Engrossing and complicated story.A body is discovered and DNA links to one family.The murder happenied years ago and there is much to unravel before the truth is revealed.

This was a good and intriguing story but did find the beginning and ending a bit drawn out, there are also lot of characters introduced in one go,it is a story of who you trust and who you think you know and what happens when that is questioned

Another fantastic story from Susan Lewis! She is certainly a well-respected master when it comes to writing suspenseful family drama - although in the case of The Lost Hours, it was more like a family’s worst nightmare.

This was a real ‘whodunnit’ with so many twists and turns in the plot. A good pace and a complex storyline which clearly portrays the author’s skilful research and writing.

Thank you to the publisher, HarperCollins for an advance digital copy of this book via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

David Cracye has the perfect marriage to his wife Annie . Along with his three children and a succeesful business they have it all.
Then one day his 16 year old daughter Sienna gets arrested after being silly and caught stealing a teddy bear.
When she is taken to the police station her DNA shows up to that of a young girl who was murdered 20 years ago. This blows the family apart.
This book keeps you guessing right the way through it is a great, gripping thriller which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. xx

The book begins with a murder.

The drama, palpable from the get go.

Karen Lomax, who is teenage girl, went missing and has now been found murdered. The police have their suspicions but struggle to find the evidence needed to convict anyone for the crime.

Fast forward a twenty years and we are introduced to the Crayce's and their extended family. All seem normal, like the perfect family really. That is until Annie and David's daughter Sienna makes an unfortunate mistake of bowing to peer pressure and getting herself in trouble with the law.

The police take her DNA and she hopes that is as far as it goes as no further charges are made. But sadly for her, the DNA is the start of the re-opening of Karen Lomax's case when a familiar DNA matches the one that was found in her underwear when her body was discovered.

That means that the murderer could be Sienna's dad (David), her Uncle Henry or her Grandad Dickie (Henry and David's dad).

As things start to crumble around this once tight knit family, more than one secret is revealed.

I was invested from start to finish. And just when I thought I had it all worked it, everything changed. All I can say is that it is surprising/shocking just how far people will go to get the lives they've always dreamed of.

The Lost Hours is a brilliantly in-depth crime novel that is devastatingly dark and gritty. Showing that one small mistake can have disastrous knock on effects.

Once you start this book, you will not want to put it down.

The Lost Hours by Susan Lewis was based on a good premise but veered around a bit to throw a few red herrings our way. Overall decent characters but somehow the flow of the book didn’t seem quite right to me. I could understand the family business element with frequent family interactions but not that every revelation or police investigation was done in front of the whole extended family. It was an interesting premise re the evidence. The memory blank was a big difficult to swallow. Overall a fairly decent three star read

Another enjoyable read from Susan Lewis. Always a reliable author for a cracking good story.
Very readable as a strong family story. I did find that one or two of the characters were a little on the pretentious side, especially the children. I felt that their characters were not really typical of their age group.
However apart from that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you

Susan lewis is a master story-teller!

Given recent events the beginning of this book is hard to read. A young woman abused and murdered if tough going at the best of times.

The book is slightly slow to begin with, although the characterisation is brilliant and the building of the plot all becomes clear in the second half which is gripping.

A complex web of trauma, human emotion, relationships and loneliness. A brilliant read with a great cameo by Andee Lawrence.

I also liked the subtle inclusion of covid, it’s hard to write current stories without mentioning, but I liked that this wasn’t dominated by it.

A good read, very much whodunnit mystery..With the advances in Scientific research in DNA, an unresolved murder is revisited.
DNA evidence has turned up and is linked to a murder 22years ago. It is either David or his brother or father.
Another fantastic novel by Susan Lewis. She never fails to deliver

Thanks to#NetGalley for the advance copy in return for an honest review

September 1999, 17yo Karen Lomax has vanished from her home, a call in from a local builder advises of a body found on there site, dread builds for DCI Underwood certain that it is Karen.

Fast forward... December 2019, due to an unforeseen incident, happily married David Crayce is now the main suspect in a twenty year old murder case due to dna evidence. The Lost Hours told mainly from present day, from various perspectives, to the odd flashbacks of Karen back in 1999. There are times David himself can't recall, so is uncertain himself if it was him. Will they find out the truth??

A good read, very much whodunnit mystery... family members doubting each other, whispers leaving questions, do you know more... I found it a slow burner, but definitely a should read.

I do enjoy a cold case, and this novel has an ingenious, shocking plot. With the advances in Scientific research in DNA, an unresolved murder is revisited. It’s a complex situation of familial DNA with three Crayke family suspects in the equation. The family members and the police consider someone is disingenuous. There is only the compromising DNA sample, no other clues or red herrings, so you are on your own figuring out the perpetrator. There are some compelling sub-themes on class distinction, the military and the side-effects of PTSD; a sharp, daunting insight. Trust issues come to the fore when the bombshell hits the family. How strangely forgiving, accepting, and selfless the wives are about their spouses’ past and present indiscretions. Infidelity usually points to weakness and flaws in the character, yet they seemed to be dismissed as “acceptable.” Class distinction? The inter-relationships of the extended family set-up fascinated me and was heavily thought-provoking. I wasn’t always convinced they were as genuine as they appeared on the surface with all the simmering undercurrents. That was brought out so skilfully. Can the detectives get a handle on this case and solve it? There are a heap of unanswered questions left to the readers' imaginations. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for an excellent read. I can confidently recommend this novel.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for this amazing book

a childish prank results in an arrest of a teenager
a familiar dna match occurs on an old cold case from 20 years ago

3 men from the same family are suspects

its not going to end well

oh my word right from the first page i couldnt put this book down...so many red herrings but this author can spin a brilliant book

cant wait for the next one from this author who is fast becoming a favourite

Annie and David Crayce have a thriving business, three children and a very happy marriage. One silly mistake by their daughter and their world is turned upside down.
DNA evidence has turned up and is linked to a murder 22years ago. It is either David or his brother or father.
Something happened at a party they were all at but were so drunk no-one can remember who was there or what happened. The police are convinced it is David but there isn't enough evidence until someone's alibi doesn't check out.

