Title: The Girl in the Red Coat
Author: Katie Hamer
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
Age Group: Adult (18+)
Rating: 3,5 stars
Purchase: Amazon
She is the missing girl. But she doesn’t know she’s lost.
Carmel Wakeford becomes separated from her mother at a local children’s festival, and is found by a man who claims to be her estranged grandfather. He tells her that her mother has had an accident and that she is to live with him for now. As days become weeks with her new family, 8-year-old Carmel realises that this man believes she has a special gift…
While her mother desperately tries to find her, Carmel embarks on an extraordinary journey, one that will make her question who she is – and who she might become.
In The Girl in the Road Coat, while at a storytelling festival, Beth loses her daughter, Carmel Wakeford. Carmel soon finds herself living with strangers in a foreign country, with a man who claims to be her “grandfather”, while Beth desperately keeps looking for her daughter.
I thought the book would be a rather intense thriller – it isn’t, but it’s an equally interesting book all the same. Eight-year-old Carmel is anything but ordinary, and the chapters from her POV are really the most interesting ones. She’s highly intelligent especiallly for her age, and she’s one of the most unique characters I’ve ever read about.
More than about Carmel’s disappearance, it’s really about her connection with her mother. I found that a tad dissapointing – there is no real struggle in the book. Sure, Carmel is away from home, but no one is threatening her life, or even her well being. And it’s horrible for Beth, but I felt too distanced from her to really “get” how she felt. There’s no tension, as it’s pretty obvious what will happen to Carmel once she’s abducted.
Without tension, the book is an okay read at best. The writing is haunting and lyrical, which ups the rating from 3 to 3,5 stars, but I didn’t feel as engrossed inthe sotry as I could’ve been had the book been more tense.
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