This is quite a chilling thriller that not only will keep you guessing who the villain is, but also questioning what you would do in this situation. How far would you go? Harry and Zara's 17-year-old daughter, Sophie, is missing and they are desperate to find her. The police have no leads, despite all their efforts. In their desperation, Harry and Zara decide to investigate on their own. The chapters alternate between Harry and Zara, as they remember what happened prior to her disappearance, and follows all of their attempts to find Sophie. The alternating chapters are interspersed with chapters centered around a trial at the Old Bailey Courthouse in London, but who is on trial? The plot twists with every chapter, from beginning to end and kept me mesmerized. This book is a thought provoking, mystery within a mystery, full of surprises throughout. Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the advanced copy. The opinions of this review are my own.

There is so much tension in this book that I dared not put it down for fear of missing a key clue!

Teen aged years are brutal for parents. How much freedom to allow, when to pull back and when to push back, it’s a nightmare. And when Sophie begins to act out and hides things from her parents, threatening to run away, they do what a lot of parents do. Lock her in for a night.

But then Sophie goes missing and the self-doubt creeps in and the blame game begins. Although these parents aren’t really blaming each other, they still fell guilty.

When the police don’t seem to be doing anything to find Sophie, they take matters into their own hands.
Harry and Zara are both suspicious of the only man on the street who will not answer any questions. Soon they are obsessed with him and they will do anything to make him talk to them.
When that man is found dead, they are both arrested. Now what?

To tell anymore would be cheating you out of a really good experience. I was so confused the entire time, and I loved it!

Outstanding first novel, and I can’t wait for more!

Netgalley/ RHPG/ Ballantine/Bantam March 05, 2024

This is the first book I’ve read by this author and it was well written, but was a little slow paced for me. Seventeen year old Sophie has gone missing and her parents are desperate to find her but what few leads they have come up empty. They find out they didn’t really know their daughter very well or each other. Thanks Netgalley for this arc.

Two grieving parents, Harry and Zara, will seemingly do anything to find their missing teenage daughter, Sophie. When Sophie disappeared, they knocked on every single door in the neighborhood trying to glean whatever information they could. One neighbor, however, wouldn’t speak to them. They became fixated on this neighbor to the point of obsession.

Told in short chapters from the perspective of both parents, this book is gripping and compelling. The courtroom scenes are brilliant. We see what grief can do to families, how the loss of a child is all consuming and the depths a parent will go to get their child back.

I highly recommend this 5-star thriller. You can pick up your own copy on March 5, 2024. Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the ARC.

This story is my literal worst nightmare. Not only just to have a child, a daughter, go missing, but to feel as if your own actions drove her to a point of vulnerability. Harry’s and Zara’s grief is so raw and so tangible. The author perfectly captures the slew of emotions they went through especially during the first few weeks of Sophie’s disappearance.

While I typically appreciate dual POVs, in this context I found they often made the story confusing and instead of contributing to an overarching narrative, I felt like I was only receive pieces of the puzzle. Their perspectives didn’t play off each other in a way that made me understand the direction of the plot. I also typically love legal thrillers, but the jargon and defense in this particular story was outside my realm of knowledge, and to me, was not well explained.

I think this story has a ton of potential and heart for taking on the perspectives of two parents who handled their grief in distinctly different ways. However, the confusing plot and slow pace made this fall flat for me. Perhaps another reader will appreciate the literary devices used by the author more than I was able to at this time.

Thank you to NetGalley Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

The point of view alternates between Sophie's mother and father. Both of these characters (in my opinion) were not like-able. Before Sophie went missing, her parents installed a padlock to keep her home. Now ("shockingly") they are devastated that she has gone missing, looking to blame (where ever (else) they can find).

The title drew me in ... for a personal (and admittedly stupid) reason.

I really don't recommend this one. I chose to not review rather than not finish; but I strive to finish nearly all that I start. I was so glad to have finished this one. I did not find it a very satisfying read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bantam for approving my request to review the advance read copy of Finding Sophie in exchange for an honest review. publication date is Mar 5 2024.

