A desperate mom tracks a missing child in another of Frenchs spellbinders (Catch Me When I Fall, 2006, etc.).Its getaway time for Nina Landry and her brood - two children plus Christian, her lover. What theyre getting away from is bleak Sandling Island, 60 miles from London, and the "pinched, icy days of English winter." Theyre bound for a Christmas holiday in Florida, but now theres a hitch. What happened to Charlie? She is Ninas 15-year-old daughter, headstrong, unpredictable, an adolescents adolescent. Shed been at a sleepover, a party that had, in a blink, gone from acceptably decorous to wildly hormonal, and from which she vanished. When Nina calls the police, a well-meaning constable attempts to reassure. Shell turn up. " Teenagers have secrets, " he explains. Hes right, of course, and over the next several hours, hes repeatedly, chillingly, corroborated as Nina delves as deeply as she can into Charlies personal life. But Charlie does not turn up. While her whereabouts remain shrouded in mystery, her friends profess to be clueless, the police continue to comfort and, in Ninas view, underperform deplorably. No choice then but for Nina to pick up the slack, since its clear to her, at least, that something terrible has happened, that the clock is not her friend and that she herself constitutes Charlies best chance. Strong, resourceful and, yes, scared silly, she knocks on doors, experiences the unkindness of certain strangers - whose detachment amounts to cruelty - but at last uncovers something that matters, something frightening, true, but revealing: Charlies abandoned bike. The police become serious now, even more so when suddenly forced to confront the possibility that Charlies disappearance might be linked to an earlier disappearance - another missing teenager, a friend of Charlies, found murdered.Though one or two plotlines remain dangling at the end, oh how the story grabs. (Kirkus Reviews)