View source for Why Don't You Come For Me? by Diane Janes

{{infobox1
|title=Why Don't You Come For Me?
|author=Diane Janes
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=More than a decade on from the time when her child was abducted Jo is still not coping.  A story to keep you on the edge of your seat and wonderful characters.  Highly recommended.
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=320
|publisher=Constable
|date=March 2011
|isbn=978-1849011259
|cover=1849011257
|aznuk=1849011257
|aznus=1849011257
}}
Over a decade ago Jo's daughter was abducted from in front of a shop whilst she and her husband were on holiday.  The pushchair was found on a cliff edge but there was no trace of Lauren, even on the beach below.  Occasionally Jo receives postcards with an old picture of her daughter on the front simply saying that the writer still has Lauren.  The police, the people who know what happened believe the cards to be a hoax.  Jo believes differently.  She also realises that as she has moved house and remarried and the story has faded from press attention someone is going to a great deal of trouble to keep track of her.

I loved this book and it's one of those that is just about impossible to put down once you've got into it.  The characters lift off the page – the husband who is perhaps getting just a little bit tired of all this concentration on a child he never knew, the business associate who is just a little too attentive to the husband and the teenage boy who is so real that you can just about smell the socks and hormones.  Then there's Jo's past to contend with.  Her mother wasn't just difficult; she was psychotic, as her father was to find out. This might, or might not affect Jo's ability to be a good mother, but it certainly coloured what people thought of Jo - and about what happened to her first husband.

The story is about how Jo copes in a remote hamlet in Cumbria as her life begins to unravel.  You'll constantly question just how reliable Jo's judgement is as she staggers from crisis to crisis.  You'll be on the edge of your seat holding your breath right through to the explosive climax and even days later you won't be able to get the people – all of them – out of your mind.  Abductions and kidnappings have unfortunately made headlines in recent years, but this book doesn't bleed them for what they're worth – it's takes the story into the future and looks at the terrible legacy such a crime leaves in its wake.  Highly recommended.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.  We also have a review of [[The Pull of the Moon by Diane Janes]].

For more on this dreadful subject we can recommend [[Lullaby by Claire Seeber]]. You might also appreciate [[The Forgotten Summer by Carol Drinkwater]]. 

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