Review: Lost You

Lost You by Haylen Beck
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Now. A woman stands on a ledge. She is holding a child. A man attempts to talk her down.
Then. Libby, a single mother, is on vacation with her infant son, Ethan. It is Libby’s first vacation since her divorce, one she was reluctant to take. But she is enjoying herself, as is her son. And then Ethan is gone.
Let’s not beat around the bush. ‘Lost You’ by Haylen Beck, Stuart Neville’s alter-ego, is one of the best novels of the year. Neville has always been an excellent storyteller, from his debut, ‘The Twelve’ (aka Ghosts of Belfast), to last year’s ‘Here and Gone’, his first as Haylen Beck. ‘Lost You’ surpasses them all. Ostensibly a story of child abduction, the book is so much more. Just when you think you know where he is headed, Neville takes a left-turn and the story goes to places you did not expect it to.
Neville creates sympathetic fully drawn characters, makes you care about them, only to reveal something to make you question your initial feelings. It would be unfair to discuss the plot in any detail but everything arises from decisions the characters make, decisions the reader can understand and empathise with, if not agree with. The characters drive the story forward to an ending that is as heart-rending as it is inevitable. The story will stay with you long after you have set the book down.
‘Lost You’ is stunning novel that deserves to be huge.


View all my reviews