A Gingerbread House by Catriona McPherson

 

Four women are linked in a mystery.  The first three, Ivy, Martine and Laura have all been tricked into a kidnapping and are imprisoned in a basement, slowly getting closer to death every day they are there.  Ivy thought she was finding her long-lost sister while Martine hoped to meet her father who was never in the picture.  Laura thought she was coming to a dance where she would meet a man who was looking for marriage.  They were all tricked by the same middle-aged women who now keep them prisoners.  They share the fact that there were all independent businesswomen who worked from home and who didn't have support systems ready to make their cases in the newspapers and media and push the police to keep investigating their disappearances.

Tash Dodd is a different story.  She works at her family's business, a transport business.  When she finds out that things are going on that aren't legal and that everyone in the family knows except her, she leaves while she works out what to do.  While she is gone, she stumbles on the story of the missing women and starts to work out how they are all related.

This is my first Catriona McPherson novel, but it won't be my last.  I listened to it and the Scottish accent of the narrator made it seem more settled in that location.  It was a story most women can relate to, especially any woman living by herself.  Do any of us have enough people to keep us safe from harm or to refuse to let a disappearance die from lack of attention?  The true story of what was happening to these women is a nightmare although their strength of character and the friendship that grows between them is their strongest tool.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

T