While My Eyes Were Closed by Linda Green

A nail-biting psychological drama for fans of the Richard & Judy bestseller THE LAST THING SHE TOLD ME
One, two, three . . . Lisa Dale shuts her eyes and counts to one hundred during a game of hide-and-seek. When she opens them, her four-year-old daughter Ella is gone. Disappeared without a trace. The police, the media and Lisa's family all think they know who snatched Ella. But what if the person who took her isn't a stranger? What if they are convinced they are doing the right thing? And what if Lisa's little girl is in danger of disappearing forever?

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Linda's next emotional page-turner, THE SECOND TIME WE MET, is now available to pre-order!!

What would you do if your child went missing under your watch? How would you cope? Would you cope? As a parent myself this was a nightmarish scenario. As the story unfolded, I was shocked at the actions and dialogue and I was gripped and invested in the story to carry on reading. This could happen to anyone’s child, you hear about it all the time on the news. It’s a truly horrifying topic. The story spans three people’s perspectives, Lisa, Muriel and Matthew.

Lisa is strong but cracking under the pressure.

Lisa Dale, mother of three. She has a strained relationship with her eldest daughter, Chloe. Lisa takes her youngest child, Ella to the park before picking up her son, Otis from a football presentation. It is just like any other day, nothing unusual happens, nothing out of place in their lives but their lives change inexorably due to closing your eyes for a few minutes. During a game of hide and seek, Lisa is distracted momentarily by a phonecall from a client. Lisa looks for her daughter, who by all thoughts looks like she has found the best hiding place is actually in fact missing – whether that is at the hands of a third person or by infact wandering out of the park remains to be seen.

Lisa although extremely effected by the events of the day, remains a rock to the rest of her children. She tries to bring normalcy to both her kids and her husband who seems to be drowning under the pressure by the day. She never gives up hope but does not cry in a public stage instead choosing to show the strength of her character.

Muriel has experienced incredible loss.

Muriel on the face of it is an extremely odd character. When we first meet her she seems incredibly delusional in her actions and the self reasoning behind it. She is an elderly lady that has standards that are old fashioned and appear to be very stern and unnecessary. This is the character that instilled the most emotion from me and in places did find myself emitting anger at some of the assumptions she made. As the story moved along it was obvious that although her actions were completely irrational but it was plain to see that she was suffering from mental health concerns due to trauma.

Matthew lived a tragic existence

Matthew and Chloe were the characters I had most empathy for. Matthew suffered after his mother and father got divorced. It meant now that his mum focussed ALL her energies on him – knowing what he was up to and who with, he wasn’t allowed a girlfriend or have her in his mother’s home and generally felt suffocated with his life with her. The end result is just plain tragic.

Plot – Well Executed

The story was interesting and a different take on the increasing amount of child abduction novels out there. I found it refreshing that the story was more focussed on the fallout on the family as a whole and cause and effect of an individuals actions. It was a fast read and I wanted to keep reading to find out what happened next. It was a different take being able to read from the abductors point of view and I did feel sorry for her in a way even although she did something quite abhorrent. It was a good, steady read and recommend to those that enjoy a good Psychological Thriller.