I have been wanting to read the Maud O’Connor mysteries series by Nicci French since I loved their Freida Klein series and finally had the will to pick it up a couple of days ago.

The first book in this series is called Has anyone seen Charlotte Salter? And is about a woman disappearing into thin air. I have to say that the story was very long. Part one takes place in the time of the disappearance and the weeks after which weren’t that eventful. Part two is 30 years later, when two middle aged man start a podcast about what happened 30 years prior and how nothing has been solved yet and part 3 is where Maud makes her entrance, which in my opinion took too long.

PART ONE;
Today is their father’s fiftieth birthday and the party venue is all done up and ready; it’ll be held in an old barn and about a hundred people will be coming to celebrate with us. Ettie arrives with her friends; the idea being letting herself be seen by her parents and then go to another party with her friends. But after an hour at her father’s party, her mother Charlotte still hasn’t arrived and Ettie gets nervous, a bit panicked even. Her mother is never late, she should’ve been here before the party started. After asking around it becomes clear that her mother never showed. Her oldest brother Paul has already gone home so, she decides to walk up the road to a phone box and phone home to ask if mum might be there; but she isn’t. Then the police are called to let them know their mother is missing.

Nobody has seen Charlotte Salter since just before the party, there hasn’t been a body found and the police aren’t actively looking. Paul has been making a missing person’s poster to tack on trees because surely someone knows something… Niall and Ollie think the idea is a waste of time and money but Ettie agrees; Maybe someone knows something and they’ll get a call. Mr. Ackerley, Mason and Greggs dad came round on Christmas, inviting them for lunch over at his place. Leaving the house and get a proper meal in. Hours later when Ettie is at the Ackerley residence she goes out with Gregg, looking for his dad only to find him dead in the water.

The police close the case saying; Mr. Ackerley killed Charlotte and then killed himself because he couldn’t live with himself.

PART TWO;
Thirty years later and the band is together again, well almost. Paul has taken his own life, Niall still lives in his hometown whilst Ellie has moved to London and eventually became a lawyer and Ollie has been moving around, but they’re back in their parents’ house because it needs to be cleared out. Their father, Alec has dementia and will move to a care facility within weeks. Not really up for the job since it’s way too much to look through Ettie hires someone to remove everything from the house.

Mason and Gregg are also back in town because Mason had the idea of making a podcast on what happened 30 years ago, hopeful that something will come of it. Someone that remember something different, clear their father’s name. There are so many people that want to talk on the podcast but, the people Mason wants to talk to decline to be on it. The person hired to clear the house has also been on and told them that she found Charlotte’s diary and there is some telling secret in there. Within hours of airing, her house burned down and she died of severe burns.

PART THREE;
The police department seems incompetent in doing their job properly. Never securing the crime scene of the crime that has just taken place. No, they botched the cases from 30 years prior also.
Enter Maud; a DI from London being assigned to this team that isn’t welcoming at all and where the men seem to have problems with female authority. They have Ettie in custody; why? A killer always comes back to the scene of the crime. While in all honesty, Ettie wanted to go to Becky to ask about her mother’s diary but saw smoke when she came close, even calling 911 and running towards a burning body and trying to extinguish the flames with her own body, getting severe burns herself.

Maud is nothing if not thorough and gets things done, even with the lack of trying from the team.

Will she solve these cases? The one that happened now but also the ones that happened 30 years prior?

I’m giving this book a ⭐⭐⭐,5 rating. Way too many pages and it was to slow. I started with book two but that will be a DNF.