Searching for Summer

by Christine Campbell

Mirabelle’s daughter, Summer, disappears one Friday night, and Mirabelle would dearly love to rewind that day and live it differently. Instead, she is left not knowing if Summer is alive or dead, went of her own accord or was taken against her will.
Casting all other concerns aside - food, sleep, work, relationships - in her desperate need to find the answers, she takes to the streets of Edinburgh in search of Summer.
Searching along wynds snaking behind old buildings, through ancient doors and tiny spiral stairways, showing Summer's photograph to everyone she meets in shops, museums and nightclubs, Mirabelle becomes a reluctant detective, gathering clues, trying to make sense of them in order to find her missing daughter.

318 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Hi! I’m Christine Campbell and I’m a writer.

There! I stood in the middle of the circle and owned up. I am a writer: a novelist, in particular. I write contemporary fiction: strongly character-based, relationship novels…with a smidgen of romance and a generous dusting of mystery and detection.

I have learned a lot about my craft since that wonderful night when I held my first completed, printed manuscript novel in my arms. My first book-baby.

I have now had seven novels published. It’s so exciting when your book-babies grow up and leave home. As mother of five grown-up, married children and ten grandchildren, I know a lot about babies growing up and leaving home!

Reviews

[Feather Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I picked up Christine Campbell's novel, Searching for Summer, I wasn't expecting to read a story that so fully described the pain I suffered - and so much more deeply than I can express. Searching for Summer is primarily character driven. Each loving and caring character touched my heart deeply. The nasty villains would have felt my wrath if I could have slipped into their world. It's a treat to read a book where the author's characters are so well developed, and continue to grow throughout the story.

Searching For Summer is much more than a story of fascinating characters. I loved the plot, a story set in Edinburgh, Scotland. Though it revolves around a single mother's struggle with loss and despair, the story also embraces Mirabelle's courage, tenacity, insane stubbornness, her love for music and dance. The theme of loving family bonds, enduring and frustrating, propel this story in surprising twists. And who doesn't love a man (police officer, Sam) who is shoved repeatedly out the door because he's telling Mirabelle things she doesn't want to hear, but he keeps coming back.

Christine's writing talent is incredible. She puts the reader into the vivid scenes where we can eavesdrop on the painful family arguments and tiptoe inside Mirabelle's messy flat. I see the colorful bangles and warm, soft wraps that was her trademark before her daughter disappeared. She searches for Summer among the shopkeepers, sleeping with the homeless on cold winter nights, digging for the slightest clue. Her wanderings lead her to discover more than she bargained for. She's bold, firing up her woman's sixth sense, or applying risky detective techniques. Mirabelle is relentless, driving her loved ones to the brink of shutting her out and leaving her to suffer deeper abandonment.

Final Important Note: After viewing the superb book trailer, I purchased this novel for my kindle. I'm so impressed with Searching For Summer, I'd like to have a print copy on my physical bookshelf. I could read it again and again. Loved it that much.

Searching For Summer Synopsis

The first novel in The Reluctant Detective Series. Mirabelle’s daughter, Summer, disappears one Friday night, and Mirabelle would dearly love to rewind that day and live it differently. Instead, she is left not knowing if Summer is alive or dead, went of her own accord or was taken against her will. Casting all other concerns aside - food, sleep, work, relationships - in her desperate need to find the answers, she takes to the streets of Edinburgh in search of Summer. Searching along wynds snaking behind old buildings, through ancient doors and tiny spiral stairways, showing Summer's photograph to everyone she meets in shops, museums and nightclubs, Mirabelle becomes a reluctant detective, gathering clues, trying to make sense of them in order to find her missing daughter.

[Janice Spina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Searching for Summer is an emotional read that tugs at one’s heart when a young teen leaves home and breaks her mother’s heart. The main protagonist, Mirabelle, can’t understand why her daughter left home without a word. She is tormented daily and spends all the time searching for any sign of her daughter, Summer. She forfeits her job and her love to try and find her.

During this time Summer is doing whatever she wants unaware of how hard her mother is searching for her and how much she is suffering. Will Mirabelle ever find her daughter and get on with her own life? Will Summer come back on her own terms?

This story takes the reader through all of Mirabelle’s daily searches and details her emotions so deeply that the reader can feel her pain. It is heartbreaking to see her as she sacrifices everything for the love of her daughter.


An emotional read that is hard to put down.

[Feather Stone]

When I picked up Christine Campbell's novel, Searching for Summer, I wasn't expecting to read a story that so fully described the pain I suffered - and so much more deeply than I can express. Searching for Summer is primarily character driven. Each loving and caring character touched my heart deeply. The nasty villains would have felt my wrath if I could have slipped into their world. It's a treat to read a book where the author's characters are so well developed, and continue to grow throughout the story.

