Book Review - Here One Minute by Alex Lake

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Title: Here One Minute

Author: Alex Lake

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: HarperCollins

Publication Date: 24th October 2024

Rating: 5 Stars

Now you see her…

Julia Miller puts her teenage daughter on a plane, secure in the knowledge that she will see her again in a few days.

Now you don’t…

But when the plane lands, Anna is nowhere to be seen. She definitely got on the flight, but then she just…vanished.

Is she gone forever?

Julia’s world is about to be rocked. Because when the truth comes about what’s really happened to Anna, nothing will ever be the same again. And time is running out to save her daughter…

Fans of Alex Lake are in for a treat – although Here One Minute is a fully standalone story, devotees might recognise Anna from the author’s smash hit Top 10 Sunday Times bestseller After Anna!

Wow.  As I have come to expect from Alex Lake this was unputdownable.  I literally could barely be parted from my kindle as I was reading this. 

And although I had half a suspicion about one bit of this, the overall picture totally shocked me. 

To say there is a whole lot more to this than the blurb implies is an understatement.  It's layer on layer of deviousness, and shocks. 

And it's only just now as I'm writing this review I've realised that this is a follow on story from the only one of Alex Lake's books that I haven't read (although I do have a copy sitting in my bedroom), but it does mean I can safely say this is definitely a standalone and I didn't even get the feeling while reading that I was missing out on what I'm guessing is another cracking book. 

Back to Here One Minute and that is literally the case with 15 year old Anna - she definitely gets onto a plane, footage sees her getting off, but then she disappears into thin air from Manchester airport.  I mean with all the security at an airport how can someone just disappear. 

The writing style was fabulous. Lots of short chapters with a quick headline of sorts as to whet your appetite of just one more chapter syndrome, and these chapters were often separated into two or three sub parts all related.  It made it incredibly easy to read, and impossibly to put down. 

This was addictive, compelling and shocking and just totally brilliant. I couldn't have enjoyed it more. Just wow! 

Thank you to Harper Collins and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.