The first two-thirds of this book were a struggle to get through. I found Harry and Zara (the two narrating characters) to be annoying and hypocritical as they constantly argued about how the other was keeping things from them while they both continued to do so. This back-and-forth, coupled with blatant privacy violations on the basis of an assumption, made for a frustrating read. Although I wanted to sympathize with Harry and Zara considering their missing daughter, their consistent jumping to conclusions and vigilante operations gave the opposite effect and were sometimes too much to believe.

The pacing also suffered from moving back and forth in the timeline the way it did--mostly narrating events in the weeks after Sophie's disappearance with occasional jumps forward to courtroom proceedings. I enjoyed the courtroom chapters and thought the build-up happened too slowly. With that being said, there were some twists that I didn't see coming that were enabled with the chapters being told in the way that they were.

Once the chapters catch up to present day (the trial), the book became so much more enjoyable to read. The proceedings of the trial were riveting, and so much tension and anticipation were built as witnesses took the stand and evidence was revealed.

I do think the ending dragged. I was expecting it to end with the trial. While I appreciate all the loose ends being addressed, the big reveal did not feel impactful or as exciting compared to the trial. I also wish that the book had started before Sophie's disappearance so we could see Harry, Zara, and Sophie as a complete family unit. Without this insight, it is more difficult to mourn for what disappeared when Sophie did, because we have no basis of comparison to what life before was like.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mysteries, thrillers, and lots of courtroom drama.

This was all in all, a pretty good book! There were parts that were lengthy or confusing, but all in all a solid effort. I loved the ending, didn’t see it coming a mile away! I love when books can surprise you, and this one definitely did. The ending was Hollywood-worthy. This would make a great movie, I’d love to see that!

Well-written thriller about a couple who's daughter has gone missing 6 months ago without any new leads from the police. Harry, her father, has been to every house in the neighbourhood asking if they have seen her. He's had answers from everyone except No. 210 on their road. The man living here refuses to speak to them. Gradually Harry and Zara become convinced that he has something to do with her disappearance. Without giving away any spoilers, someone is murdered and there is a court case. Written from both parents' POV. Chapters are good length. You're kept guessing right until the end. Enjoyable read.

How far will a parent go to locate their missing child? That’s the premise in Finding Sophie, as Harry and Zara are desperate to find their missing 17 year old daughter Sophie. When one resident of their neighborhood refuses to speak to them, the parents zero in on him as their prime suspect in Sophie’s disappearance, and their attempts to find the truth lead them down a dark and unrecoverable path. This is a heart wrenching story of grief, desperation, and ultimately love that will take the reader through a gauntlet of emotions, as the parents’ grief oozes through the pages as they grapple with how to deal with the situation. As you would imagine, the pace is slow and deliberate, yet the suspense is palpable, with plenty of surprises for the reader. Well done! I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of the novel. A third of the book is a meditation on grief, a third is a legal thriller and a third is an action thriller. All of it is a love story. There are some good twists along the way, allowed by the story's structure that flips back and forth in time and between two narrators. The interesting thing is that everything in the novel is driven by the two MCs. The police and lawyers are useless. That does make some of the events far-fetched. And the reader does get whiplash between the genre swapping. But each portion of the story is very well done and I was very satisfied by the ending. The grief portions are especially poignant. This would translate well to television. It seems that it may have been written with that in mind.

Thank you, Random House Publishing/Ballantine and NetGalley, for the advanced copy of Finding Sophie.

As a mom, there's no path I wouldn't take to find my child if he went missing. This is the story of two parents, Harry and Zara, who are both prepared to go the distance to find Sophie, their daughter;. The short chapters are told from the POVs of both parents with some chapters of both of them in court for murder charges. I feel like short chapters can oftentimes keep a story moving, and it did just that for this novel. There were not any long drawn-out descriptions or scenes that would bore you. The story kept a great pace and kept me interested from beginning to end.

This is not so much a thriller as a novel about the pain and desperation that parents feel when they have a missing child. The isolation that overtakes them, and how the loss pulls apart their relationship until they are just two people, each on their own journey of grief. In this book, the grief is so raw and so sad. The regrets that the parents have…in one case the mom, Zara, talks about a doll that she wanted so desperately as a child. She finally got it and nurtured it throughout the years, taking it out once a year to clean and check on it. She gave it to Sophie and within weeks the hair was matted and the face colored on. She yelled at her, and now, she thinks back to that moment and thinks that maybe that is what drove her daughter away….i love how the author writes, but I wish there was a little more substance to the story.

I received this e-book ARC of Finding Sophie by Imran Mahmood through Net Galley from Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Bantam in exchange for a truthful review.

