#BlogTour ‘Find Her First’ by Emma Christie

About the book…

Where is Stef Campbell? And who can be trusted to bring her home?
Paramedic Andy Campbell has a secret he can’t tell anyone, not least the police.

But when his missing wife’s image is found at the home of a suspected killer, detectives start asking questions, and they’re not the only ones . . .

The race for the truth leads them far from their Edinburgh home – but who will find her first, and will they save her life or take it?

Enormous thanks to Maddie at Welbeck Publishing for inviting me on the blogtour for the rather splendid, ‘Find Her First’ by Emma Christie which is out from January 20th!

This is a novel which takes the archetypal psychological thriller, flips it over and re-writes in a way that will pull your heart out by the final page and leave you sobbing.

That might just be me, the crying part, but honestly I felt played the entire time and I was not even mad, so caught up was in in just what had happened, and the reasons why.

Betty is a woman who cleans for the principle characters, Andy and Stef, a woman who is barely registering on anyone’s radar, and yet, becomes the fulcrum of the plot in this whoddunit, which leans into becoming  a ‘whydunnit’ then a ‘omgdidthatactuallyjusthappen’ .

She leaves pennies everywhere she goes, collecting them carefully and leaving them precisely where she means to, to maximise the fortune giving potential of the humble penny. It is one remainder of a fractured childhood, marked with sadness and neglect-find a penny, pick it up and all the day you’ll have good luck-and shows just what a humble and wonderful person Betty is that in spite or where she came from, where she is going is to create good things through her actions, whether it is leaving Andy and Stef’s home spotless, or trying to solve the mystery of where Stef has disappeared to. She has almost adopted this couple who live a quiet life, Stef currently off work as a paramedic and rediscovering her arty side , and Andy, running into the situations which so many others would run away from in his job on the same team as Stef.

His childhood has informed his career choice, his quite normal child actions during a moment when he was left in charge of his baby sister, which were not his fault, has led him to do his utmost to save the lives of others. There are some fantastic descriptive passages where his emotional and neurological reactions to hearing sirens really give you a clear insight into his mind, and why and how he does the job that he loves.

His wife, Stef, has gone somewhere, we the readers are not sure where, but the sinister undertones of his conversations with sister in law, Alison, lead us to believe that foul play has occurred.

But whilst Andy and Betty are completely on the edge of their nerves, and you are anxious to find out what has happened to Stef, a complete curveball is thrown when a detective knocks on the door, asking to speak to Stef. Her i.d card has been found in a most unexpected place and now that the police have reasons to be concerned for her welfare, the clock is ticking over who will find Stef first.

The place it is set in, Edinburgh, has a plot line all of its own as does the moral versus ethical nature of saving the life of someone who does not want saving-being there at a crucial point between life and death, taking action or not, has consequences which can be as unforeseen as picking up a random penny.

The book can be read and enjoyed on so many levels, it is unbearably tense as your perspectives whiplash depending on who is narrating which chapter, this is a outrageous mashing of the reader’s emotions and I couldn’t have loved it more. I LOVE being wrong footed, gasping out loud, and being so wrought by the conclusion of a book that I wander the house , speechless. This is not to say I waft around from wing to wing, we live in a very small social housing home, so it is the equivalent of sitting on the stairs just saying ‘Why?’ an awful lot. It gives you the best kind of book hangover where you need a day before picking up another book and it honestly caught me out so many times, I just loved it. Highly, highly recommended!

About the author…

Emma Christie grew up in a book-filled house in Cumnock, an Ayrshire coal-mining town.

After quitting her law degree to study English literature and medieval history at Aberdeen University, she spent five years working as a news reporter with one of the UK’s top-selling regional daily newspapers, The Press and Journal.

Throughout her journalism career, she secretly wanted to be every author she ever interviewed.

When she’s not writing, Emma now works as a tour director and lecturer in history, culture and politics with a US travel company, leading educational journeys across Spain, France and Portugal.

She can often been found in Portobello, Edinburgh’s captivating seaside community, but lives in Barcelona with her girlfriend, María Jose, and far too many plants.

Links-https://www.emmachristiewriter.com/