Searching For Summer is much more than a story of fascinating characters. I loved the plot, a story set in Edinburgh, Scotland. Though it revolves around a single mother's struggle with loss and despair, the story also embraces Mirabelle's courage, tenacity, insane stubbornness, her love for music and dance. The theme of loving family bonds, enduring and frustrating, propel this story in surprising twists. And who doesn't love a man (police officer, Sam) who is shoved repeatedly out the door because he's telling Mirabelle things she doesn't want to hear, but he keeps coming back.

Christine's writing talent is incredible. She puts the reader into the vivid scenes where we can eavesdrop on the painful family arguments and tiptoe inside Mirabelle's messy flat. I see the colorful bangles and warm, soft wraps that was her trademark before her daughter disappeared. She searches for Summer among the shopkeepers, sleeping with the homeless on cold winter nights, digging for the slightest clue. Her wanderings lead her to discover more than she bargained for. She's bold, firing up her woman's sixth sense, or applying risky detective techniques. Mirabelle is relentless, driving her loved ones to the brink of shutting her out and leaving her to suffer deeper abandonment.

Final Important Note: After viewing the superb book trailer, I purchased this novel for my kindle. I'm so impressed with Searching For Summer, I'd like to have a print copy on my physical bookshelf. I could read it again and again. Loved it that much.

Searching For Summer Synopsis

The first novel in The Reluctant Detective Series. Mirabelle’s daughter, Summer, disappears one Friday night, and Mirabelle would dearly love to rewind that day and live it differently. Instead, she is left not knowing if Summer is alive or dead, went of her own accord or was taken against her will. Casting all other concerns aside - food, sleep, work, relationships - in her desperate need to find the answers, she takes to the streets of Edinburgh in search of Summer. Searching along wynds snaking behind old buildings, through ancient doors and tiny spiral stairways, showing Summer's photograph to everyone she meets in shops, museums and nightclubs, Mirabelle becomes a reluctant detective, gathering clues, trying to make sense of them in order to find her missing daughter.

See Romance Under Fire: http://www.featherstoneauthor.wordpre...

[S.A. Molteni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Searching for Summer by Christine Campbell is a deeply moving novel that tugs at your heart strings and keeps you hooked until the very end.

When I started reading Searching for Summer, I could not put it down. The story is something that happens everyday - a teenager goes missing. Did she run away or was she abducted or worse?

Mirabelle, Summer's mother, is not the best parent but loves her child and is trying very hard to raise her daughter on her own while employed as a social worker. Summer feels that her mother does not spend enough time with her and is frankly, a quite selfish young woman. When Summer goes missing, Mirabelle is beyond shocked, scared and feels helpless. Luckily, Mirabelle's boyfriend (Sam) is a police officer and works on the case. In spite of his efforts, Mirabelle dedicates herself to searching for and finding her daughter.

The depths of despair through Mirabelle's arduous journey to find Summer are vividly painted by the author. Mirabelle's emotional roller-coaster ride during the time Summer is missing is played out in fantastic detail, like the reader is right there in the scene with her - feeling her pain, her loss, her struggles and all of the emotions in between.

Each character in the book is exceptionally developed and complex. I can picture Mirabelle in my mind as strong-willed, free-spirited woman who loves life. Sam is wonderfully depicted as the rock in which Mirabelle must lean through the ordeal as well as a man who is deeply in love with Mirabelle. Summer shines through as a selfish teenager to begin with. As the story unfolds further, you cannot help but like her will and persistance - even when she does things that would make any parent angry.

Looking forward to reading more from this well-versed author in the future.

Full disclosure: I was given a copy of the title in exchange for an honest review.

[Barbara A Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been labeled as Women’s Literature and Cozy Mystery. It encompasses the elements of both. The story is about a woman searching for her daughter, Summer. In the process of this journey, our protagonist, Mirabelle examines her own life. She lost her father at an early age and never recovered from that. Now she must cross-examine her single parenting skills to understand where she went wrong with her own child.

Mirabelle’s self-examination is painful, heart wrenching, and at time seems self-defeating. But our heroine has an inner core of strength and willingness to accept her own shortcomings. What makes this narrative so compelling is the man in her life. He is a policeman who is willing to go above and beyond his job demands to help find Summer, because of his love for Mirabelle.

There are many books where the woman is strong, tough, and proves she can survive on her own. That is simply not realistic. We humans do not live in a vacuum and survival is so much more than just existing from day to day. We all need help at stressful times in our lives; be they family, friends, or even a stranger. That is why this story is so refreshing, with its message of goodness and love offered by our fellow humans.

