#BlogTour No One Can Hear You by Nikki Crutchley

Today it's my turn on the BlogTour No One Can Hear You by Nikki Crutchley. It's a fast-paced drama-filled nightmare, which serves as a stark reminder of how brutal this world can be.

About the Author
Nikki Crutchley lives in Cambridge, New Zealand with her husband and two daughters. No One Can Hear You is Nikki’s second crime novel, set in the small Waikato town of Crawton. Her first book, Nothing Bad Happens Here, a crime/thriller set on the Coromandel Coast of New Zealand was a finalist in the 2018 Ngaio Marsh Award for best first novel. Nikki has worked in libraries in New Zealand and the UK and now works as a freelance proofreader. Nikki’s flash fiction has been published online and in the Fresh Ink anthology and the upcoming Bonsai anthology.

Follow @NikkiCAuthor on Twitter, On Facebook
Visit nikkicrutchley.com
Buy No One Can Hear You

About the book
He said that they’d let me go on purpose. That they could easily find me if they wanted to. He said that they didn’t want me. That I was too much trouble. He said if I went to the cops, he’d know. If I told Sonya, he’d know. If I talked to friends or teachers, he’d know. He told me to pretend it didn’t happen. He told me to consider it a compliment, that I was too strong. His last words to me were, ‘Just forget’.

Troubled teen Faith Marsden was one of several girls abducted from Crawton, a country town known for its picturesque lake and fertile farmland. Unlike the others, she escaped, though sixteen years on she still bears the emotional and physical scars.

Zoe Haywood returns to Crawton to bury her estranged mother Lillian, who has taken her own life. As she and Faith rekindle their high-school friendship, they discover notes left by Lillian that point to two more young women who recently disappeared from Crawton. But Lillian’s confused ramblings leave them with more questions than answers.

As Faith and Zoe delve deeper into the mystery, they become intent on saving the missing women, but in doing so are drawn into Auckland’s hidden world of drugs, abduction and murder. And then Faith decides to confront the mastermind – on her own.

Review
The story starts out strong, featuring a young girl called Faith, caught in a nightmare without a way out. She trusted the wrong person and is going to pay the ultimate price for it.

Fast forward over a decade and it's a new day and a new missing girl, but this time the disappearances haven't gone unnoticed and that also means a lot of loose ends have to be taken care of. One of those loose ends is Zoe's estranged mother. A mother in the first throes of the destructive disease called Alzheimers. Not sure what is a memory and what is just fragments concocted by her damaged brain. The only permanent fixture on reality are the notes she writes in her little notepads. The kind of notes that could be dangerous if read by the wrong person - someone like her daughter Zoe.

When Zoe comes back home after the unexpected death of her mother she finds herself in the middle of a fight against time for one of the victims, and in a nest of vipers. She isn't sure who can be trusted and who may be part of a very profitable and inhumane criminal ring.

This reminds me of Gothika, a forgotten little gem of a thriller, which also features the forgotten people in society. In this story the girls no one misses and no one cares about play a major role in the plot. The girls and young women without a family, who live on the edge of society. The troublesome young women who run away from their problems - or do they?

It's a nightmare scenario, perhaps because it is so close to reality. There are gangs who shop for young teens and children at the request of human traffickers and paedophile rings. There are very high dark numbers of missing people, who fall into the clutches of said criminals and aren't even missed. You don't miss what you don't acknowledge. A sad reminder of how our society fails certain groups of people.

It's a creepy drama filled nightmare, which can be an uncomfortable read at times. Let it be a reminder to pay more attention to those in need and to teach our children to be more wary in a world full of possible predators.

Buy No One Can Hear You at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.
Publisher: Oak House Press (24 Sept. 2018)