Oh, you lovely, lovely book. I pretty much loved this story from the very start and that love didn’t wane the entire time it took me to read.


Ailsa was a heartfelt protagonist I could get behind and root for. Carrie too. And almost all the other characters, as well. Nobody was one dimensional. They were all very, very human. Delightfully human. And I couldn’t guess ANY of it. The twists and turns were perfectly exhilarating and shocking for me and I LOVED that. My mouth was literally hanging open during certain scenes.


Yes yes yes to everything about this novel. Including the Scottish accents and words. Also the English words Lexie Elliott used — what a vocabulary. This was both a deeply pleasurable and an educational read.


A fantastic, atmospheric, five star, spooky Scottish castle read which totally shined (shone?) for me. ( )

Ailsa’s mom suddenly dies and she inherits “The Manse”, in Scotland. Unfortunately, her father who disappeared 25+ years ago still owns the other half. The law is she cannot sell it or rent it out without consent of the other owner. So she and her half-sister, Carrie, move into the home. She and her mother moved from the area when she was 7, after her father’s disappearance, but her family has a history with the locals.
This book reminds me of Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware. I don’t know if it is because of the setting, or that it is a creepy house with mysterious things happening. Probably a little of both. By mysterious things I mean lights being left on while Ailsa and Carrie are away, doors thumping, and loud noises in the middle of the night.
Ailsa meets people that she went to school with and the story unfolds. I won’t say this is a “unputdownable” book, until the end, but the story unfolds rather quickly. What secrets Ailsa’s new friends are keeping, and what danger is really in the house was enough to keep me intrigued. ( )

4.5 stars.

The Missing Years by Lexie Elliott is a suspenseful mystery with slight supernatural elements.

Following the death of her mother, thirty four year old Ailsa Calder inherits the family home they abandoned following her father's disappearance twenty-seven years earlier. She and her half-sister Carrie travel to the house where they plan to live temporarily while Ailsa takes care of having her father declared legally dead so she sell or rent the property.

Upon arriving at the Manse, Ailsa is extremely uncomfortable within the walls of the home. She is also concerned by the discovery that neighbor Fiona McCue is fascinated with the Manse. But her brother Jamie is quick to assert Fiona's interest in the Manse is harmless. Ailsa is unsure if she can trust anyone in the village, especially in the wake of a series of sinister events. Will she uncover the truth about what happened to her father? And can Ailsa repair her troubled relationship with Carrie?

Ailsa continues to carry the emotional scars of her father's disappearance and her mother's neglect. Ailsa has a successful career and she is in a long term relationship. Her partner Jonathan Powell's decision not to accompany her puts their future in jeopardy. Feeling a bit adrift due to her unsettling personal life, Ailsa is hoping she will be able to fix her fractured relationship with Carrie. Unfortunately, the strange occurrences at the house make it impossible for her completely trust anyone. Will this inability to have complete faith that Carrie is not involved ruin their reunion?

The Manse has a complicated history that is part rumor and part fact. Ailsa is surprised to discover her father was deeply interested in uncovering the truth about parts of its history. Could his research have something to do with his disappearance? Will Ailsa learn the truth about what happened to him? Will she be completely satisfied with whatever information she can unearth about those long ago events?

With sinister overtones and eerie supernatural elements, The Missing Years is an intriguing mystery that is quite riveting. Ailsa is a lovely woman who unexpectedly finds herself at a crossroads as she tries to uncover the truth about her father. Carrie is supportive of her sister's attempts to settle the past but does she have an ulterior motive for accompanying her to the Manse? Who (or what) is responsible for worrying things that have been occurring since their arrival? With plenty of twists and astonishing turns, Lexie Elliott provides unexpected answers to these questions as this spellbinding novel comes to an exciting conclusion. I greatly enjoyed and highly recommend this atmospheric mystery to fans of the genre. ( )

An old Manse in the Scottish countryside. The mystery of a father missing for 27 years, along with a cache of diamonds from the jeweler he worked for, some “other worldly” dynamics from the house and tales of it’s haunting. All of that grabbed me from the first chapter.

Ailsa Calder has inherited the old Manse after her mother dies. It’s her early childhood home before her father disappeared and her mother moved them away. The catch is Ailsa only inherited half the property. Her missing father has the other half and she has no way to sell it without his consent. In all the years he has been gone her mother never made time to have him declared legally dead. She can live in it and that’s what she does for the short term.

Before each chapter there is a short story about where Ailsa’s father is living and the circumstances. Each story is different and you realize it’s Ailsa’s theories on where her absent father ended up. She doesn’t know, no one does.

Ailsa invites her half sister Carrie to move into the old house with her while she sorts the legal process of selling it or renting it. Ailsa is never comfortable in the house and you come to see why near the end. It’s spooky. Or corny, depending on your point of view.

There are many characters and the writing is well done, using dinna and other Outlander-type language so you feel the Scottish accents flowing in conversation. There are many characters I liked and I honestly didn’t peg the villain character, not even when it was presented. I would read more by Lexie Elliott. Loved her first book The French Girl and am looking forward to more in the future. ( )

Ailsa Carter is a 30 something journalist, who inherits the Scottish manor where she was born after her mother dies. She is always wondering what happened to her father. The kicker is she only gets half the house and the other half is left to her father, so she must find out what happened to her father 27 years ago.

"My father is happily living in Australia with a lady called Sarah or Susan. They have a handful of charming children with the exception of the last, who even in his early twenties is something of a handful (they call him their "late bloomer") though of course, my father struggles endlessly with thoughts of the child he left behind. But he's come too far to be able to see a way back to her."

Statements like the one above are at the beginning of every chapter, I realized after I finished the book that these were just things that Ailsa was imagining happened to her father. She moves into the manse temporarily, the locals are not very friendly to her, her family has been the 'talk' of the towns since her father disappeared. Threatening notes and dead animals appear on her doorstep and live animals won't come onto the grounds past the gate.

This book has some interesting and sinister characters, undertones of supernatural makes this a story worth reading. I love the writing style, including the statements at the beginning of each chapter, it made her father seem like a real person and had me curious. So what did happen to Ailsa's father and what is going on with the 'Manse"? Will Ailsa be able to overcome her issues both personally and with her father? I encourage you to pick up a copy of this amazing book! Now I have to read The French Girl! ( )