REVIEW: AFTER ANNA, BY ALEX LAKE

A girl is missing. Five years old, taken from outside her school. She has vanished, traceless.

The police are at a loss; her parents are beyond grief. Their daughter is lost forever, perhaps dead, perhaps enslaved.

But the biggest mystery is yet to come: one week after she was abducted, their daughter is returned.

She has no memory of where she has been. And this, for her mother, is just the beginning of the nightmare.

 

The parents in After Anna are Brian and Julia, and their marriage is on the outs for unrelated issues. The plan was to separate, but then Anna was taken. As soon as Anna is returned, Julia has only a few rare moments of peace before the worst of the nightmare begins.

Throughout the time that Anna has been missing, vitriol was spewed on Julia from the press in an unending onslaught. Who is leaking information to them, and why are they twisting everything?

Meanwhile, the perpetrator carries on his/her internal monologue, advising the reader of the future plan to keep the target pointed on the family, especially Julia.

On the other hand, why is Edna, Brian’s mother, who has never liked Julia, manipulating everything and turning Brian against Julia? She is a very unpleasant character and is most likely up to no good.

As the intensity ratchets up, the reader is offered a close-up view of the insanity of our perpetrator’s mind. I had the identity figured out before the end, but a glimpse into the twisted mind of the evil person was so intense I could not stop reading. I was biting my nails, and kept following the actions until the anti-climactic conclusion. 5 stars

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