This is a bit of a slow burner but has an interesting storyline with plenty of mystery. It just failed to keep my interest though as I couldn't get to grips with the characters, especially DS Daley, and I was a bit disappointed with the ending. Just an OK read which would be fine for travelling or reading on holiday. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

Wow. What a great novel. Devoured it in a day. Fast paced and exciting throughout. Guessed the main twist but lots of others sprinkled throughout which kept me hooked.

A little bit predictable to me, but that could be because I have read a few similar stories in the last year. It came up a bit short on the thrills and twists to me and I felt it was rather longwinded.

This was a brilliant read. As soon as I started reading this book I just knew I was going to love it. Highly recommended

Great story, thrilling plot that I could not put down. Well worth a read, and would recommend to others.

What a page turner of a book - couldn't put it down. Kept me guessing till the end. All a bit creepy. Not sure I will look at a service station in the same light. Excited that this is the first book of a series.

Great read! Looking forward to reading more by this author! I highly recommend this book and author to all!

4.70 🌟🌟🌟🌟⭐

A wife goes missing after going into a small mall to use the restroom. The suspense and intrigue in this book were what made it very good. Even if you figure out some things there's always something else to puzzle through. That's something I look forward to in this genre of entertainment. 😏

The best bit of this fast-paced thriller BY FAR was the character development of Leah's husband. At the beginning you are entirely sympathetic and page by page your feelings change and his intentions change. Fantastic, thrilling and I will be keeping an eye on the author's future work.

Where LOSING LEAH begins is a country mile from where it ends up and that is all to the good.
Causing a disturbance at a truck stop is a distressed traveller, Chris Hills, who claims that his wife Leah has vanished. It was planned to be only a brief stop for the couple who regularly used the location as a pause in their journeys to their holiday cottage in Wales. There was nothing unusual about Chris and Leah Hills quickly pulling their car in to buy coffee and use the rest rooms before continuing on with the rest of their trip. However, plenty of discrepancies soon crop up in the account that Chris gives to the police tasked to investigate his wife’s disappearance.

DS Baker and DS Baley are at first concerned with finding the missing woman and as time slips away, work on the premise that Leah is now not likely to be found alive. There is nothing on CCTV, no witnesses, and no contact made from a possible kidnapper who could have struck just at the time that Leah was separated from her protective husband. What is the correct demeanour for a husband who has just lost his spouse? What is the correct way to investigate a possible abduction in a location that sees hundreds of people pass through each and every day? Leah has seemingly disappeared without reason or trace.

There is much to like about LOSING LEAH. This work cannily slots into a recently re-emerged sub-genre of crime fiction that is now very much on point again at this current point in our lived experience – but it is tricky to reveal what that re-emergence is exactly without giving out major plot spoilers! Let’s say if you like female driven thrillers that are written with a great understanding of what cornered women sometimes need to do, you will enjoy this read. It may not be too long before your hackles are raised in discovery as Chris and Leah are of course not the happily married couple that those who know them might consider them to be.

A sub plot tracking some regrettable hook ups made by the younger of the two police officers is a welcome little diversion from the investigation. Some solid work has been put into writing true and believable characters, and it has absolutely paid off. LOSING LEAH is a fast read because it is very engaging, not because it skimps on details and rushes the reader through to the finish line. Whilst you might figure out what actually happened fairly soon into the piece you won’t necessarily have an understanding of the why, and this will propel you forward in discovery.

Future works featuring the two police officers of LOSING LEAH would be welcomed as DS Baley in particular has arrived to the page fully formed and brimming with explorative promise. All the right ingredients have been included in LOSING LEAH for the hopeful continuation of a credible and absorbing police procedural series. All that would be required would be a little more focus on the insights on the investigators and fans of series crime fiction would be totally satisfied with their new find.

LOSING LEAH is the first work of crime fiction written by British author Sue Welfare.

#LosingLeah #NetGalley

This was a weird book. In the beginning you have so much sympathy with the poor man who lost his wife, you just want to help the police look for her.... then the story goes on.... and you sympathy starts going away..... Thrilling until the very end! Recommended.

I really enjoyed this book!
It wasn't a jam-packed action/thriller, but I thought the story was very well written.

The pace was steady and kept me wanting more, even though there wasn't any big twist I was satisfies with the ending. The last phrases of the book were kind of mind blowing for me personally. Great ending, it kind of ends in a cliffhanger and I would of liked to know more but that's okay.

It is a police procedural book in my opinion, and the narrator is one of the cops investigating. There was a little personnel background story on her and I did like that that was added in the story. It made her more relatable instead of just making it about the investigation.

I'm really looking forward to reading more from this author!

