View source for No One Home by Tim Weaver

{{infobox1
|title=No One Home
|author=Tim Weaver
|reviewer= Sophie Diamond
|genre=Thrillers
|summary= An intriguing story about an entire village vanishing, but one which ultimately has a long, drawn out plot. 
|rating=3
|buy=No
|borrow=Maybe
|pages=528
|publisher=Michael Joseph
|date=May 2019
|isbn=978-0241370117
|website=http://www.timweaverbooks.com
|cover=0241370116
|aznuk=0241370116
|aznus=0241370116
}}

Long after the police have given up on cold missing persons cases, David Raker picks them up and tracks them down. He's called to a particularly disturbing case where a small village of nine people all vanished overnight two years ago. Raker and his associate must delve in to the lives of these people to work out how and why nine people have gone missing. They are being threatened to stop but something about the mystery keeps drawing Raker further in, putting him in personal peril. 

I'll start by saying this is apparently the latest in a series of books, something I didn't know, so my review might be clouded by this lack of context … but equally, I'm not in a rush to read any of the books before. The story flicks between the present, Raker looking into the Blackgale disappearance, and 1970s America where Detective Jo Kader is looking into a grisly murder in a drug-fuelled L.A. I read the first 100 pages really quickly and was excited to know what was going on, but for me the next 400 pages felt like a bit of a slog. There were a lot of chapters where we didn't achieve anything in the way of solving the mystery. It didn't need to be this long. With a few rare exceptions, one of the pleasures of reading a thriller is that they're generally quite concise. 

I felt like Weaver strayed from excitement in to down-right depressing on more than one occasion. When I had almost finished the book, I wasn't waiting with baited breath, I was exhausted. I think this was essentially a really good idea for a plot because it's different and it's really ambitious but for me it fell short. It didn't feel conclusive enough either, which I understand on one hand because it's a series but on the other it was just generally frustrating. I also got to the twist miles before Raker did, while Weaver was taking Raker on a massive detour on his way to the point.  

I feel like the author's tendency to go off piste from the mystery is him attempting to add colour the story, fleshing out the characters and their lives and thoughts and feelings. In my opinion, this is a big weakness of the book because I found almost all of the characters too contrived. Especially Raker. 

I've been a bit harsh on this book, it's generally readable but I also think that it's one you could put down in the middle and forget about entirely. Too ambitious and not enough substance. 

If you are a thriller fan and want one which will really keep you on the edge of your seat, I can't recommend [[The Widow by Fiona Barton]] highly enough. If David Raker is your thing though, check him out on another adventure in [[The Dead Tracks by Tim Weaver|The Dead Tracks]].

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