BOOK REVIEW: Dear Amy by Helen Callaghan

Margot Lewis is the agony aunt for the Cambridge Enquirer. Her advice column, Dear Amy, gets all kinds of letters- but none like the one she's just received: Dear Amy, I don't know where I am. I've been kidnapped and am being held prisoner by a strange man. I'm afraid he'll kill me. Please help me soon, Bethan Avery. Bethan Avery has been missing for years. This is surely some cruel hoax: but as more letters arrive, they contain information that was never made public. How is this  happening? Answering this question will cost Margot everything...

Publisher: Michael Joseph

Pages: 400

I came across this book on Netgalley and I loved the simplicity of the cover and once I'd downloaded it I read it in just under two days.
Margot Lewis lives in Cambridge, she is a teacher at an exclusive girls school and in the midst of a rather messy divorce from her husband who slept with one of his work colleagues. On top of all this, Margot has a column in her local newspaper, entitled Dear Amy, it is an advice column and she is used to receiving all kinds of  letters. However when she opens this one from Bethan Avery she is shocked to the core as Bethan has been missing for years. Police believe that she was kidnapped and murdered, but her body has never been found. Coincidentally a girl from Margot's class has also gone missing; Margot can't help but feel it is somehow connected and she sets out to get to the bottom of it.
Dear Amy was such a good read, it is dark, gripping and extremely clever. Helen Callaghan is my new 'Queen of Plot Twists', the one at the end of this book totally floored me. I felt like I had just worked it all out when the rug was suddenly and spectacularly pulled from under my feet.
Helen Callaghan flits between Margot as a narrator and also Katie, the other girl who is missing. Katie's experiences at the hands of her captor are terrifying and he is a character that you quickly detest.
It is clear from the beginning that Margot Lewis is a character with many layers and it was fascinating to watch the author as she slowly revealed the details of her past whilst expertly tying all the strands of the story together.
I think that Dear Amy is going to get a lot of attention, it is one of the best books I have read so far in 2016.

Many thanks to Michael Joseph for allowing me to review this book via Netgalley. Dear Amy is due to be published on June 16th!