I haven't read a Susan Lewis book in a while until this one and it's made me question why? I have enjoyed many of her books in the past and this one is no exception. A gripping page-turner.

I loved The Lost Hours! I wasn’t too keen on the main characters at first, but once it got going I couldn’t wait to find out what happened to the missing girl, and how it was connected to the family. Once I was invested in the story, I began to like the characters and I wanted things to work out for them even though it seemed impossible. Definitely worth a read.

Another great book from Susan Lewis, with lots to keep your interest and great characters.

A few too many characters for me to be honest, including the mention of a few superfluous ones with fleeting mentions, who really didn't need to be there.

This book was helped by Andee Lawrence not putting in an appearance until a good half way through it and Kesterley on Sea not being mentioned too many times even though it remained the location for this novel.

I would love to see a new novel by this author set elsewhere and with totally new characters not the same ones constantly reappearing. She is a fantastic writer and creates great stories, tension and twists, but the same location and characters are getting a bit dull now in my opinion.

I don't suppose it will stop me reading the next one though!

Thank you to NetGalley for an early review copy.

The Lost Hours is as twisty a psychological thriller as you can find! After Annie and David's daughter, Sienna, finds herself in a bit of trouble with the police, their entire world comes crumbling down in the most unimaginable way.

It’s been twenty years since seventeen-year-old Karen Lomax disappeared and was subsequently found dead in 1999 and everyone accepted that her murderer may never be found… until David’s DNA comes to match that of her suspected killers. I really enjoyed the angle Lewis took with making it seem as though David was to blame for the death. Reading as all the characters started to cast doubt on each other made this a riveting book and easily kept you hooked. I felt like I was constantly second-guessing myself when trying to guess who the killer was.

The Crayce family seem to have an idyllic life – obviously before this crime is pinned on certain members. They’re tight-knit and hard workers at their family-run-and-owned shooting school. While I felt bad for Annie when her world was shattered with the revelation that David could have murdered this girl, I felt most sorry for their children, Sienna and Max. Not only were they terrorised at school once the news about their dad’s arrest broke on social media, but they also had to deal with the fact that they could lose him forever. Plus, there was no way of knowing if he committed the horrendous crime or not.

Since Sienna’s DNA being taken, due to a brush with the law, was the reason for David being blamed it wasn’t hard to understand her anguish when she then blamed herself for their lives being ruined. At that moment, I really felt for her because she’s just a child who made a stupid mistake and yet, was taking the enormity of this far more serious crime on her shoulders. Needless to say, she wasn’t alive when it took place so obviously, was not in any way involved in it.

Truly, the characters that broke my heart the most were Karen’s parents, Jess and Eddie. Losing their daughter so young is a pain no parent wants to ever experience. However, they handle it with such dignity and grace even when their baby was so cruelly taken from them. I might even wish we’d gotten to read more about them.

The Lost Hours was honestly the first psych thriller that I’ve read in a while where I hadn’t worked out the ending at least three chapters before the end of the book. Lewis has really written a brilliant book. My only niggle with it was the beginning as I felt the descriptions of the characters went on for too long. Personally, I like to dive right into the action and felt the start was lacking excitement.

I give The Lost Hours a rating of 4/5 stars. The majority of the book was engaging and kept me guessing, but the slow start was a slight let-down.

Susan Lewis is back with another wonderful read, perfect for the bank holiday weekend. The central characters in The Lost Hours are the Crayce family. On paper they have a charmed life. David and Annie have three wonderful children, they own a very successful business, their mortgage is paid and they remain deeply in love with each other. Life is great until suddenly it isn’t. A piece of DNA has been collected which links the three male Crayces to a cold case – the murder of a seventeen year old girl twenty years ago. This sets the family reeling, the evidence is there but how could it possibly be any of their loved ones. No one wants to think any of their family members could be guilty but little niggles and doubts start to form.

