier this year. The story is set in two timelines. The time before and what led her up to her present predicament. And Detective Frank Travis who is dealing with cold cases which involves searching for Rebekah and her brother Johnny.
Missing Pieces by Tim Weaver | Waterstones
What he does know is that he retires in one week - and if he doesn't find out where Louise went, no one will . . . The way in which the story unfolds, with Rebekah gradually revealing the ‘missing pieces’ to the story, is probably a little contrived, and even though Weaver eventually explains how Rebekah came to be stranded on the island, I am not sure that I was ever really convinced. The things I really liked about the book, were the well developed characters, especially Frank and Rebekah, and Weaver’s ability to cast suspicion and red herrings with abandon. The mystery as to what is really going-on is maintained until very late in the book and I did not work it out until shortly before the final reveal. The creation of Crow Island is also very good and Weaver brings it alive in a convincing manner.Thank you Netgalley, Penguin Michael Joseph UK and of course Tim Weaver for letting me ready a copy of this I'm return for an honest review.
Missing Pieces by Tim Weaver | Waterstones Missing Pieces by Tim Weaver | Waterstones
Bek" goes on a night out with an old university friend and finds herself in the morning in another man's bed, but not remembering how she got there. Daniel Foley seems like a nice guy and tells her a bit about himself, but 'Bek" feels guilty and doesn't see him again.Feeling she has not spent enough time with her aspiring writer brother, Johnny, Beks makes the fateful decision to join him on a trip to the remote and uninhabited Crow Island, only to find themselves targeted by killers. She has no idea why anyone would want to kill them, although she has more than enough time to ruminate over this mystery, as it looks as if Johnny has been murdered and she is left behind, injured and assumed to have died. Desperately missing her daughters, she is tested to her limits, trapped on this forested island during the freezing winter, alone with no hope of rescue for 6 months. In New York, the tenacious Detective Frank Travis is close to retirement, working on the case of the missing artist, Louise Mason, but has got nowhere. However, he has never let go of anyone, and he is to acquire 2 further strange missing person cases. What connects Louise with Beks?
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