Wow, I really enjoyed this thriller told in alternating voices of Harry and Zara, the school teacher parents of 17-year old Sophie who has gone missing after some family discord.

Each parent experiences grief in their own way, and are investigating their daughter's disappearance individually after losing faith in the police investigations/people who are not forthcoming with evidence.
The cleverness and tenacity of the desperate parents in trying to find Sophie are admirable even though they are borderline criminal.

I was surprised by the British court system details in some chapters, as I thought the British was similar to the American system. But some results confused me as I didn't realize they were possible.
But in any case, this thriller was satisfying.

This was more of a drawn out emotional drama and I think I was expecting a bit more suspense and thrilling lead up to what is going on with missing Sophie and the battle of her parents.

Zara and Harry are parents to their 17 year old daughter Sophie. The story is told back and forth from Zara and Harry’s POV shortly after Sophie went missing and then flashes forward to a year later where there is a trial for murder going on. From the very start Sophie is missing and you get the grip and ultimate sadness from both parents and we start wondering what in the world happened to Sophie.

The story is quite slow and there were a few moments where I was honestly losing interest in the case but I was hanging on by a thread needing to make it to the end to know the big reveal. I appreciated being pulled into the emotional turmoil of losing their child and trying to do whatever they had to do to try and find her but there were so many moments I felt had such a big gap or didn’t make sense to me. There was this brokenness and division between Harry and Zara but when I got to the end I questioned what was real about the first part presented. It just felt unnecessarily twisted at times. The end fell flat and I would have liked to have heard from Sophie herself at some point in the story to understand a bit deeper on what really happened. It was just all very tip of the iceberg point of views.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Watching parents individually grieve their missing daughter was emotionally difficult. The author did an amazing job conveying their confusion, their desperation, and their anxiety by giving each his/her own voice and by keeping the chapters really short. Though I suspected the ending, getting there was a great read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bantam/Random House for the ARC to read and review.

This was truly a painful read but it got me hooked. Basically this book is told from two POV’s, the parents Harry and Zara who have a rebellious teenage daughter Sophie who they have a lot of difficulty with her at this point in her life. They even resort to locking her in her room. But they absolutely love her but they are out of their depth in raising her at this point. And then she goes missing. They are both school teachers and are not able to work. They suspect this man who lives across the street, a horrific looking man and weird. This then begs the question how far as a parent would you go as in committing murder to find your child. This was a very intense domestic thriller. I received this book from net galley and the publisher as an ARC for an honest review. I recommend this book but go in knowing it is an intense novel Thank you net galley for this ARC.

Told in two POVs with two timelines, teachers Harry and Zara are desperate to find their teenage daughter, Sophie, who just one day vanished 6 weeks ago. In the opening timeline, the police are stymied, and Harry has quizzed all the neighbors, except one, at number 210, who steadfastly won’t answer any questions or even come out of the residence. The other timeline is a year later, in the middle of a murder trial, when it seems that at least one of the parents is apparently accused of killing the tenant at 210.

“Finding Sophie” is a family drama, suspenseful mystery, character study and legal thriller all in one. The initial back and forth between Harry and Zara is filled with pain and grief as they continue to search for their missing and presumed dead daughter, uncovering little things like she might have had an older boyfriend and she was visiting a tarot reader. As time goes by, both parents are worn down, increasingly angry, and the person at 210 becomes an obsessive focus (like, buying a drone to spy over the guy’s high garden walls). The courtroom process is a marvel, written by practicing barrister Mahmood, and contains twists and truths that are all part of the law. And that ending — wow! 5 stars!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES Lanah the doll had green eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO Zara tenderly prunes a mock orange from a houseplant to a large shrub.

Thank you to Random House/Ballantine/Bantam and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

I was drawn into the story from the first pages. Finding Sophie is so much more than a mystery thriller. The author does a masterful job at weaving in the effects of grief on parents whose child has gone missing. It also begs the question how far parents are willing to go for their children as well as each other.

Harry and Zara's seventeen year old daughter has been missing for six weeks and the police have no leads. They've questioned everyone possible, except one house on their block, number 210 who refuses to answer the door. Harry and Zara won't stop until they get answers. Their investigation leads them to standing trial for murder. The book alternates between the now which is a court hearing and the past. The chapters alternate between Harry and Zara.

Finding Sophie is suspenseful, fast paced, and thrilling. At times I was afraid this story was going to leave loose ends, but before the ending it wrapped everything up very nicely. Easily a 5 star read for me!

