Sunday 1 March 2015

The Disappeared by Roger Scruton

23981537

From Goodreads

The Disappeared is a story of our times, of kidnap and rescue, of abuse and healing. It is the story of Stephen, a teacher whose love for the pupil who shares his dreams brings him face to face with ruin; of Sharon, the child of a feckless stepmother, and her criminal abusers; of Laura, the investigative high-flyer, now faced with rape and sexual slavery; of Justin, environmentalist and Heavy Metal fan, whose obsession with Muhibbah, rescued from forced marriage, spells disaster for them both.

It is the story of a police force fearful of charges of racism, and a social worker, Iona, expected to make a viable community from fragments that will not join.
 

With dizzying speed The Disappeared uncovers the chaotic underworld of a Yorkshire city, its characters eventually stumbling across one another in a single catastrophe. A victim may bring redemption: but who will it be?

My thoughts

9/10 from me.

This is the first book that I've read by this Author, it was well written and well thought out.

I found it a disturbing but compelling read about the dark side of humanity and the depraved world that we sadly live in. This book is definitely not a cosy story by any stretch of the imagination and I feel that it would make a great reading group read due to the nature of the subject.

It's a many layered story with quite a cast of characters, some nice and some definitely not so nice. As the scene is set we try to get our head round the cast of characters and who is who and what is what, as events are divulged to us and we begin to see how they might be linked. It does take a while but once things begin to settle down and we become engrossed in each and every different storyline it takes off at speed.

Dealing with immigrants, criminals, human trafficking, rape and many more disturbing topics you can see it's not an easy read at all.

Personally I enjoyed the storyline between the teacher and pupil, without going in to too much detail and in order not to give away any spoilers, things are not always what they seem at first. Why are people so quick to judge others and their actions?

This book has recently been published and my thanks go to the Publishers and NetGalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This story will definitely stay with me for some time and was my cracker of the month for February. Thoroughly recommended to others but tread with some caution.

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