Annie and David Crayce are well settled in their very happy marriage. They have everything they want in life and are the ‘Golden Couple’, the envy of everyone who meets them. They live in a gorgeous, spacious house set within really beautiful scenery. Their business is lucrative and David has worked very hard to achieve the success he so richly deserves. Yes, life has been good to them and they are thankful for all they have, but most of all for their three lovely children and their good luck.
Then their perfect life is smashed into smithereens in the blink of an eye. David is questioned as part of the investigations into an historic cold case murder of a local teenage girl who disappeared decades ago. New scientific developments, namely the emergence of Deoxyribonucleic acid, has emerged as the years passed by, and it appears that David is linked to the crime by his familial DNA. He is very shocked and categorically denies everything that points to him as a suspect. His lawyers work hard to prove that he is innocent but it is beginning to look like an impossible task to prove his innocence.
Annie, a committed diarist, is urged to look back in her old diary of 20 years ago, buried somewhere in their loft space. She trusts David unconditionally and prays that her diary will help to prove that he is innocent. But if David is innocent then that means that his father or brother must be guilty. Semen collected as evidence when the local girl was discovered does not tell lies. She is full of anxiety and suspicion, but cannot imagine anyone in her family is involved.
The ongoing police investigation gathers momentum and it is soon evident that a few missing hours need to be accounted for. Annie is desperate to have her husband back home amongst his loved ones without his good name being sullied. Can she provide concrete evidence that will secure David’s freedom, and if she is able what else could she possibly discover?
With a complex storyboard and plenty of twist and turns this ‘Whodunit’ will keep you on the edge of your seat. Even Annie began to wonder if the charges against David could be true. I was in a quandary too, trying to work out who the murderer was. I enjoyed the story with all its complexities and never once guessed what had really happened. Susan Lewis has to be commended for her meticulous research offered into her story. She is a prolific, well respected and creative author with many outstanding novels to her name as well as memoirs. Her excellent storytelling is masterful, full of suspense, suspicions and dead leads. I enjoyed her closely connected characters, all relatives of David and Annie.
I was delighted to receive a copy of this novel through my membership of NetGalley and from publisher HarperCollins, sent to me in return for an honest review. This is not my favourite of her novels but nonetheless it was a pleasant read, providing me with many happy hours of reading. It is a 3.5*review from me.

Another fantastic read from Susan. This is a nail biting story that totally bamboozled me as I tried to work out whodunnit! I was surprised by the finale. Very clever and well written this should be a must read.

This was a great read. So much happened, it was long, very long actually, but I didn't mind at all, it meant it kept me engrossed for longer. There were so many twists and turns. I was gripped from very early on right up until the last page. This story revolves around 3 generations, the members of the Crayce family but it mainly hones in on David, Annie and their 3 children. When their 16 year old daughter has an altercation with the law the Crayce family inadvertently discover that there is a link between David's DNA and a murder from 20 years before. While David seems to know nothing about any murder we soon discover that there are many secrets which gradually reveal themselves.

Susan Lewis has done a great job with the writing and I thought the plot was very cleverly done with plot twists that kept you guessing to the very end. Yes, the start was a little slow with the pace only really picking up after the 20% mark. But, after this point the storyline really gets interesting and gripping, and my predictions of the ‘whodunnit’ was so wrong.

One of my major struggles was with keeping up with the characters. I didn’t have a problem with the characters themselves but the amount of them. There were so many characters that I struggled to keep up with the names of them all and it started to get really confusing as to who was who and who was in a relationship with each other, especially when the storyline jumped between past and present times. At times I ended up rereading sections, which slowed me down in getting to the end to find who the perpetrator actually was. Saying that overall I thought characters were really well done. They were all very individual in their own way and full of depth. Most of them are believable and likeable, although at times they were a little annoying.

After the initial slow start this turned out to be a really good read and is worth sticking with. I think that this book would make a great TV series. One that I would be happy to watch. This is a great book for anyone looking for a family based psychological thriller.

I would like to thank Rachel Quin at HarperFiction for getting in touch and inviting me to read this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Another masterpiece from Susan Lewis. It would make an excellent plot for the series Unforgotten. An unsolved crime from many years previously is suddenly brought to the police’s attention when familial DNA is found that matches DNA from the case involving a murdered teenager.
I love how the story gradually unfolded and the players in the crime from all those years ago - gradually drawn together.
It’s pacy and captivating. I was sure I knew what the outcome would be - actually, didn’t see that coming!
As always with Ms Lewis’ books, unputdownable and you just get drawn into the scenario of ‘just another page’ which turns into ‘just another chapter’.
Loved it. A real must read. Can’t wait for her next book to come out.

After a slow start, The Lost Hours becomes a totally compelling read.
The Crayce family’s privileged lives are thrown into chaos when one of them is implicated in a cold-case murder, but which one? A very cleverly written psychological thriller, the list of suspects grows as we are given well timed snippets of information, each snippet sending you on a different train of thought, with a new suspect.

I enjoyed the book so much that I read it in just a few hours, unable to put it down and I will definitely be reading more books by Susan Lewis. 4.5*

With thanks to NetGalley, Susan Lewis and Harper Collins UK for the ARC.

Susan Lewis always delivers a good read, with thought provoking elements - how much do you trust your loved ones? What happens when that trust is tested? Nice to have the continuity of familiar locations and characters, though Andee Lawrence has a lesser part in this novel.