Seven Days by Alex Lake

I took a look at the following synopsis from the back cover of Alex Lake’s “Seven Days”and it intrigued me immediately, becoming the first novel that I have read in 2021. It has turned out to be a fantastic start to my reading journey for the year!

Seven Days by Alex Lake

A race against time to save her child…

In seven days, Maggie’s son, Max, turns three. But she’s not planning a party or buying presents or updating his baby book. She’s dreading it. Because in her world, third birthdays are the days on which the unthinkable happens… she loses her child.

For the last twelve years Maggie has been imprisoned in a basement. Abducted aged fifteen, she gave birth to two sons before Max, and on their third birthdays her captor came and took them from her.

She cannot let it happen again. But she has no idea how to stop it. And the clock is ticking…

Lake writes well and I was soon engrossed by the plotline. We know from the start who the kidnapper is but that did not spoil my enjoyment of the novel at all. It made the story all the more sinister, especially when the kidnapper befriended the family. This was so fast-paced and it had me flying through the chapters.

I find myself locked up with Maggie and Max in the basement, but I get to see what is going on outside of the basement. The segments in the basement are heartbreaking. Witnessing the effect of Maggie’s disappearance on her family really pulled at my heartstrings.

Maggie was just 15 when she was kidnapped and held captive in a dark windowless basement. Twelve years later she is still being held captive. Her son Max is about to turn three, but when her previous two sons Seb and Leo turned three they were taken away and she can’t let that happen again. This book is centred on the seven days leading up to Max’s birthday and the tension builds as the day grows closer. Maggie has seven days to devise a plan to thwart the man’s intentions. Seven days to save her son Max from an unknown fate.

SEVEN DAYS is a psychological thriller that is highly addictive and heart-stopping. It is a dark, disturbing, twisted tale of masterful suspense. I highly recommend it!