Tammy Cohen – First One Missing – Scottish Crime Fiction Blogger and Author

A psychological thriller centred around a club that nobody wants to join. A club for parents of murdered children.
First one Missing starts with the murder of a little girl, Poppy Glover. It then focuses on the fractured relationships left behind when a child is taken in such a cruel way. Poppy’s wasn’t the first murder and we get to see inside the support group for the parents – Megan’s Angels. Intertwined are the family liaison officers assigned to each of the families and a press hungry to keep the story in the news..represented by Sally Freeland..a journalist who appears to have few morals.
This is a psychological thriller but not based on police procedure or the act of murder itself – but the tensions and the chasms of relationships of those left behind. We get an insight into how each family is affected and how they turn to each other for support and understanding. We have sympathy for the parents but also a frustration at their lack of understanding of each other and of the siblings left behind. A page turning thriller kept me glued til the end. My first Tammy Cohen book…but it won’t be my last.