It is unfair, in a review, to spoil the story for the reader by telling the outcome. So, you won’t find the answer to whether Mirabelle finds Summer from here. What you will find is an enthusiastic encouragement to read “Seaching For Summer”. This is so much more than a mystery to be solved. It is an endorsement of life lived with determination and, most importantly, hope. 5 Stars.

[Elizabeth Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Searching for Summer confounded all my preconceived ideas of what a book about a missing teenager would be like. Of course there is despair and self-blame, but Summer’s mother Mirabelle is such a large, intense personality that I was instantly involved with her search around the streets of Edinburgh, longing to find Summer and fully understanding Mirabelle’s obsession with discovering what had happened.

Interwoven with the search for Summer are Mirabelle’s memories of the way her Jamaican father had also disappeared when she was a small child, leaving behind his clothes and brand new shoes. Her dysfunctional mother had not provided Mirabelle with a role model so perhaps it is not surprising that she felt so inadequate as a mother to her capable daughter, Summer. But she has friends to help her, including Detective Inspector Sam Burns, with whom she has recently rekindled a relationship, and her supportive younger sister Yvonne.

As time goes by, hope of finding Summer fades and yet there are clues which she clings on to, even if they involve petty criminal Dermot, who pushes drugs and acts as a pimp. Mirabelle refuses to look after her own health but she begins to help others who have also lost children in the Edinburgh area. Will there be a happy ending? Will Mirabelle pick up her life again and give Sam a chance? One thing is certain, I shall be reading the continuing story in Traces of Read, the second book in The Reluctant Detective series.

[Liza · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, not least because it shows a Social Worker who is no better at parenting than anyone else. The entire story had me itching to turn the page wanting to know what happens next. Just be warned this is a “non put downer” so don’t start reading at bed time or, like me, it’ll be a very late night.

The characters are all brought to life, not least Mirabelle herself who comes across as voluptuous, colourful and more than a little eccentric. Although she’s so different, Christine portrays her so well you can imagine her living in your town.

There are places where you’ll be crying and others when you’ll laughing – running to the hospital in nightie and slippers had me doing both during the passage.

When she is getting impatient at the police station, you can really feel it coming across, I was watching the clock too, not sure if that helped!

So overall a good read, emotional and well executed, enjoy it…

[Alison Clifford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This fantastic book took me on an incredible roller coaster journey of emotions and discovery.
The story is about Mirabelle and her search for her daughter who disappears without warning. The mother and daughter relationship described in the book is real, is true to what a lot of people know, and I could immediately relate to Mirabelle’s despair and desperation. The story of Mirabelle’s own experiences as a child run as a good parallel, adding to the emotional upheaval caused by her daughter’s disappearance.
The descriptions in the book were so good I often stopped to re-read them. I loved the way I could easily imagine what was happening in the book; seeing the people and experiencing the city of Edinburgh along with the characters.
I don’t want to spoil the story for others, so all I’ll say about the ending is I was left happy and satisfied.
Mirabelle is a great character and I look forward to meeting her again in the next book!

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘Searching for Summer’ is a character-driven story that draws the reader deep into Mirabelle’s complicated life from the outset. This well-written mystery delves long and hard into the emotional anguish of a mother searching for her missing teenage daughter, and as such I found it a painful read at times. That said, it’s all not doom and gloom! Mirabelle is a fun-loving character, and the man in her life also makes for a compelling read.

The suspense is well handled, and I felt the pace was just about right throughout. While many readers may not agree with all of Mirabelle’s choices I felt the author went a long way to explain her background, and most parents would probably find themselves identifying with her at times. I note that this book straddles the Women’s Literature and Cozy Mystery categories, but I’m not sure how well it qualifies as a traditional cozy, to be honest. Maybe we need a new genre for books like this - cozy-lit.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heart-tugging story of a mother (Mirabelle) searching for her daughter (Summer) who has gone missing in Edinburgh, Scotland. Campbell did a wonderful job with the emotions of the whole experience and had me hoping for the best for her characters throughout as I read. Mirabelle was very real to me, especially, and had me wanting to grab and hug my daughters as I read what she was going through. As an American reader, I also really enjoyed the sneak peek into police procedure and how people talk in another place. Makes me want to visit Edinburgh again and see the sites for myself.

[Z.R. Southcombe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent character development and some brilliant pieces of writing. The narrative progressed too slowly for me, however, and I felt that much description was unnecessary to the development of the story / characters. The ending was a pleasant surprise and I thought it insightful.

