Review by Amanda. The Missing Hours by Emma Kavanagh. 4 Tea Cups!

The Missing Hours
By: Emma Kavanagh
Genre: Mystery

A woman disappears

One moment, Selena Cole is in the playground with her children and the next, she has vanished without a trace.

A woman returns

Twenty hours later, Selena is found safe and well, but with no memory of where she has been.


What took place in those missing hours, and are they linked to the discovery of a nearby murder?


‘Is it a forgetting or a deception?’

Review by Amanda

4 Tea Cups

Emma Kavanagh is one heck of an author! There is something about her novels that are so different and feel so real. 

The Missing Hours is about a woman, Selena Cole, who vanishes. She returns the next day, the same as she was, but she doesn't remember what happened during those missing hours. During the same time, solicitor Dominic Newell was found murdered. The two cases don't seem to have anything in common, but DC Leah Mackay thinks differently. 

Most of the novel in either Leah's perspective or her brother's, DS Finn Hale. You connect a lot more about the siblings then those involved in the disappearance and the murder. I really liked Leah and Finn, they seem like normal, good people who really devote themselves to their jobs. 

Selena Cole is a whole other mystery. You learn about Selena through cases that her and her dead husband use to work on. Selena and Ed Cole seemed to be an unstoppable power couple. They ran their own kidnapping and ransom negotiation agency, which is to work with families and the police to negotiation with those who have kidnapped their loved ones. They seemed unstoppable. That was until Ed Cole was killed during an earthquake. Selena has never been the same since and she is having problems raising her two girls and being committed to her company. 

I really enjoyed reading the cases written by Ed Cole. I haven't read too much about how to negotiate with the kidnappers, so I found it really interesting. Each case was also a mini story inside of the novel, so I found myself getting a connection with those inside the cases. 

Overall, I just loved the novel and how it came together. There was so many different pieces and it was amazing how they all connected. 

My only problem with the novel was the ending. The novel just ended! I had thought that my copy was missing the last chapter. I really like it when novels wrap up nicely (unless there is a series). However it doesn't look like there will be a sequel, so I'm left with that unfinished ending. 

I would highly recommend The Missing Hours and Emma Kavanagh's novels to those who want a different style of mystery with different perspectives that come together at the end. 

Thank you Netgallery for the ARC!

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Buy Link:

Amazon- Missing Hours