This is a really great idea for a storyline – mixing modern policing with a family drama and all of the emotional and ethical issues which come with the accusation. I liked how we had a decent introduction to the family and their lifestyle from the start so had the opportunity to get to know them before everything went awry! It was interesting to see how Annie and Julia in particular reacted to different aspects of the investigation. On occasion I’m felt a bit concerned that there was more concern about saving face rather than get to the bottom of an unsolved murder.

Aside from the family aspect of the storyline, there are questions to be asked about the overall investigation. As a cold case it will always be more challenging but it seems that perhaps things were not as well investigated at the time as they could have been.

The Lost Hours is an absorbing read which, like many of Susan’s books, will give you a lot to think about. I’d recommend this as a Book Club read because there is so much to discuss and many different aspects to explore! I’ve said it before but I am always in awe of how Susan continues to have such good ideas for storylines after so many books! Another great read, definitely check it out!

A good book, decent plot and characters that develop well and kept me entertained. Not her best work, but enjoyable nonetheless. A great summer read!

A fab premise and a really engaging book, although a little long-winded in places. I'll definitely check out this author again

Another fantastic novel by Susan Lewis. She never fails to deliver. I love how the story gradually unfolds and the background of the family members are gradually drawn together. I was sure I knew what the outcome would be but no, I didn’t see that coming!
Thanks to#NetGalley for the advance copy in return for an honest review

Another great read from Susan Lewis! A twisty, psychological murder mystery. The Crayce family, a tight-knit bunch, all of a sudden become part of a murder investigation and everyone is suspicious of each other. I suspected many different people throughout, constantly changing my mind with the different twists and turns. Susan has a special way of holding the reader’s attention and wanting to keep turning those pages! I really enjoyed getting to know all of the characters, even ones who we came across only briefly. A perfect family drama filled with lies, love, loss and friendship.

A rather complicated plot given that the crime occurred twenty years before the solving but that’s what DNA can do I guess.
Most of the characters were well developed although I did think the man “ posh lot” a bit too good to be true. That said the story was well told with an adequately surprising ending. Don’t want to give any of the secrets away so will just add that the last chapter for me was rubbish and added nothing realistic.

I have read and enjoyed many of Susan Lewis’s books and this latest one did not disappoint. The subject content is an interesting one. Well written, I felt great empathy with the characters and did not guess whodunnit! Thoroughly recommended.

Twenty years after an unsolved murder, a DNA match is made to the Crayce family. Annie is faced with the terrifying prospect that her husband, his brother or his father is guilty of rape and murder. As the net closes around her husband, she turns to investigator Andre Lawrence to try and unravel the secrets of that night.

I wanted to enjoy The Lost Hours and I’m glad that I persevered through the early chapters, which I felt were too busy, with character after character being introduced. I appreciate that the whole premise of the story is the closeness of the whole family, but there were just so many names being thrown into the mix that it was difficult to remember who they all were. Once the actual investigations got underway, then the story became much more enjoyable and readable.

Overall, a good story, with some interesting twists and turns along the way.

The Lost Hours is about a family who seem to have an ideal life that is until the police arrive at the door of Annie and David's house. A young girl was killed over 20 years ago and the suspect is David. We get to meet the whole family during the book who all seem nice loving people but are they? I found this book to be well written but a little drawn out and found myself skipping through some of the pages but it is well worth reading.

Annie and David have three children, are a hardworking couple with an idyllic lifestyle. Their life crashes down around them after their daughter Sienna gets into trouble with the police for a petty crime and has her DNA taken. As a result of this, David has been arrested for the murder of a teenager which took place over twenty years ago due to new scientific developments with DNA. David strenuously denies the charges and Annie tries to prove his innocence. Annie is torn and wonders herself about David’s innocence. The light is then shone on David’s brother and father. Secrets, lies, cover ups all feature heavily in this book.

This was my first Susan Lewis book, how had I not read any of hers before this. A fantastic read! My only criticism is I had to re-read the first few pages as I felt a lot of characters were introduced at the beginning.

