The Gone And The Forgotten by Clare Whitfield

A missing girl. Buried family secrets. An absent father. Is the truth worth searching for?

Summer, 1993. In the aftermath of her mother's suicide attempt, 16-year-old Prue must spend the summer holidays on a remote island in the Shetlands with her favourite Aunt Ruth and Uncle Archie, a man she's barely met since her aunt married him. Prue hopes to re-establish the relationship, and that her aunt might help her understand some of the parts of the past she has been forbidden to discuss by her mother – including the identity of her father.

Prue soon nds out that her uncle was the only suspect in the disappearance of a local girl some twenty years ago. As she grows closer to him, she learns there are differing views on how the beguiling Evelyn O'Hara disappeared, but is her uncle innocent?

Truth is something Prue has always had a fractured relationship with. A single version of the truth seems impossible for her to lock down...

About the author

From Greater London (Sutton, Morden area). Moved down to Hampshire with a 6 month old baby in 2004.

Now live in Bursledon, most famous for Howard's Way being filmed here! Not far from Southampton and near Fareham.

Married and with adult daughter, have tried a hand at many vocations; dancer, copywriter, editorial assistant, marketing, buying, sigh... Writing is my purpose and I am drawn to darker themes of illogical human nature and the invisible rules that keep us bound together. Intrigued by female criminal behaviour and the psychological, culture and societal norms. True crime obsessive.

Review

‘The Gone and the Forgotten’ is a part coming of age tale intertwined with a gothic narrative mixed with crime fiction! I wouldn't know where to place this category wise but I do know I was fascinated by it and devoured it over two days. It was tense, dark, foreboding and oh so compelling.

After her grandmother’s death and her mother’s attempted suicide, Prue goes to stay with her Aunt Ruth on an isolated island in Shetland for the summer. When she arrives she is greeted with a large manse filled to the rafter with plants, a jittery Aunt and a grandmother-in-law (call me Ronnie!) who is an expert cocktail maker. Prue is hoping that she will finally get some answers about her missing father and other family secrets but Ruth keeps putting it off. Then all the strange happenings keep occurring in the house and the rumours around the island of her Uncle killing his teenage girlfriend, maybe Prue has bitten off more than she can chew!

A lot was going on in this book! It was a steady building of tension for about two-thirds of the book and then bam! you are hit with all of the action. I felt maybe there was a bit too much going on in the final section but then I did find it all very enjoyable. I actually googled whether there were trees on Noost and I got this picture!