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Bantam for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is my first book by Imran Mahmood and I am interested to keep following this author. Finding Sophie is a slow burn, with a few twists and turns to keep you interested. As Zara and Harry struggle with the police and their frustration with no progress on finding their missing 18 year old daughter, Sophie, we can feel their exhaustion and grief filling each page. As the story progresses, I did find it slow at points but encourage the reader to stay with it as it finishes with some unexpected twists that salvaged the whole read. I received an ARC of this book, all opinions are my own.

Imran Mahmood will certainly leave you guessing throughout his new book, Finding Sophie. Sophie is seventeen, and her parents make one major mistake in their discipline of her. She leaves the house angry and has been missing for six weeks.
We’re told the story through alternating perspectives; from her mother, Zara and her father, Harry. They’re fixated to an unhealthy degree on the neighbor in #210. He refuses to answer the door. He has strange habits, and his behavior is hiding something.
We follow the thoughts of each parent as they both become more and more determined to make their neighbor talk. Individually, each parent is steadily losing it. They’ve driven themselves from each other. They're no longer working, barely eating, not sleeping. It’s a recipe for disaster.
It’s no shock when the man in #210 is found murdered. Now for the tedious part- the Court must determine which, if either, parent is guilty. Did they work together, or have they developed an elaborate scheme to cast doubt on each other?
With a fast-paced plot and an ingenious ending, this book is perfect for crime sleuths.
Thanks so much to Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine, Bantam for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is March 5, 2024.

Finding Sophie was really well paced. The chapters were short but very impactful, and the switching of POVs made the plot even more engaging. This was quite literally a page turner. This book is beautifully written and I was equally enthralled by the psych thriller element as I was the courtroom drama. I recommend this to all thriller lovers.

4 legal stars

At first, I had a hard time getting invested in this one because it felt like I was reading a lot of books about missing girls. Then, the narrative changed into more of a legal drama, and I liked that better.

Harry and Zara have one child, an older teen daughter, Sophie. As you might guess from the title, Sophie is now missing. The parents take separate approaches to trying to find her. Sadly, they grow apart rather than together in this process. It is heartbreaking to read about their grief.

The parents are frustrated with the police and feel that they aren’t doing enough to find Sophie. Taking things into their own hands gives them purpose. Of course, the police aren’t happy with this as they take things too far.
We get different points of view in this one, which I have always appreciated as a reader as we get inside the heads of the characters.

There are also short chapters about a murder trial without giving us all the details. This made me anxious to figure out who was on trial! I thought the legal aspect of this one was spectacular. I’m unsure if the same law would apply in the U.S. This one made me ponder my thoughts on guilt and innocence and built up to a thrilling conclusion.

Author Imran Mahmood is a barrister and clearly knows his legal world.

I am left absolutely speechless. When I started this book, I went in thinking it was going to be a very different story.

Finding Sophie is a story about parents, Harry and Zara King. Their lives have revolved around their only daughter, Sophie. One day, Sophie leaves the house and doesn’t come home. Six weeks later, the police are no closer to finding her than when they started. Harry and Zara have questioned everyone who has ever had any connection to Sophie, to no avail. Except there’s one house on their block—number 210, across the street—whose occupant refuses to break his silence.
As the question mark over number 210 devolves into obsession, Harry and Zara are forced to examine their own lives. They realize they have grown apart, suffering in separate spheres of grief. And as they try to find their way back to each other, they must face the truth about their daughter: who she was, how she changed, and why she disappeared.

Told in the alternating perspectives of Harry and Zara, and in a dual timeline between the weeks after Sophie’s disappearance and a year later in the middle of a murder trial.

It’s really difficult for me to comment on too much off the story without giving away any spoilers, which I will not do. What I will say is that the author brilliantly develops his characters and creates a mood that makes the reader truly understand the sadness and despair of the storyline. As a parent, I found myself connecting with Harry and Zara and understanding so many of their choices and actions. It was told beautifully but heartwrenchingly, in a way that draws the reader in so they can’t put it down.

This book was absolutely a 5-star read for me. These characters are going to stay with me and I will be thinking of this book for a long time.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine for this ARC of this amazing book. I am so grateful for the opportunity, and it was my pleasure to read this work.

First half of the story felt different than the second half. At first, it felt like a heartbreaking and mysterious story about two parents desperate to find out what happened to their teenage daughter. Determined to find out on their own, they take matters into their own hands. The second half of the book seemed like a separate story about being on trial for taking matters into their own hands. Although the end came together in a somewhat surprising twist and the story kept me interested enough to continue, I thought the events could have been more intricately weaved.

This book was just not it for me. I realize you need to suspend disbelief in stories but it was tough to do so with this one.