Review: The Missing Years

The Missing Years by Lexie Elliott
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

An atmospheric mystery set in Scotland, The Missing Years is centered around a historic manor and Ailsa Calder, who has inherited half of it. Ailsa brings her half sister with her to the mansion and the two begin exploring the mansion and the occupants of the small town.

The mystery elements were great- they border the edge of supernatural and the novel keeps you guessing if there is truly something paranormal going on or not.

The novel fails in the pacing and the character development. I wasn't engaged by the townies/side characters and lost interest, which was ill-advised since those characters ended up being key players in the end. The novel began slow but gained some traction as weird things began happening in the house. Unfortunately, that momentum was lost by the middle of the book and I muddled slowly through the rest to the end.

The magical realism piece of this novel was probably the coolest angle, but wasn't fully developed and therefore was overlooked in the midst of the other things happening.

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