After the Crash is a mystery/thriller set around the events following a plane crash. All the passengers have been killed apart from a three-month-old baby girl. BUT there were two babies on the plane and relatives from both families step forward to claim her. It is 1980 and therefore DNA can’t be used to prove the identity of the child.

The book is the story of the private detective hired by the richer of the two families to prove the identity of the baby.

I read the book with my ‘author’ hat on and tried to judge why it was a bestseller. The following points grabbed me:

• The reader is sucked straight into the mystery. I turned the pages because I wanted to know who the baby belonged to – this is the benefit of setting up a clear dilemma at the beginning of the book to grab the reader.
• The action is fast moving. It takes place over a couple days following the baby’s 18th birthday but is interspersed with extracts from the private detective’s notebook. The present day ‘urgent’ action is mixed with slower, long term events from the past.
• It appeals to both sexes (my husband passed it on to me). It’s written from a male point of view but there’s a hint of romance in there.

The title of the book, After the Crash, is very explanatory but I did wonder why the publisher had decided not to go along with the current trend of using the word ‘Girl’ – think of Gone Girl, Girl on the Train, Girl Number One (an indie published bestseller) etc. ‘Girl with no Name’ would have been a very appropriate title.

Has anybody else read this book? What did you think?