Review: Sophie Last Seen - Marlene Adelstein

Review: Sophie Last Seen - Marlene Adelstein - November 2018


--- End of Review - contains a spoiler which I have added as could be a trigger for readers ----

Lately, I have been getting back into my love of mystery novels after a huge stint where I read mainly New Adult and Romances. Six years ago, Sophie went missing when she was ten years old from the local mall. She was out shopping with her mum Jesse at a shop called the Zone. Now six years later, Jesse is barely coping - she has lost everything as her daughter's case went cold , her husband moved on and married his secretary and has a son and another on the way, her house is like an episode of hoarders inside and the outside looks like no-one has lived there for years. There is one room that has never been touched and that is her daughter's room. Jesse lives in her own world, where every little piece of paper she finds in her path is a clue from Sophie and she gets out her pain by having an affair with a friend. When a local P.I turns up investigating another missing girl who is sixteen - the same age that Sophie would be now, she feels compelled to help with the hope that if he can find this girl he might be able to find her Sophie. The P.I aka Tuck also has sparked some underlying romance and life into Jesse as they start a potential relationship. Meanwhile, Sophie's childhood friend Star is on a spiral downwards as she is being haunted by Sophie's ghost and the hauntings are getting more intense.  When Tuck finds an old diary of Sophie's it reconnects Star and Jesse back together and a road trip begins as they go on a search to discover who might have killed Sophie. When the person is revealed at the end, I felt the book had a  Lovely Bones feeling. Reader's if you are wanting a happy ending with Sophie's return then this isn't the read for you ( I have added this as it might be a trigger to some readers), but it does have it's own happy ending just not the one you expect. Sophie Last Seen though having the mystery aspect was also a lot about moving on after tragedies and the aftermaths of everyone related to the incident and how different people process their emotions.