A heartbreaking story about a mother and father who lost their daughter, and the depths one will go to protect their loved ones.

There is no other way to explain this story other than heart shattering. This isn't a fast paced thriller, this story is about grief, and trying to move on as parents who lose their teenage daughter.

Told in two POV's, Harry and Zara are the parents of Zoe who has been missing for six weeks. They are dealing with the unimaginable of their daughter disappearing without a trace and trying to not on grieve but put the pieces together of what happened and can they still save their daughter?

I really liked the multiple POV's, as well as the courtroom proceedings. It was nice trying to figure out the "twist" in between each POV but really what stuck with me was getting to know each Harry and Zara and how they are physically moving on.

This is a tough read, but a good one.

I didn't love this book and I didn't hate it - it was truly a mediocre read. It was slow moving for a thriller/mystery but did pick up at the end. It alternated between the voices of Harry and Zara, the parents of Sophie, who is missing and then there were occasional chapters taking place in a present day courtroom. The writing was good, I just would have liked more to the story. Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

This is my first book by Imran. Set in UK it was an interesting, intense novel that holds your attention as the author slowly unveils the story.

Thank you to NetGalley, Imran Mahmood & the publisher for this ARC. This book is releasing March 5th.

Holy moly! You could knock me over with a feather. I have just been shocked beyond comprehension.

This one started a little slow and was at times a little confusing. However, when it picked up steam, it was like a locomotive racing down the tracks to an ending that will leave you wondering what just happened.

Harry and Zara's world has been knocked off its axis. Their daughter is their world, and one night she disappeared. They are frantic with worry and dread for the worse case scenario. The authorities cannot seem to find any clue as to where she went. Harry and Zara have made it their mission to find their daughter, dead or alive. All of the neighbors have been helpful in answering questions except one house. He refuses to answer the door and, in their opinion, he looks shady. Harry is convinced that he is holding Sophie in that house with its high walled fence. Their search becomes understandably obsessive. Their marriage is suffering and everything in their personal lives is falling apart.

The latter section of the book is the murder trial, and this is when the suspense and intrigue really ratchet up. The story is told from the point of view of both Harry and Zara. There are some heartbreaking moments as you see two people suffering so much due to an inconsolable loss. The shocking twists are what blew my mind more than anything. My brain is now in overdrive with adrenaline as I sit here shocked.

Thank you to Random House and Ballatine, as well as NetGalley for this ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This is not an easy read, but it is compelling. Set in the UK legal system, something I know very little about, the story centers around the parents of Sophie, a teen who disappeared one night without a trace. I am hesitant to say anything else as this is a story that needs to slowly unravel as you learn about the details of the night she disappeared. The story is told from the alternating points of view of her parents, that take place around the time of her disappearance, but there is also a murder trial taking place in the present many months later, the details of which are kept hidden until much further into to the book. We experience grief, despair, pain, and fear as her parents slowly unravel, both from who they are as individuals, and who they are together. This book defies classification as it is a mystery and a thriller, but it is also courtroom drama and a study of grief and what it can do to families.

For the most part, the author did a great job of revealing enough tidbits that you could figure out some of the details of what may have happened and what the murder trial is all about, at the same time keeping you guessing and surprising you at the end. Overall, the writing was very strong, but there were moments when I had to reread to figure out what was going on. While overall I felt intense sympathy for both parents, there were times when I wanted to tell them to stop and take a breath, because I could see how what they were doing could go wrong.

This is a book that I did end up reading very quickly, but it was very intense, and there was enough violence that some might find it hard to handle. If that's not a problem for you, I can easily recommend this read. It's well worth the read.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"Finding Sophie" revolves around Harry and Zara, whose daughter Sophie has gone missing. Feeling dissatisfied with the efforts of law enforcement, they embark on their own search for Sophie, much like many other desperate parents in similar situations.

However, Harry and Zara aren't exactly a united front in their quest to find Sophie. They often withhold crucial information from each other, operating independently in their search for their daughter.

The narrative unfolds through alternating perspectives between Harry and Zara, although at times it's easy to lose track of whose viewpoint is being portrayed.

"Finding Sophie" encompasses various genres, beginning with a focus on the search for Sophie before transitioning into elements of a legal thriller. Snippets of the trial are interspersed throughout the narrative, with the intensity escalating as the trial progresses, ultimately leading to a more thrilling conclusion. However, the trial itself doesn't fully take center stage until the latter portion of the book.

This one was beautiful and really made you question how far you would go for your loved one but man it was really really heavy and tough to read

This was my first book by Mahmood and I have quickly become a fan. I was immediately hooked and enjoyed the alternating viewpoints of Harry and Zara. I definitely connected with this as a parent and a parent of older kids. Nobody quite prepares you for the pain as they pull away and find themselves, as depicted in this book. I found myself sympathizing with the parents and can’t say I wouldn’t have gone to the same lengths they did in an effort to find Sophie. I struggle with what that says about me, which I think any parent would wrestle with as they read this book. I flew through this one even though I also didn’t want it to be over so soon. An easy five stars and I highly recommend. Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for the digital ARC of “Finding Sophie” in exchange for my honest opinion.

Harry and Zara's daughter Sophie goes out one day and doesn't come home. Weeks later, they and the police are no closer to finding her than they were at the beginning. Harry has spoken to all the neighbors, except for one, and that's the one that knows something, Harry just knows it.

