How do you rescue someone who has already been found?

Imagine if Labyrinth's Sarah Williams had a Mum who completely freaked out when she went off on an adventure with Jareth. That's the best way I can describe Whistle in the Dark. Emma Healey presents a British suburban family drama with undercurrents of bizarre surrealism.

Main character Jen is at a loss when her teenage daughter Lana disappears. A national search campaign is launched, media outlets pounce on the story and the family is hounded from every angle as the frantic search heightens.

And then Lana is found, returning to her family after a brief spell in hospital. But something has changed. Lana is withdrawn, argumentative and clearly traumatised by her experience -  except that she can't remember what happened.

Jen's powerlessness to console her frustrated daughter is both expertly written and heartbreaking. She yearns to fix her daughter and regain the maternal relationship she cherished with her years before. 

As Jen attempts to piece together the events that took place in those crucial missing days, she pushes Lana further away, at the cost of both her own sanity and the fragile strands of their fraying relationship. With tones of magical realism and a broad cast of fantastic supporting characters (a thoroughly independent and sassy mother, a chakra-conscious, crystal adoring best friend and an emotionally solid and endearing husband) I felt so invested in the future of this family. 

I've not read Emma Healey's work before having missed out on Elizabeth Is Missing, which won the 2014 Costa Book Award, but I will absolutely be going back for a second helping.

I don't know what happened there, I must have been living under a rock...

Whistle in the Dark is published by Viking, out 3rd May 2018.