[Kayleen Baguley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this engaging story! Christine's writing style keeps me interested and the charming language of her native Scotland that she incorporates into her books is delightful. If you haven't heard her read some of her stories, you need to check out her Facebook page and give her a listen! She has a very soothing and sweet reading voice.

Anyway - I read through this book in just a couple of days - couldn't put it down! Kept me guessing until the end, I did not figure out what was happening at all and even had to go back and re-read a few things.

Very well written and comprehensive story with lots of back info about the characters that helps you understand why they do what they do.

I immediately bought the second book and am in the middle of reading that one right now.

[Lynne Durham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous and enjoyable book!
What a find, I’m so pleased I was introduced to this series.
I thoroughly enjoyed Searching for Summer. The story would visualise in my thoughts throughout my days making me look very forward to each night when I’d read some more.
I cannot wait to read the rest of this series and of Christine Campbell’s other books.

[Kim Francis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this, the first in the Reluctant Detective trilogy. If you read this one, I guarantee you will want to read the other two. 😊

[Byron Edgington · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here we have a mother loses daughter, daughter loses mother, both lose themselves in a shared search kind of book. When Mirabelle and daughter Summer ‘have another row,’ as they say in Scotland, Summer disappears, not even taking clean knickers. The absolute certain sign of a hasty, mysterious departure in these modern times, Summer leaves behind her phone charging cord! This is not good. Mirabelle feels a strange foreboding. As well she might. It seems Belle’s own past includes random arrivals and departures, by lovers and mates and by her own mysterious father, who disappeared from her life early on.
Mirabelle sets off searching for Summer, looking all over Edinburgh, then engaging the local police in the person of Sam, a fellow that Belle has more than a friendly acquaintance with. Sam assures Belle that Summer is not, in fact, dead, as her mother has become convinced, but just a runaway. Under Scot’s law the girl is sixteen, after all. Sam explains to potential partner Belle that her daughter is an adult, so she must let her go. Of course Mirabelle, being a mum, cannot do that.
The writing is crisp, well crafted and engaging, particularly the voices of each character. Many exchanges were a bit hard to decipher, as this yank suffers from the dilemma of being separated by a common language. After a while I started reading aloud with a wee bit of a burr. I couldnae help meself. The plot is a bit of a stretch, as I say. Edinburgh is not that big, so it’s tough to see how a flame-red haired lass might stay hidden from her mum for a year, especially when certain friends spill the beans and announce that she’s out and about.
Technically, the formatting needs work. At least on my Kindle reader the contractions were awkward and the words strung out for some reason. The use of italics in the narrative was confusing, until it was used for Summer’s approach-avoidance tactics at the ice rink and the ballet. But the author’s use of foreshadowing is great, such as her inner dialogue about the washhouse, and Mirabelle’s mental musing about her history with Summer. The snow globe analogy describing Summer’s bedroom is spot on. My very own wee lass once kept her bedroom topsy turvy like that.
The plot thickens when the seedy Dermot slithers into view as a prime suspect in the ‘wee besom’s’ disappearance. Drug kingpin, pimp and mother abuser, Dermot gains a tail by the police. Policeman Sam gets in a row with Mirabelle for not allowing him to do the job. Belle enlists Yvonne to go under cover to follow Dermot. Yvonne mingles with the dregs of a bar, Dickensian characters such as Wally Weasel, Stanley Stoat, Barney Bear, lechers seeking a Dolly Bird for the night who might lead her to Dermot’s brothel, and presumably to Summer herself.
Belle enlists Dermot’s mother to find Summer. In the end, Summer has been lurking about Edinburgh all the while, even stealing into Belle’s flat to pilfer cash, (and clean knickers, and perhaps her phone cord).
All this mixed up, helter skelter detective work and family dysfunction requires a good deal of allowance on the reader’s part. We must suspend disbelief a bit here to let the story unravel on its own. The real story lies under the surface. Readers might suspect that Mirabelle is in fact searching for her own lost summer, the vanished youth she yearns for still. As she says, “it’s really easy to get used to losing things.” Mirabelle has a feeling that Summer shares her own attraction to danger, saying “it’s more fun to be caught and tickled, than to run into the cold wall.”
In the end, Mirabelle does indeed find summer, even if she doesn’t find Summer. She and Sam match up, and Belle has at least a chance at what she’s yearned for. If a sequel is forthcoming, I suspect their relationship is part of it. Three stars for a great effort at mom/daughter sparring and discovery in a well-written tale.
Byron Edgington, author of The Sky Behind Me: Extended Downwind

[Christine Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, since I wrote the book, I obviously think it's terrific!
But I'd love to hear what you think.