A fast paced easy read that kept me guessing all the way through.. even though I did have my guesses throughout. :)

3 1/2 stars

The reader is thrown right into the action as the book begins: Chris and Leah Hills make an early morning stop at a service station, but Leah never returns from her visit inside. Of course, nothing is as it seems to be, and neither Chris nor Leah are quite whom we expect. The character of the investigating detective, Sergeant Daley, is intriguing. She also has secrets of her own.

I'll admit I wasn't overly surprised by the "reveal" at the end, but I still enjoyed the twisty route getting there.

A compelling, quick read. I look forward to reading more by this author.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy.

Thank you to Net Galley and Mirror Books for providing me with an e-ARC copy! All opinions in this review are my own and are honest.

This is yet another psychological thriller which follows Leah and her husband Chris. Leah disappears without a trace when they stop at a service station on their way to their Welsh holiday home and this story follows all the events that happen from this disappearance.

Whilst this was a gripping and quick read; I was able to fly through it, I did feel that the writing style did let this down a lot. This apparently follows Sergeant Mel Daley as she tries to unravel the mystery that is Leah disappearing. However, when I picked this up, I had no idea who it was we were following, and I had to read the blurb to figure out who we were following in this story. It was strange because we had little back story about her and I struggled to realise who was telling the story, yet we did see a large section of her private life involving a risqué relationship in the book which just stumped me. I would have loved a better introduction to Mel and to find out more about her as she was the main narrator in this story.

This did feature a lot of police procedure in it which I loved however, a lot of it felt like we were being told things out of a manual on how to be a police officer and what to do in certain situations. It just really struggled in its story-telling capabilities for some of the book which did make it very flat and difficult to connect with the story and also the characters. However, seeing the police procedures in a lot of detail was very, very interesting and this could have been a really interesting 4-star read if the writing was slightly different.

I did enjoy the plot of the book and I did find myself wondering how on earth does a grown woman just completely vanish without a trace?! I did have an idea of what had happened, but I definitely didn’t see the plot twist coming and I did enjoy that part of the book. There was a bit at the very end which seemed like it was chucked in there just to make the book darker and didn’t really make much sense or could have done with more explanation. But overall, it was an interesting plot and I loved how in depth it went with all the investigation into her disappearance and Leah and Chris’s lives.

This was an ok read but wasn’t perfect. I have seen a lot of other bloggers really enjoy this so maybe go and check out their reviews on goodreads to see if this is something that you want to pick up!

Losing Leah is an engaging read. Chris and Leah Hills are on their way out of town for a few days away when they stop at a service station. Leah heads inside while Chris locks up the car and goes to get their drinks. But Leah never returns, and no one remembers seeing her that day in the service station. Chris calls the police to report his wife missing. Their detailed search brings more and more into question. Where is Leah? Is she safe? Was she with Chris that morning? Is Chris the worried husband that he seems? More and more secrets come out as the investigation progresses, leading to an unexpected surprise at the end.

A good debut for Ms. Welfare. I look forward to reading more from her.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Mirror Books for providing an e-copy of this book to me in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

unputdownable!! Lots of twists and turns, kept me guessing, love it!

Three and a half star rating.
A loving couple en route to their Welsh holiday home stop for coffee and then Leah just vanishes into thin air, leaving her husband distraught. The police soon discover all is not as it seems. This is a well written story - a quick read with plenty to hold anyone's interest plus an enticing cover. Not normally too keen on so much police procedure in a book, but it seems to work here. The ending was abrupt and not that much of a surprise, leaving some unanswered questions so maybe there will be a follow up? The leading female detective shows a particularly unpleasant side to her character. I enjoyed the book and would definitely read others by this author.

Chris and Leah Hills stop for a coffee at an isolated service station a stones throw from the Welsh borders. While Leah heads inside, Chris locks the car and heads inside to order them a drink. She shouldn't be long, they'd only stopped to stretch their legs. But Leah does not come back!

Sargent Mel Daley and Detective Inspector Harry Baker have their work cut out trying to find out what happened to Leah. The story starts as a basic police procedural which then gets darker. There are revelations and disturbing clues and a final blood chilling twist. The more we read the more we get told shocking information on Leah. My only criticism is I thought was unnecessary about this story I was Mel Daley's private life. Apart from that, this is a really good debut novel.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Mirror Books and the author Sue Welfare for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In the book Losing Leah, author Sue Welfare, writes a very compelling story of Leah who has simply disappeared. But things are not as they seem. And the more the police dig the more secrets are being uncovered. What is happening? And is Leah’s husband responsible or just an innocent spouse?
I would recommend this mystery/thriller book. It is a very compelling read. It does have hard language. I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.