"The Cove" by Alice Clark-Platts

An audio book.

2 ex-pat families from Singapore are staying on a tourist island.

• Eliza has a husband Noah (lawyer) and twins. Eliza says she fell in love with Noah when her mother killed herself. Noah knows that actually she cut him off for a year after the suicide.
• Adam (a thriller writer - his father was a literature lecturer. He's only really fancied Eliza since he started writing his latest book.) and Lou have a 9 y.o. boy Raffie and a breast-feeding baby. She plans to leave before the end of the holiday - she's on tranquillisers.

Chapters are from the PoV of each of the 4 adults. Third-person.

When 3 of them dive in a wreck, a fish bomb scares them. Adam's suspicious about the organiser, Lars.

Lou loses her temper with a tourist who complains about her noisy baby. Noah punches Adam for showing too much interest in Eliza. Adam, very drunk, goes off late at night with a teenage girl. Nothing happens but he sees Lars with a gun in heated discussion with locals. Back at the hut, Lou hits him. He goes off in the kayak. Next morning he hasn't returned.

There are search parties. A monsoon's arrriving, so they can't leave the island. Chay, a local, has disappeared too. Raffie disappears. There's an explosion in the jungle, a fire. Lou goes in there to find Raffie, and loses consciousness. She's saved. Chay's body is found. Raffie is found. He says he went to find his father. He'd heard Lars angry. He'd found a shed of dynamite and had decided to blow it all up to save the fish.

Adam's body is found. Eliza explains to Noah that Adam's father was her father too. She was going to tell Adam about it during the holiday. Inspector Khan (criminology degree from the LSE). He explains that Chay and Lars were involved with dynamite crime. Adam might have stumbled upon Chay's secret horde. Khan suggested that she return to London.

The penultimate chapter is Adam's, his last minutes in a beach. Eliza came to him.

The final chapter is by Eliza, a year later. They now live in London. Lou is marrying a marine biologist from the island. Eliza realises that Khan knew what she had done. She reveals that she helped Adam die. Why?

A slow start. Tensions between the 4 main adults are easily generated.

Other reviews

• rachelreadit
• goodreads

"The Flower Girls" by Alice Clark-Platts

1997. Rosie is with older sister Laurel who tempts a toddler from a playground to a canal path. There are "Oaks that stood guard, wise and silent .. as the trees whispered above them, watching and waiting."

Years later in a coastal Devon hotel on a storm night, New Year's Eve, a 5 y.o. girl has gone missing. Amongst the guests are Johnnie plus his daughter Evie (14). His new partner Hazel (25) is there too. Max, anothe guest, is away from his family trying to meet a writing deadline.

Hillier (female) and Ellis (male) are investigating.

In London, New Years Day, Joanna Denton (a lawyer) is recovering from a hangover. She had a 2 y.o. niece Kirsten Swan, who was murdered by a canal. She works with Will.

Hazel is Rosie. She and her parents started a new life. She was 6 when Kirstie died and recalls nothing of the event. Laurel had claimed that she'd abandoned Kirsty unconcious and that someone else must have tortured and killed her. Laurel has been inside ever since, not visted by family (her mother's dead anyway), and her release campaigned against by Joanna.

Hillier suspects Marek, a sous-chef who in the past his dated 15 year-olds.

Max recognises Hazel (from one photo 19 years before!) and confronts her, telling her it would be better to tell the police now. He sees an opportunity for fame - maybe even a book. He sees it as an escape for Hazel too. Johnnie already knows, but Evie hasn't been told. However, Hazel has been getting strange mail and presents for 2 months from someone who knows (Evie I suspect).

Toby, Laurel's uncle, is a lawyer and visits her monthly. His defence of her in court had caused a rift between him, his parents and Laurel's parents.

A third through the book the missing toddler is found. But the police don't think that she just drifted off. Marek overhears about Hazel's past and tells the grieving parents.

In the following weeks reporters harrass Hazel. Laurel at last progresses towards getting parole. Max (novelist, ghost-writer, ex-journalist) suggests that it would be useful if the sisters meet.

In parallel we follow the original trial and the legal process to release Laurel. Toby learns that he has terminal cancer.

The meeting of sisters loosens Hazel's memory. Hazel and Johnnie bypass Max, dealing straight with his agent. His hope of fame is dashed, but he still has a cassette of the girls that might be useful. It turns out that Laurel lied to protect someone. To do that when 10 sounds unlikely.

Similar real-life crimes are mentioned.

Other reviews

• nutpress (The author looks at it from every perspective: from family member to police officers to perpetrator to traumatised potential witness/bystander to the press and media right down to concerned members of the public together with those who are more voyeuristic or looking to profit from it.)
• Alison Flood (There’s an enjoyably perceptive and driven detective on the case; the plot is clever and twisty )
• MarinaSofia (Sensitively and bravely, The Flower Girls deals with many issues that most of us would rather not think about. However, it’s a shame that there is too much of an emphasis on creating a twist, which leads to the author withholding some critical pieces of information as a device to generate suspense, and shock. The ending comes rather abruptly, spoiling the steady build up of atmosphere up to that point. This is sad, because the book is haunting enough even without the twist. )
• Good reads (see Gerry's comments)
• Amber Mears Brown