The Daughter

By: Jane Shemilt

Narrated by: Sophie Aldred

Jenny is a successful family doctor, the mother of three great teenagers, married to a celebrated neurosurgeon. But when her youngest child, 15-year-old Naomi, doesn't come home after her school play, Jenny's seemingly ideal life begins to crumble. The authorities launch a nationwide search with no success. Naomi has vanished, and her family is broken.

As the months pass, the worst-case scenarios - kidnapping, murder - seem less plausible. The trail has gone cold. Yet for a desperate Jenny, the search has barely begun. More than a year after her daughter's disappearance, she's still digging for answers - and what she finds disturbs her. Everyone she's trusted, everyone she thought she knew, has been keeping secrets, especially Naomi.

Piecing together the traces her daughter left behind, Jenny discovers a very different Naomi from the girl she thought she'd raised.

©2014 Jane Shemilt (P)2015 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Shemilt injects a great deal of suspense into her narrative in both time frames even as her fluid prose eloquently captures a mother's grief and painful journey to self-awareness." ( Booklist)

NOT A MYSTERY NOVEL

This book is not a mystery story by any means. It is a good, but not great, tale of what a well-meaning "perfect" mother learns about herself and her perfect family as the hours, days, weeks, and months pass after her young daughter goes missing. Very slow in some places.

It's was ok

The book was good but very long for to me a disappointing ending and left it on the hinge which I don't like I like closure

The slowest burn

It took an exorbitant amount of time to get to the meat and potatoes of this story. Overall, I did not care for the story, or the characters but not because the writing was bad. This was a recommended book for me that I will not pass on. It just was sad.

I gave up on this one...

I rarely ever give up on a book once I’m at least half way into it.

This one just lost me. It seemed to move very slowly and I just completely lost interest. I decided to read other reviews and when I read over and over how readers were frustrated and disappointed with the ending; I gave up and moved on to a new book.

Kept you reading!

Great book! Loved the ending! Beautifully written drew you in and you felt the pain, despair and determination

Good ending

slow at times, but overall a good story. makes you want to never have kids

Heart tugging

Would you consider the audio edition of The Daughter to be better than the print version?

This book really hit me about our family and what we do and don't know about them. The ending was definitely bittersweet but thought provoking. I actually drove around for 40 minutes just to finish the book before reaching home. Definitely recommend, but prepared to have your heart strings tugged.

Great story!!!

So many twists and turns!!!! Loved it!! If other books are available from same author I will definitely consider reading more!

Nope

The ending left much to be desired. The book went on forever only to be left lacking.

Never saw it coming

Beautiful - sad - surprising turns. Families are complicated- the mother/daughter relationship the most of all. Kept me listening!! Going to try another book from this author if out there.