Playdate by Alex Dahl

Published : 2nd October 2020

Publisher : Head of Zeus

Format : Kindle, Audio, Hardback

Genre : Thriller

* All words highlighted in Grey are affiliate links to either purchase from a range of sellers or links to the authors sites. Where ever possible I will try and provide different versions of the book on all purchase sites.

Synopsis

It was meant to be your daughter's first sleepover. Now it's an abduction.

Lucia Blix went home from school for a playdate with her new friend Josie. Later that evening, her mother Elisa dropped her overnight things round and shared a glass of wine with Josie's mother. Then she kissed her little girl goodnight and drove home.

That was the last time she saw her daughter.

The next morning, when Lucia's dad arrived to pick her up, the house was empty. No furniture, no family, no Lucia.

In Playdate, Alex Dahl puts a microscope on a seemingly average, seemingly happy family plunged into a life-altering situation.

Who has taken their daughter, and why?

Thank you @Midas and Sophie Ransom for this beautiful hardback copy

My Review

This story gripped me from the beginning. Elise and Frederik have a normal family, they have two young children Lucia and Lyder and both hold down full time jobs in an extremely safe neighbourhood. Upon picking Lucia up at school one afternoon her 7 year old begs to go over her new friends house, Reluctantly Elisa goes in to speak with the mother. Line seems very normal and polite so Elisa agrees. Later on Elisa is asked if Lucia can sleep over, It isn't completely unreasonable to allow your child to stay over a friends house last minute, kids harass and sometimes its easier to give in, Elisa goes to Lines house and drops off Lucias overnight bag, arrangements are made for her to be dropped off the next day.

Just as Elisa is getting off of work she suddenly gets an urgent call from her husband, Lucia hasn't been dropped off and he has tried everything but Lucia isn't at the house and the mother isn't answering the phone.

Knowing now that something sinister has happened to little Lucia I found myself totally engrossed with the story.

Elisa and Frederik are taken to the police station and the hunt begins to find there daughter. Their relationship is looked into at great depth and the cracks begin to show between the pair. It soon becomes clear that Lucia being taken is closer to home then they think.

Told over multi narratives the suspense is built in such a way that you fins your self tense with needing to know more a lot faster then you can read.

Why I Loved It

This story is cleverly positioned with the suspense, and I thought I knew the reason for Lucias disappearance quite early on, although I was wrong. It all started to come together in the last half, and I thought I finally had worked it out, then I was disappointed when I was wrong, yet again.

This was packed full of thrilling suspense and made me feel like I was constantly on the edge of my seat, every time I thought I had guessed the plot I was wrong.

Tense, dramatic and dark, I highly recommend this read.

Rating

★★★★☆

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Meet the author

Alexandria Bockfeldt Dahl (born 1982), known as Alex Dahl, is a Norwegian crime novelist who writes in the Nordic noir genre.

Her works have been translated into ten languages, and she was described by Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet in 2019 as a new star of Nordic noir literature.