⭐️⭐️💫

Thank you to Netgalley and Bantam Books for the ARC. This is my first Imran Mahmood novel. The story starts off very slowly and took almost until the end to grab me. Not a lot happened other than Sophie's mysterious disappearance and we learned practically nothing to help us formulate a theory and move the story along. Both Zara and Harry spent a lot of time in Sophie's room.

I love a dual viewpoint but because they were both written in the first person, I found it very confusing to keep track of the story.

I'm not familiar with the British legal system. The interactions in the courtroom scenes felt like the lawyers were throwing out accusations instead of asking questions. I found it odd though I know Mahmood is a lawyer I will defer to him as the expert.

The end was a surprise twist. I love it when I don't see it coming, however, this ending came out of no where for me.

This is the story of a family broken by the disappearance of their daughter. I wish I could say I liked it but NetGalley provided me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review and if I am being honest, I had a hard time staying interested in these characters. Both the parents had flaws and made decisions that were over the top for my level of belief. I got bogged down in some of the legalese. The evil people were too evil. No one was good enough to earn my interest. I finished it just because I had to know what happened. 2 1/2 stars rounded up to 3.

I was intrigued by this book because it was told through the alternating perspectives of two parents. Despite the multiple-narrator trend, you really don't see that very often! I thought it was very effective and really kept the pace going.

It really was quite tense at points! You felt like you were in a race with them to find Sophie.

Wow! My first Imran Mahmood novel but definitely not my last. Told in alternating POVs that kept the story hopping. Fabulous characters kept me reading long past bedtime. This book was captivating, haunting and heart wrenching.
Thank you NetGalley, Imran Mahmood and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the opportunity to read and review this book.

WOW! Powerful! Heartbreaking!

At seventeen Sophie is pushing family boundaries, trying to spread her wings. Her parents Harry and Zara are just as strongly trying to keep them clipped. Neither can go on this way. And just as suddenly…Sophie is gone!

Short chapters told from the perspective of both parents. Each going through their own private hell trying to survive and ultimately find Sophie.

How far would you go to find your missing child? Would you commit...murder?

This is not a warm & fuzzy, lite thriller. In fact, at times it is painfully heavy-hearted. The grief and fear of both parents are raw and palpable. My heart broke for both Harry and Zara as I watched them come apart.

I found this book to be utterly unputdownable! Finished in just 2 sittings. Make sure to block off some time because once you pick this one up the world will just fade away until you reach the final page!

This was my first read by Imran Mahmood. His background includes criminal law that you see by his expertise displayed here in the courtroom scenes.

I cannot wait to read more from this very talented author!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine

17-year-old Sophie is your typical teenager looking to press the boundaries set by her parents, Harry and Zara. When Sophie doesn't return home one night her parents call the police who don't seem in a particular hurry to solve her disappearance; chalking it up to teenage rebellion. As the days turn into weeks, then months both Harry and Zara are desperate to bring their girl home and they begin their own desperation and anger fueled investigation focusing on a strange, reclusive neighbor.

Told in alternating chapters from Harry's and Zara's viewpoints readers experience the emotional toll that Sophie's disappearance is having on each of her parents and their marriage. The book opens with a courtroom scene in which someone is being tried for murder, we don't know who it is until much later in the book and the legal manipulations are mind boggling.

If you like courtroom drama, disappearances, family breakdowns and a level of suspense that keeps you turning the pages until you discover if Sophie is ever found than this is the book for you.

“ Desperate times call for desperate measures” and this family is desperate to find their missing daughter, Sophie. It seems like there is nothing they won’t do, each in their own way, to find their beloved daughter and herein lies the plot twists. Grief has its own agenda for each and every suffering person, and how it manifests for one may be entirely different or even oppositional to how it relates to another person. As well as being a mystery, this is also a study in personal relationships, and how we handle grief and uncertainty. I enjoyed the book, I felt the characters were well drawn, and I would highly recommend it. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance read copy.

