Not Their Daughter

Not Their Daughter by Laura Elliot
8/30/24; 424 pages
Bookouture

Not Their Daughter by Laura Elliot is a highly recommended domestic suspense novel following a woman's search for the truth about her family.

Gabrielle (Gaby) Grace lives in NYC is an AM shock jock for NY Eyz with a call-in show called "Gaby's Good Morning Wake-up." She returned home to Trabawn, Ireland, just sixteen hours before her father's death from cancer. At his death bed the last words Gaby's father Dominick said to her was "I stole you."

When Gaby asks her mother, Cassie, why she delayed informing her about her father's health until the end and what his last words were, she became angry and then deflected the inquiry. Gaby has had a contentious relationship with her mother, Cassie, for years and left home as quickly as possible when she turned eighteen. Her younger twin sisters, Jessica and Susanne, love her, but are so different from her and know nothing about the comment made. At the wake she reconnects with a long time friend, Killian Osmond, who came to support her. Cassie is an alcoholic and after drinking heavily that night, yells at Dominick for leaving her to clean up his mess. What mess, Gaby wonders. 

Later, Gaby finds a newspaper clipping that she believes is a photo of her father, who has traditionally tried to stay out of all photos. She asks Killian about it as he works for the Bayview Dispatch paper. The man's name is Cormac Gallagher, a detective, and he is next to prominent politician Aloysius Russell. While researching these names, Gaby comes across the story of a baby girl, Isabelle, who was stolen from her crib as a newborn infant twenty-nine years ago. Could Gaby be the baby?

All of this and much more happens early on in the novel, grabbing your attention and increasing the desire to keep reading as Gaby tries to untangle the mounting number of secrets and get answers to her questions. There are plenty of twists along the way and the search becomes even more convoluted as answers don't come quickly and even more questions arise. Readers will have to set disbelief aside several times, but interest in reaching the final denouement will make that easy.

Gaby is a fully realized, sympathetic character and you will want her to find closure and move on with her life. There is a whole lot of drama that needs to take place before she even comes close to some semblance of the truth. The action unfolds like a soap opera, with twists and new information that keep the pages turning and the melodrama going until the final twist. Thanks to Bookouture for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.