Told in alternating POVs from Harry and Zara, the tensions rachets up as the days go by. We also flash forward to a year later, where we are in the middle of a murder trial. Who's on trial? Who was murdered? What's going on?

This was really good. Normally I'm not a big fan of the deliberate keeping of information from the reader, but this was so well done that I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was definitely a page turner and kept me guessing, even at the end!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for providing me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Available March 5, 2024.

Sophie, a teen goes missing. And I can’t even imagine what her parents are going through. I feel so bad for Zara and Harry, but these parents decided to take matters into their own hands, and decided to never give up on finding their daughter, even though the police are taking care of it, but we already know, that they took their time. But the lengths that they both go through just to get their daughter is crazy.

This book is a slow burn, because it took reaching 80%, and the book started to pick up, and we started to find out what really happened to Sophie. In the beginning it was a whole bunch of secrets being revealed about Sophie, and it DRAGGED. And of course the ending was very rushed and I felt it fell short for me…. but one thing I will say this author was springing things out of nowhere which made the book page turner worthy, because you needed to find out what happens but then the ending. I wanted to love the book more because the plot was so promising.

What a thriller, how far will parents go when their child goes missing? Are both parents being truthful and what lengths will they go to protect each other? The tense, page turning thrill will have hating and wondering till the end.

Absolutely loved this book! I read it in one sitting! Thus has become a one click author for me! Thanks to the publisher

This book is a mystery, but it is also an examination of grief and all of its forms and how it affects people. This is a tale that really defies classification as it has so many complex themes and their interplay makes for a quite unique novel.

Seventeen year old Sophie leaves the house after an argument with her parents Harry and Zara and disappears. They have scoured the neighborhood, and everyone has cooperated except for the reclusive man in number 210. As time passes, Harry and Zara get more frantic. Chapters alternate between Harry's and Zara's points of view, with another scenario in the present day featuring a murder trial, although we don't know who is on trial and who was murdered.

This is a suspenseful novel, filled with twists and pure, heartbreaking emotion. I was able to truly enter into the pain of Sophie's parents, how the unknown really tortured them and while parts of it drew them together, other parts tore them apart. The exposition of how everything really unfolded was a bit clunky for me, but it overall didn't detract from the story. I also realized how very little I know about the legal system in the UK, and Mahmood's skillful depiction based on his experience with it made it exciting and intriguing for me.

This is a tense read, full of emotional impact as things are slowly unraveled and revealed. It isn't a fast paced read, but if you take the time and stick with it, you will be rewarded with a uniquely engrossing story.

I know that I enjoyed this book, but it has been a few weeks since I finished it and I unfortunately cannot recall any significant details. I know that I was constantly trying to guess what was going to happen and how things would end, but I also could not tell you what happened or how it ended. I would recommend it to someone looking for a quick, suspenseful and exciting read.

Release date: March 5th

Sophie, a teen, was missing. The story was told from the POV of Zara, her mother, and Harry, her father. The grief of losing her, the lack of leads, and the frustration of knowing they were close to an answer and yet so far away had Zara and Harry falling apart and away from each other.

They both felt that a neighbor had something to hide, but the police did not agree. Both Harry and Zara started to find ways to cope on their own and research the case to try to find their daughter or find out what may have happened to her. Their journey led them down paths they weren’t expecting.

I was intrigued by the story and enjoyed it from start to finish. It didn’t end like I expected at all and there were many twists and turns.

Definitely recommend this one to fans of domestic thrillers!

A missing child, heartbroken parents, a broken family, the elements of this sizzling thriller. The police come to a dead end so the parents decide to investigate her disappearance. Just how far will they go for the love of their child?
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

If your daughter disappeared and you thought you knew who was behind it, how far would you be willing to go to confirm your suspicions? 🩸

I have mixed feelings about this one, because I was completely bored/frustrated by the first 75%. Things that I found absolutely tedious: people acting like unrealistic idiots for the sake of the plot, implausible plot points to the point of taking me out of the story, characters that act naive one minute who are then masterminds the next, pointless characters thrown in just to serve a single purpose in the narrative, and an ending where literally everything has to present one way just to be a “gotcha” the next moment. This could be a me thing, as I think I tend towards wanting my thrillers to be a bit more realistic. While I was interested in the last 25% to see how things panned out and I did find some of the twists clever, it was too much of a slog getting there in my opinion. (And the end itself…😑)

My thanks to NetGalley and Bantam for a complimentary advance copy of this eBook, out 3/5/2024.

Harry and Zara tell the story of the hunt for their daughter Sophie as this moves back and forth in time from her disappearance to a year later, when someone is on trial for murder. Harry's fixation on their neighbor John Douglass Hermann could be the answer or it could be their downfall. This is as much as character study of despairing parents as it is a legal thriller. While it's unrealistic that there would be a trial this quickly, it does bring immediacy to the mystery. This has good characters and a surprise at the end- no spoilers. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

This was a great book. I loved every paragraph, every sentence and every word of this masterpiece! I read it in 12 hours, which is a lot for me to do! It had everything and more laid out in the novel! I sure hope There is more to come from this author! I am totally hooked!

DNFed at 10%. I had high hopes for this because it’s getting some great reviews, but I just cannot get into it. I think this stylistic choice (kind of dropping into the action with little to no backstory) can work really well, but just felt confusing to me in this story. Maybe I’ll pick this up again someday, but it’s a DNF for now.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House - Ballantine for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.