Paper Dolls | Lisa Bradley | Review

 Blurb

You haven't forgotten.

They haven't forgiven.

Leah Wallace has just achieved her dream of becoming editor at a regional paper. On her first day a 15-year-old girl, Hope Hooper-Smith, is reported missing. The police fear that she has been abducted.

Hours later, another teenage girl goes missing. But this girl, Tilly Bowers, is from a troubled background and is a habitual runaway. Leah decides to run Hope's abduction on the front page, while Tilly only gets a small mention on page eighteen. The next day, Hope is found unharmed at a train station. But Tilly is never seen or heard from again.

Sixteen years later, a TV documentary questions Leah's decision not to give Tilly's case immediate coverage, implying that she could have cost Tilly her life, and Leah starts receiving death threats online.

Then mysterious paper dolls begin appearing, cut from the newspapers Leah used to edit, and she suspects that an intruder has been in the house. Leah becomes convinced that someone wants to punish her for the part she played in Tilly's disappearance. But just how far will they go to make her pay?

Review

A chilling debut packed with twists & turns.

I love the premise of this novel, it was an interesting unique story, split between to timelines present-day and 16 years earlier when the girls went missing. It kept me guessing until the very end.

The relationship Leah had with her son Luke is so heartwarming and Bunty was a fabulous stand out character smart and funny she provided the perfect tonic for the unsettlings, disturbing events happening to Leah.

It missed out on 5⭐because it was a slow burner, to begin with, although the pace picks up in the second half.

Overall, a creepy debut well worth a read for all psychological thriller fans!

A huge thanks to Katya Ellis & Quercus Books for gifting me a copy in return for an open & honest review.

⭐⭐⭐⭐