Alice runs away from her home in America to become an au pair in Scotland. But a few weeks later, Alice has disappeared and Melanie is working under an assumed name to try to find out the truth…
The Au Pair is a psychological thriller set in Scotland.
Alice is 18 and knows her own mind. Her parents won’t let her go abroad with friends so she steals the money for her ticket and disappears. Her employment with the Davidson family is everything she hoped for despite a grumpy teen and a flirtatious uncle. So questions are asked when Alice disappears, apparently during a swim that she would neve have taken due to a childhood fear of water.
The book is written from Alice and Melanie’s perspectives. The chapters alternate so we see Alice’s experience and then Melanie’s attempts to uncover the truth. Alice’s voice sounds very young and I felt that the author had got into the mind of a headstrong teen very well. Meanwhile we know that Melanie is pretending to be someone else and looking for clues about Alice’s disappearance but what is their connection?
The prologue sets up the mystery of Alice’s apparent drowning. The Davidson family are not particularly nice and they are almost callous in their attitude at times. The mystery is sustained well and I enjoyed the way the two timelines are woven together.
The Au Pair is an enjoyable psychological thriller and mystery.
The Davidsons seem like a normal family. But they do have one little secret…
American student Alice Snyder was excited to be spending the summer in Scotland, working as an au pair for the Davidson family at their remote lodge.
But one month after she arrived, Alice disappeared without trace.
Now the new au pair, Melanie, has arrived – and soon notices that the Davidsons are a bit odd. There’s the strange comings and goings at night, the creepy paying guests, and sinister uncle Gray who makes her flesh crawl.
And then there’s the worrying scratch marks on the floor of the au pair’s bedroom.
Did Alice try to barricade herself in?
What could she have been so afraid of?
Are the Davidsons somehow linked to her disappearance?
And is Melanie herself now in danger?
As she desperately tries to find out what happened to Alice, Melanie begins to understand that this old house harbours a truly horrifying secret.
Alice was its last victim, but she might be its next…
Jane’s Bio
As a child, Jane spent a lot of time in elaborate Lego worlds populated by tiny plastic animals and people. Crime levels were high, especially after the Dragon brothers set themselves up as vets and started murdering the animals in their ‘care’. (They got away with it by propping the victims up with Plasticine and pretending they were still alive…)
As an adult, she is still playing in imaginary worlds and putting her characters through hell – but now she can call it ‘writing’ and convince herself that she is doing something sensible. In real life, she has a PhD in genetics and copy-edits scientific and medical journals.
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