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this book.

I completely connected with Annie, and believed in her.

Susan Lewis always writes with conviction and tells a wonderful tale.

Heart break, heart felt and heart hope...

Who doesn’t love a classic mystery with a phenomenal twist that will keep you up all night to finish and then wish you could read more.

Thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommended.

The prologue, set in 1999, begins with the discovery of a dead young girl who has been missing for a month.
Then we move to 2019 and the gentle introduction of a close and loving family which lulls the reader into a gentle novel set in rural surroundings. As the happy, loving and successful family have to deal with their eldest daughter going missing and getting into trouble, the pace moves up a notch.
From there the plot takes off at a run and the twists and turns are numerous.
Clever change of pace and an interesting read.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Susan Lewis/HarperCollins UK for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

The Lost Hours is a story of the perfect couple Annie and David and when a heinous crime of 20 years ago resurfaces it brings questions, doubts and suspicion in this perfect family of two couples David & Annie and Henry and Julia.

Like a family tree, the book establishes bonds and the love that exists in the family and gradually different kind of branches come out in this thriller.

The evidence and proof would be right in front of you but how the connection is made with a 20 year old crime is something that was a delight to find out.

The characters have their voice,their way of handling things and while some of them are wearing masks there are secrets that each of them have with them.

Connecting the dots in this book was lot of fun. It’s fast paced and you don’t get bored by the descriptive narrative.

If you like crime,thrillers and Family drama included you don’t want to miss out this book.

Another excellent story by this author!
It's gripping, entertaining and kept on the edge till the end.
Excellent storytelling and character development, a complex plot full of twists and turns.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I’ve often wondered how the use of DNA to link an individual to an historic crime affects the lives of those involved. There must be so many individuals walking around leading ordinary and successful lives as spouse, parent, business partner etc, knowing there’s a potential time bomb if advances in DNA technology ever catch up with them and link them to events from decades earlier.

Susan Lewis has absolutely nailed this nightmare scenario in The List Hours. It’s packed with suspense, every character is carefully detailed and even the investigating police officer has a back story to explore. The people seem so real; on the surface they have it all but little by little this carefully crafted veneer is peeled away and the rift lines are exposed. The plotting is incredible. Intricate and with so many surprises it’s literally breathtaking. I felt emotionally entangled fairly early on in this twisted tale, which is unusual but shows the strength of the writing. I haven’t read anything by this author, so I’ll be looking for more.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

The latest Susan Lewis is a little different, in that it has all the usual family drama, but with the added element of a police procedural. The Crace family live down in the south west of the country on the moors in Devon and come across as a very privileged family. The land they own encompasses three houses, two lots of stables, a farm, a ménage and a shooting school. The family businesses allow eldest brother David and his wife Annabelle to send their children to private school, holiday abroad every year and be the envy of the locals. David and his brother Henry grew up in the main house, and were the basis of a local social group ‘The Moorauders’. Good looking and well off, this pair were the catch of the county. It raised eyebrows, and tempers, when David married an outsider, Annabelle- known as Annie. However, she is now part of the furniture and an irreplaceable part of the family’s business empire looking after the admin for the shooting school, farm and Julia’s horse and donkey sanctuary. Julia is Henry’s second wife and is probably Annie’s best friend, often popping across for coffee or to ‘cocktail me up’ at the end of a hard day. From a distance this family has it all, but is everything as perfect as it seems? When David and Annie’s daughter Sienna is picked up by the police for shoplifting a teddy bear, an ugly truth at the centre of the Crayce family come to the fore.

Twenty years before, when David was engaged to Annie, the two brothers and their father went on an alcohol fuelled bender that ended in a party at the farmhouse. A few weeks later, local teenager Karen Lomax is found dead in an old railway carriage. A precocious teenager, who displayed a wild streak, died of a blow to the head and her murderer has never been found. Now that police have Sienna’s DNA sample, they are shocked to find a link to this old, unsolved case. One of the Crayce men left a trace of themselves behind, a sample of semen from Karen’s clothing shows a familial match to the Crayce’s. This puts David, Henry, and their father Dickie in the spotlight as suspects. Until their DNA is compared to the sample, the family will have to wait and in those two weeks, secrets and lies are revealed.

