Review: Daddy's Girl by Margie Orford

The little girl tells herself an hour is not so long to wait, and steps outside. The street is empty. Then she hears the car...

Police Captain Faizal has just been told that his six-year-old daughter has been abducted. And he is not allowed to join the search – because his squad think he is the kidnapper.

Investigative journalist Dr Clare Hart is the only one who believes Faizal is innocent. Together they must evade the police and find his daughter – even if it puts all their lives at risk.

ebook, 304 pages

Expected publication date: June 10, 2014 by Witness Impulse

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Kristine's Thoughts:

I received an advanced readers copy of this book from Witness Impulse via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

I enjoy a good mystery every now and again and from the synopsis this one sounded like it would fit the bill. A story about a six year old girl who disappears from her dance class with all fingers pointing towards her father who also happens to be a cop. Who can he turn to to help find his beloved daughter when nobody is looking any farther than him? Enter Dr. Clare Hart and the journey begins.

This book is filled with twists, turns, corruption, murder and deception on every page. For readers that like a story that follows many trails in the search for answers, they will surely enjoy it. I liked the story and the fact that it takes place in Africa but I did have a few issues with it.

First of all, there were so many characters in the story that it was hard to keep them all straight. Just when I thought I finally had them all figured out another character would be introduced. This did distract me from the story and it did impact my enjoyment. With this genre I like to try and figure out the mystery before it is revealed but with so many characters it was difficult to keep anything straight. Also, there seemed to be a few stories going on at once. Perhaps this was intentional to throw the reader off the trail but I felt it just made it a little too busy.

In the end I liked the book and thoroughly enjoyed reading about Cape Town but the numerous characters made it too distracting to love.

About the Author

Margie Orford is a journalist, film director and author of children’s fiction, non-fiction and school text books.

She was born in London and grew up in Namibia and South Africa, studying at UCT where she wrote her final exams in prison while detained during the State of Emergency. After travelling widely, she did an honours degree at UCT, then worked in publishing in the newly-independent Namibia, where she became involved in training through the African Publishers Network.

In 1999 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and while in New York, worked on an archival retrieval project, Women Writing in Africa: The Southern Volume. She made her crime debut with Like Clockwork, which became a bestseller and was followed by a sequel, Blood Rose. Both crime novels will be published in Germany. A recent non-fiction project is Fabulously 40 and Beyond : Women coming into their own; her latest is Fifteen Men.