‘Guilty’ is written by Laura Elliot and it’s a great read if you’re someone who enjoys tv dramas such as Broadchurch, Doctor Foster or Liar. It’s a psychological thriller/mystery, set in a town where people talk and sometimes the wrong assumptions are made.
We first hear from Constance, a 13 year old girl, who’s part of a secret gang. She goes out alone one night, not telling anyone what she’s doing and well, she’s never seen again. This is just the first chapter though, the story then moves onto Karl, Constance’s Uncle.
Karl and Constance were close, he was always the one she’d run to when she wasn’t getting along with her parents and because of this Karl knows that she’d been up to something, but isn’t sure what. Suspicions start to rise over Karl and Constance’s relationship and this isn’t helped when journalist Amanda Bowe starts writing reports about him, convincing everyone that he is at the fault of Constance’s disappearance. Amanda is having an affair with a local police officer and therefore has a secret knowledge into what is going on in the case. Releasing this knowledge through her articles, people start to become more suspicious of Karl, even his own family, and he’s left abandoned to cope with it all by himself.
Although the first part of the story is mainly focused around Karl, the story then moves on to six years later when we start to learn more about Amanda’s life. It is here when Amanda’s son goes missing, the tables have turned and instead of writing about a child that’s gone missing, she’s living it.
The book is told in four parts, I liked this because it almost made it feel as if you’re reading four different stories, however they’re all related to one another and well I suppose it’s like watching a tv series with something different happening in each episode, seeing what’s happening from different characters points of view. It makes the read more wholesome and gives you a wider picture of this great story.