Breaking by Amanda Cassidy
It’s every mother’s worst fear.
On a sun-hazed afternoon in the Florida Keys, a child goes missing from the beach. Dr Mirren Fitzpatrick appeals to the world to help find her eight-year-old daughter. The family are on holiday from Ireland, far from home and desperate to return there as they arrived – together.
Yet the police are immediately suspicious of Mirren. She was drinking at a bar – alone – shortly before reporting that her youngest child had disappeared. As rumours abound about Mirren’s past a trial-by-media ensues, and she is turned from a figure of pity to the villain of the piece.
And then a small body is found dumped in the ocean. Is Mirren a heartbroken mother, or the architect of her daughter’s fate?
A stunning debut from a brilliant new voice in Irish crime fiction. Breaking will see readers question their own notions of motherhood, guilt and the inescapable consequences of the past.
Review
‘Breaking’ is a tense and thrilling debut that keeps you guessing right up to the final page! It’s a psychological thriller, mixed with a police procedural and that made for an exciting narrative and a terrific pace.
Dr Mirren Fitzpatrick has taken her family for a well deserved rest in the Florida Keys. But the worst thing occurs, their youngest daughter Alannah goes missing one afternoon on the beach! They are desperate to find Alannah but soon suspicion falls onto Mirren as it emerges that she was drinking alone in a bar whilst her children were by themselves on the beach. Soon she is made into the villian as troubling events emerge from her past. When a body is found everyone’s thinks that the worst has happened…
The best character for me in this book was Detective Rolle and I would certainly read more about this life! He was a gentle soul, determined to help those who needed it and get justice for the victims of this story. I had a lot of empathy for his situation and would love to see more books centred around him! Im hoping that the author intended this but I couldn’t gel with Mirren at all. I don’t know why either as she was a result of her circumstances growing up etc but I felt a coldness coming off her all the way through.
Due to this I felt more of a pull towards the drug trafficking etc that Rolle was investigating. However, the author was making a point I believe about the differences in how missing children are handled by the media. For example, would Madeline McCann have received as much attention if her parents weren’t doctors etc?! In regards to Alannah’s disappearance I was not expecting that resolution at all!!!
Let me know if you pick this one up!
