The Gone and The Forgotten is the second novel by British author, Claire Whitfield. At her Aunt Ruth’s insistence, Prue MacArthur reluctantly travels from South Croydon, London to the tiny island of Noost, in the Shetlands for her summer vacation. With her Nan gone and her mother in rehab after a suicide attempt, her preferred option, staying with her best friend Subo’s family has been rejected. The main draw for her is that her aunt has promised to reveal what she knows about Prue’s father.

Bus, car and ferry trips finally deposit her at Dynrost House, the Anderson family home, where she meets Veronique Charlotte Lewthwaite MacNair Anderson, aka Ronnie, who is the grandmother of Uncle Archie, Aunt Ruth’s new husband. Ronnie has filled Dynrost House to bursting with plants that she regards as her children, and from which she formulates skin care products, medicines and cocktails.

Prue is given Archie’s old nursery as her bedroom, but is kept awake by the sound of dripping, a wardrobe with lively doors, and lights that keep failing. Nightmares about a certain incident when she was seven plague her, too. And she later discovers the room housed a suicide victim.

The islanders share rumours with Prue about Archie’s involvement in the disappearance of seventeen-year-old Evie O’Hara, some twenty years earlier, as well as various tales of other strange happenings at Dynrost House. All are wary of its inhabitants.

Prue is frustrated that Ruth keeps putting her off about her family secrets, but she is used to “the MacArthur family policy of stoic silence on all unpleasant matters”. She fills her days helping Ronnie in her greenhouse and hooks up with eighteen-year-old James, a barman at the hotel.

The uncle she barely knows turns out to be an artist of provocative paintings featuring teenaged girls, but seems to offer sound advice about what troubles her, and Prue begins to doubt this charismatic man could be a murderer, especially when she comes across the victim’s letters to him. But can he really be trusted?

There is such a lot going on in this novel: family secrets, drug use and trafficking, gossiping islanders, grooming and seduction, grief and guilt, all against a backdrop of a gothic manor and insular neighbours. Most of the characters range between quirky and downright crazy; the house is creepy; proper care for this vulnerable protagonist is sorely lacking.

Prue appears to be an unreliable narrator, indulging in rather a lot of alcohol and drugs for a sixteen-year-old; she is also affected by other substances of which she is unaware; and has been taught by her mother at an early age to compartmentalise unpleasant memories, some of which spill out when she is under stress. That given, her poor decisions shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Whitfield’s descriptive prose is evocative and several mysteries draw the reader in and keep the pages turning; all are resolved to jaw-dropping or chilling effect. A gripping read.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Head of Zeus/Apollo.