I usually avoid this murder/mystery scenario, but when this local author was recommended by members of out Ōtorohanga Library Book Club with a setting resembling one so close to home, I was intrigued enough to borrow this work of fiction.
With two missing girls, Paige and Charlie, twenty years apart and Charlie's older sister, Jac now hot on the trail we have a really creepy tale of a long disestablished hotel still occupied by the elderly, wealthy owner, Iris and Paige's younger sister, Lisa. I found both these characters are inscrutable and unlikeable but along with various others connected to the hotel, they hold the key to the disappearance of the teenaged girls.
Each year, on the anniversary of Paige's disappearance, Iris and Lisa hold an Open Day at the hotel for local villagers.
Iris is desperately hoping that twenty years later Paige will reappear on the scene and this last Open Day is the culmination of a truly repugnant story that never-the-less holds one enthralled.
Reviewed by Jane Usmar
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