I'm of two minds on this book. I like the back and forth chapters between Harry and Zara; their two perspectives, which slowly became aligned, give a much better perspective of the story of their daughter, 17 year old Sophie, and her disappearance. Sophie's departure must be placed in no small degree on their shoulders; it takes them a while to see that. Perhaps no parent wants to see how their actions really affect their children's behavior. But - the story drags on ... and on... and on. It was a slow trudge through the middle of the book and, Harry especially, was engaging in some difficult to read risky behavior that ultimately ended up quite badly. I know this is a picky detail, but how the heck did they support themselves when neither was working, and when they did, at schoolteacher's pay rates? On the whole, however, I think it was a clever, well written book but a little more editing/cutting could be a consideration. There were several times when I felt like cutting straight to the end, I wasn't sure how much more I was willing to read in the middle. Ultimately I'm glad I stuck it out, but it wasn't always easy.

My copy of the ARC was provided by the publisher and NetGalley; the opinions expressed herein are my own.

The novel begins with a trial, but the reader doesn’t know who is on trial, or for what crime. Then we have alternating chapters from the perspectives of Harry and Zara, Sophie’s parents. Sophie is 17 and she’s been missing for six weeks. Zara is sure that Sophie is still alive and she’s planning a birthday party for her. Harry goes out searching for her every night and can’t say her name out loud.

Harry and Zara have been to every home in their immediate area asking if anyone saw anything. Except for number 210 on their street. 210 won’t answer the door. 210 refuses, time and time again. There are no leads and Harry and Zara begin to unravel.

Oh, this was a hard book to read, so bleak with the loss these two have suffered. I was honestly surprised the police were as patient as they were portrayed, given Sophie’s age, but that was a small point. Overall it was just painful and awful to see the lengths that people can go to when they are pushed to the limits of what they can endure (oh, and I think British law is quite different from American law.) Good read.

There is a lot to like about this novel, the second for this author who is a real-life barrister in the UK. Finding Sophie, a teenaged and troubled girl, consumes the entire plot, which I can't really get into specifics without spoiling the book. Sophie goes missing and her parents are predictably distraught and take matters into their own hands to try to figure out if she was abducted or witfully left on her own in some kind of teen rebellion, or something else. The story is told with alternating chapters from the husband and wife's POV, which normally would drive me crazy but actually works out well with the different voices and shifting perspective as we learn more about their child's life and the neighborhood in London where she lives. If you like the surprise reveal of Gone Girl this novel will take that to new heights and make the story more interesting and more terrifying. I highly recommend the book.

Wow, what an emotional rollercoaster of a book that really sinks its claws in deep from cover to cover!

Told between alternating chapters of Harry and Zara you get to see through both of their eyes the devastating effects a missing child has on a family. This book is both emotionally charged as they deal with all the emotions of their daughter being missing, a crime thriller as well as part courtroom drama.

But who is in the courtroom and why?

Even after weeks and months of no sightings or no news about their daughter Sophie, neither parent are prepared to even entertain the idea that their teenage daughter is dead.

With the police investigation coming up with no answers, Sophie’s father Harry carries out his own investigation, checking with every neighbour in a several mile radius. All the neighbours and households are willing to talk to him, even filling out his questionnaire. That is all but one!

Number 210 on their own street. The man who lives there behind his high fences, Herman, who won’t even come to his towering locked garden gate, let alone answer his door.

Both Harry and Zara know there isn’t something right with the man who hides himself away and very rarely leaves his house but the police have no cause to suspect him and there is nothing they can do.

That’s when Harry decides to take the law into his own hands and focus his own investigation on number 210.

What transpires is revelation and shocking actions that you will never see coming with several shocking plot twists that will not let you put the book down!

If you are already a fan of Imran Mahmood’s books then you will already know you are in for a real treat with this book, and if you are new to this author you will definitely end up as a fan.

This is a definite must read book of 2024 and I highly recommend pre ordering it now!

Finding Sophie will be published on 14 Mar. 2024 and is not to be missed.

While I enjoyed the writing and tension building in Finding Sophie, I felt it was at times slow and it didn’t keep my attention.

I love love love a missing child thriller! This was part mystery and part legally thriller with a family searching for their missing daughter. The family dynamic is on display in this book and was compelling to read. This was a slow burn but it will have you on the edge of your seat anticipating what is going to happen. You have to patient as the layers are peeled back in this book because it’s well worth it at the end!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of Finding Sophie. While the premise was promising I unfortunately found it wasn't what I'd expected. It was a very slow burn and felt rushed at the end to wrap it up. There were some unanswered questions that became very vague answers if any at all at the end of the book. It fell flat for me.