Anything For Her – Jack Jordan

Psychological Thriller
3*s

We meet Louise Leighton when she is in the depths of despair. She knows that her husband Michael is having an affair with her sister and they are about to lose everything and then her eighteen year old daughter Brooke goes missing! Did she leave of her own accord or has someone taken her against her will? The main part of the story is told in the present tense and concentrates on the search for Brooke although we do get some glimpses of life before everything went wrong.

Louise’s dilemma is a really tough one. If the police are going to find Brooke then the secret that the pair have been keeping for the last year will have to be revealed. Michael, is in the dark about whatever happened one night that changed his wife to a shell of herself and simultaneously has caused his once outgoing daughter into a withdrawn introverted young woman. This now dysfunctional family has only one member who appears normal and that is Brooke’s brother Dominic who is protective of both his mother and sister.

There is plenty of tension in this book especially as Louise is sure that she is being watched, she keeps getting strange, and by strange, I mean really strange, gifts left for her to find. Someone is coming into her house and she isn’t able to ask for help because, yes you’ve guessed it, the secret will be revealed.

So with such a set-up the secret needs to be a good one and I’m pleased to report that when it was finally revealed I could understand Louise’s insistence to keep it to themselves, although my guess was fairly close to what happened. Unusually for me the fact that I didn’t really warm to any of the main characters was slightly problematic, although I was marginally more sympathetic to Brooke’s plight than Louise’s. My feelings about the characters meant that I wasn’t entirely convinced by some of their actions at times. For example we are told why Michael had the affair, but this seemed overly simplistic, and besides if he had been the man Louise claimed he was then ether surely there were other options! To be fair some of the other suspect behaviour was explained by the parts of the story that were told from before that fateful night and this is a tale where it will work as long as you go with the flow – unfortunately I had to many breaks in between my reading which perhaps gave me too much time to question rather than simply enjoy.

I wouldn’t recommend this book for those of a sensitive nature, there were times when the crudeness of the language seemed just a bit too much, which had the effect of breaking the tension, but this may be down to my personal taste. None of this can take away the sense of terror particularly as the ending nears, by this time I was on the edge of my seat!

This was an enjoyable read with plenty of action so perfect for reading in as short a space of time as possible and at the moment it is available on kindle for the bargain price of 99p.

I am very grateful to the author for giving me a copy of this book for review purposes. Anything for Her was published on 21 June 2015.