View source for Never Coming Home by Evonne Wareham

{{infobox1
|title=Never Coming Home
|author=Evonne Wareham
|reviewer=Jo Heffer
|genre=Crime
|rating=3.5
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=9781906931704
|pages=316
|publisher=Choc Lit
|date=March 2012
|summary=Kaz Elmore's five-year-old daughter, Jamie, died in a car crash. Or did she? When a stranger, who was with the child when she died, pays Kaz a visit, it transpires that maybe it was a different child in the car. If that is the case, who was the dead child and where is Jamie? And more importantly, is she still alive? Kaz persuades the man, Devlin, to help her find her daughter but in order to do so there is a shocking truth that needs to be uncovered.
|cover=1906931704
|aznuk=1906931704
|aznus=1906931704
}}
Kaz Elmore has almost come to terms with her daughter's death. She died while on holiday in America with her father (Kaz's ex-husband) and her ashes have been scattered on the river. As tragic as it is, Kaz has no alternative but to accept that her daughter is never coming back. However, one day she receives a visit from a man called Devlin, who witnessed the accident and was holding Jamie when she died. His sole intention is to provide some comfort for Kaz by telling her that her daughter was not alone but when he spots photographs of Jamie, he realises that she is not the child who died in his arms.

This leads to a desperate search to find Jamie that takes Devlin and Kaz to France and Italy. It's also a dangerous search as the sinister truth is slowly unravelled and they realise who might be behind the staged death and Jamie's disappearance. This person has already killed and will likely kill many more times if they don't find her and stop him. The question is, will they be able to do so?

This is the first novel from Evonne Wareham and she has built up the mystery and the suspense pretty well. The plot is clever and surprising and she does create an air of tension. However, it is quite a convoluted story in places and I did find myself getting a little lost at times. By the end though, I had managed to piece things together quite well and therefore found it quite a satisfying read. Having said this though, I did feel that there were some events and characters' presence that could have been explained a little better and I am certainly left with one or two puzzles.

The author has created a couple of interesting characters in Kaz and Devlin and has even managed to inject the hint of romance too. He has a dark, mysterious past and she has had a troubled childhood spent trying to live up to the expectations of her creative artist father. Both these stories make an interesting backdrop to the tension and the threat of danger as their search takes them across Europe.

Overall, this is a good first novel and one that will keep the reader guessing to the very last pages.

If you are looking for another good mystery, why not take a look at [[Lullaby by Claire Seeber]].  You might also enjoy [[Deceptions by Rebecca Frayn]], [[The House of Memories by Monica McInerney]], [[The Boy by Wytske Versteeg]] or [[The Last Winter of Dani Lancing by P D Viner]].

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[[Category:General Fiction]]