Local Girl Missing by Claire Douglas

Frankie doesn't really want to return to the town of her childhood. The place of some of her greatest heartbreaks and the scene of her friend's disappearance. Sophie and Frankie used to be best friends and share secrets, including a fatal one.

Now after all these years it seems as if Frankie might be able to answer some of the open questions about what happened to Sophie.

Did she stumble and fall, was she pushed or was she was taken and killed elsewhere?

At first it seems as if everyone wants the same thing as Frankie until someone starts sending her threatening messages and she starts seeing and hearing strange things.

Is Sophie's killer trying to get rid of her too? Does someone want to keep the truth quiet? Is Frankie hiding secrets of her own?

Douglas shows the internal and external divide between the working class estate kids and their environment, and the more well-situated Frankie. Actually it seems to be more of a Frankie problem, either that or a Douglas one. Her disdain is almost palpable when she describes her former friends and houses. Condemning them for letting themselves go and not wanting to achieve more in life.

From a thriller perspective it could have been a little more tense and developed. The premise is ok, but some of the dialogue is a little tv B movie. I think Douglas has the capability of producing a tighter more suspenseful piece of work and look forward to reading it when she does.

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