I found the novel a little slow at first, and having little patience with the champagne and pearls set, I found it hard to warm to the characters or their situation. So it really is down to the skill of this writer that I started to warm to Annie. I felt like she had gone through an awful lot with David, especially in the early years before the children. There were hints of psychological issues linked to this military service, which would have been around the time of the Balkan War. Annie describes sudden mood changes, a tendency to drink too much, nightmares and rages. While he had never physically hit her, she did worry about being in the wrong place when he had a nightmare. She had also struggled with his behaviour when drunk and there were even hints of his infidelity on these occasions. At the time of the farmhouse party they were very close to getting married, and there was a consensus in both families that if he messed up again she would call off the wedding. I felt like Annie was very used to listening to others, and making sure their needs were met, from the children and family to friends. Even her relationship with sister-in-law Julia is based very much on her arriving to have a drink and have her problems with Henry listened to. I kept waiting for her to have an epiphany and recognise her own needs in this nightmare, especially when the police’s focus starts to narrow.

My main focus was on the voice that felt absent from the tale and I think that was a deliberate choice on the part of the author. Murder victims don’t get to have a voice anymore and that’s what Lewis was trying to portray. The one person who had all the answers, couldn’t give them and had to rely on doctors and forensic experts to let us know what happened and at whose hands. However, we will never have her account or thought process and I really felt that absence, especially when old wine bar customers are saying she dressed provocatively or had fantasies that weren’t appropriate. Yet there isn’t the same disapproval of the much older men who recognised and took advantage of her open nature and strong sex drive. There’s a deeply sad moment when her father says that they still loved her anyway, despite her wild side. I wanted to take him aside and say ‘of course you did and you shouldn’t have to apologise for that’. There was some comparison between Annie and David’s daughter who was a similar age to Karen when she made her shoplifting mistake. The local police allowed her to apologise to the shopkeeper and make financial recompense. Her family connections seemed to let her off lightly. Would Karen have been offered the same way out, if she had made a similar mistake? Karen paid for her teenage mistakes with her life. I think Lewis was pointing out the gender differences and the class differences in these areas. David and Henry, and to some extent their father, were living a teenage life full of parties, alcohol and risky sex, but they weren’t censured by those around them. Their women tended to forgive them and they didn’t lose their social or financial standing locally. It isn’t just a question of gender, but highlights the difference between land and property owners, and those who live in the suburbs or the council estates.

Our other ‘outsider’ is DS Natalie Rundle, new to the area and having to hit the ground running with this unexpected cold case, suddenly becoming red hot. She isn’t local so she doesn’t have the same preconceptions or the same loyalties. Without her, this case might never be solved, because she asks the difficult questions and never rules anyone out. In fact I didn’t expect the outcome, so the author was able to surprise me. Though when I thought about the themes I’d pulled out of the narrative, such as class, difference and wanting to belong, it did seem to fit. I found this novel successful because it was the usual ‘Aga saga’ we expect from Lewis, but with some edge. It questions whether these perfect lifestyles can ever be that perfect behind the scenes. It shows that where there is an ‘in’ crowd, there are those longing to join or feeling they just don’t make the cut. She also identifies an exploitation of young women from outside the posh clique. I think this is why the chapters beyond the murderer being unmasked are so important. They’re about different elements in this community coming together, creating equality and for a teenager like Sienna to remember and honour a young girl who went before her. Yes, these conversations are uncomfortable, but there’s an element of owning past behaviour and trying to make amends. Forcing themselves to be uncomfortable is the only way change will happen. This element of justice having to be served in the community as well as court, was an interesting one and really gave this novel the edge for me.