Book #17 Dear Amy

Dear Amy by Helen Callaghan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Recent publications are peppered with psychological thrillers, a favourite genre of mine. I spotted Dear Amy in Waterstones; it sounded good and had many positive reviews and so I bought a copy of this debut thriller by Helen Callaghan. For the most part I am not difficult to please but for some reason Dear Amy did not resonate with me. It is well written and Callaghan has clearly done her homework concerning psychosis, PTSD, fugues, etc. much of which forms the background to the plot.

The key protagonist is Margot Lewis, agony aunt of the 'Dear Amy' advice column in the local Cambridge press. She becomes dismayed when receiving a letter purporting to be from Bethan Avery, who went missing as a young girl some twenty years ago. The letter must be a hoax? Further letters arrive, which happen to follow the disappearance of another teenager, Katie Browne. Lewis is convinced that the girls' disappearances are connected. Unlike the police she becomes consumed with finding the sender.

Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, yes and no for me. Whilst the plot is full of twists and turns there were many occasions when I just became irritated with Margot and the dreamscapes she experiences, which do provide clues to her real identity, although at times I found myself muttering "do get on with it" and, indeed, the last 50 pages or so do rack up the tension.

Thinking of other psychological thrillers I have read recently Dear Amy gets 3.5 stars from me.



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