Poor Phoebe...poor Molly

Title: The Wrong Girl
Author: Laura Wilson
ISBN: 978-1-4450-5108-6
Rating: 6/10
Genre: Thriller, Murder, Mystery, Adult Fiction

Following my first audiobook which I took out from the local library, I wanted another. I selected this audiobook because I was interested in the thriller aspect. I wanted to know if 10-year-old Molly was, in fact, the missing Phoebe Piper who had disappeared 7 years previously at the age of 3.


The book starts with a Prologue of Dan discussing his car journey. He is stressed and frantic as he is driving, already drunk from the whisky he has been drinking. Next, we go to Molly who is in Dan's bedroom while he is sleeping hunched over his desk. Or so she thinks. Suzie, Molly's mum, tells Molly to leave the room and not to disturb Dan's body. "Dan's body," Molly thinks, why would she refer to Dan as a body? This is when Molly realises Dan has died in his sleep. Dan is Molly's Great Uncle, her mother was given up for adoption at birth by Janice and they have only recently come to stay with Dan. Following Dan's death Suzie contacts Janice, his sister, to inform her of his death. Janice rushes to be at the house where she grew up. This is the first time Janice and Suzie have been in contact since Suzie's birth. They discuss Suzie's adoption and her adoptive parents and how Suzie has always known about her adoption.

Throughout the discussion, Molly has been plotting on how she believes she is Phoebe Piper a 3-year-old girl who went missing from a local tourist site 7 years ago. Molly decides because Suzie has no baby photos of Molly that must mean she's not really Molly, or Suzie's daughter. How she doesn't remember her younger days, so she can't really be Molly. I didn't understand why Janice and Suzie basically ignored Molly during their time dealing with Dan's death. Molly was planning and plotting on running away to "go back to her real parents" and Suzie and Janice had absolutely no idea. Molly had article after article on Phoebe Piper and her parents. She had even been mistaken for Phoebe in the past. Molly was in possession of the suggested future image of Phoebe, it was up on her bedroom wall at all times.

When Molly does decide to leave, it takes them almost 12 hours to record her missing with the police. Molly could be anywhere by 12 hours. Anyone could have taken her. She could have gotten into any car or van and been anywhere. Why has it taken so long for two responsible adults to realise this of a 10-year-old child? Molly's reasoning to run away is because the Piper's are sadly divorcing. The upset and turmoil of their missing child have meant their love can not fight through. They decide to divorce and Molly is convinced her return to them will unite them and make everything okay. She believes the evidence of a letter from Dan and an old photograph stating to ask who your real mother is will convince the Pipers she is Molly. Molly does not think for even a moment that she might not be Phoebe. She just assumes that she was taken and Suzie is not really her mum, Tom isn't really her brother and Janice is lying completely about even being Dan's sister and her grandmother. Janice goes to Joe's house to ask if he has seen Molly. Joe is a local musician who used to work with Dan who has fallen on hard times since his time in the band. He has spent time in a psychiatric hospital and has since become a recluse from society and does not want people to visit him. However, former fans are still determined to visit him and leave him gifts and memorabilia at his house. Including "the Sneaky Man" as Molly calls him. Joe does not want anything to do with the Sneaky Man and Dan regularly has to remove him from Joe's property.

When someone finally realises Molly is missing Janice, Suzie and Mark, Suzie's boyfriend, start to search around the village for Molly. Mark goes into the local woods to look for the Sneaky Man, he finds him. Dead, with his face disfigured and Suzie's birth father's business card in his coat pocket. Why has the Sneaky Man been in contact with Jeff? How would he know he exists? What would he want with an affluent photographer? All of these questions are answered when the police reveal the Sneaky Man is a man who Janice, Dan and Joe used to socialise with in their youth. This opens a whole range of other questions and mysteries.

There are a number of twists and turns and questions raised throughout the story. Why does the Sneaky Man not have his horrible rabbit's foot necklace on him when he died? Where has Molly gone? Where has the photo of Dan's birth mother gone? Why didn't Janice know Dan was her half brother? Will Molly return home safe? Was it really the Sneaky Man in the woods who was killed? Did Dan really die in his sleep or was there something more sinister behind his death? You will have to read the book or listen to the audiobook to find out. The author does keep making you think what will happen next by adding more information and more corners to the story. However, the ending does just seem to end. There is a large amount of build up throughout the story to just suddenly stop. This is something I find a lot of authors do. They seem to run out of things to say or get bored and just stop. This is disappointing when reading a good book and is a big reason why I only I've only given this book 6 out of 10 in my rating.

Overall I would definitely still recommend audiobooks to other people and specifically this book. They are very convenient on long journeys and easy to listen too.  This was an interesting story but it did have an anticlimactic ending.
Rating: 6/10
10-Word-Review: Easy listening but was anticlimactic, lots of unanswered questions again.

I am still currently reading Dream a Dream by Giovanna Fletcher. It was a slow starter but I am now enjoying it. I hope to finish it soon and post the next review. Keep watching and let me know if you have any recommendations. I will be looking into reading another audiobook but I do not know which one yet. Check out my Goodreads to find out what books I have on my bookshelf.