Stolen

Author/Guide: Rebecca Muddiman

Why a Booktrail?

2000s: A missing child. A mother destroyed. A life stolen.

ISBN: 978-1901888867
Genre: Crime

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What you need to know before your trail

Abby Henshaw is driving with her 8 month old daughter Beth, on their way to visit a friend. She is forced off the road by by 2 men in a white van, dragged into their van and brutally attacked before being dumped at the side of the road.

However, her nightmare is only just beginning – Beth , her baby daughter has disappeared from the car and is missing…..

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Travel Guide

This novel is set in Teeside but obviously settings and the site of the abduction are not made explicit. The issues however override any mention of the settings as the subject matter is so stark. Knowing Teeside slightly makes me picture certain places as I read the book but it is the mystery at the centre of the story that is the backdrop here. We may think we know how we might act or feel in Abby’s situation and feel that we have heard of such a story in the Madeleine McCann case. It is certainly a situation thankfully very few of us experience but that makes it all the more frightening as we share Abby’s determination to find out the truth.

Booktrailer Review

Susan: @thebooktrailer

I am very excited to write about Rebecca Muddiman’s debut novel for a few reasons. 1) It’s fantastic 2) It has been printed by Moth Publishing which is a new venture between New Writing North and Business Education Publishers ltd – two organisations which support the development of new writing talent. I have attended an event, and met with Rebecca who won the Northern Crime Competition in 2012 and want to share a great local talent and a great initiative to get good writers out there!

The subject matter and descriptions, particularly of the attack are vivid and shocking but it is the search for the daughter that packs the largest emotional punch. It is written from the view point of the victim and is all the more gripping because of it.

This may come across as a crime novel but I would describe it as more of a thriller as you never know who to believe and often come up with an idea of who might be involved only to completely change your mind during the next chapter! The chapters are short and snappy which adds even greater pace and tension to the plot and is very fitting for something that you want to devour as fast as you can in order to find out just what happened to this little girl. You can feel the tension and the emotions of the mother on every page and it is very interesting to see the lengths to which she goes through in order to get people and the police to listen to her and for no-one to forget about her darlinb baby girl. All characters, the family and friends around Abby are well developed and seeing them from Abby’s point of view gives an unusual way of meeting this characters, of finding out about them and deciding for yourself their part in Abby’s life and what secrets they might be hiding.