In what is certainly her most ambitious project yet, Beth O’Leary’s THE NO-SHOW is not just one romantic comedy --- it’s three!

We first meet Siobhan, Miranda and Jane on Valentine’s Day. They have been looking forward to a date with an attractive young man…and all three get stood up. Soon enough, each of their deadbeat dates comes back, his tail between his legs, begging for forgiveness, but ultimately failing to account for his disappearance. What astute (and eventually even not-so-astute) readers will soon figure out is that these very different women have all been stood up by the same man!

"THE NO-SHOW is a clever combination of mystery and romantic comedy that will keep readers engaged from first page to last."

Joseph Carter is the kind of handsome, charismatic guy who any woman would fall for, as evidenced by the fact that Siobhan, Miranda and Jane could not be less alike. Siobhan is a highly successful life coach who lives in Dublin but looks forward to weekend trysts with Joseph when she’s in London once a month. Miranda is a tree surgeon who’s attracted to Joseph’s clean-cut, white-collar look. And Jane is a bit of a mystery; she recently relocated from London to Winchester under mysterious circumstances and has been using Joseph as a fake boyfriend for social events. All of them are completely unaware of one another, at least to begin with.

Over the course of the novel, which unfolds through alternating perspectives, each woman begins to change. Their personal evolution is mirrored by changes in their relationship with Joseph, who in turn seems to be trying to change the kind of behavior that might have gotten him into that Valentine’s Day pickle in the first place. Siobhan perhaps could use her own life coach as a personal crisis sends her skittering away from her regular hookups with Joseph. Jane starts to wonder if she might be harboring real feelings for her fake boyfriend. And Miranda, who’s the first to suspect that there might be more to her attentive boyfriend than meets the eye, also might be secretly attracted to someone else.

Who is Joseph Carter really? Which woman, if any, will end up with him? And what actually happened on Valentine’s Day? THE NO-SHOW is a clever combination of mystery and romantic comedy that will keep readers engaged from first page to last. The already talented Beth O’Leary has outdone herself with her fourth novel, and readers definitely will want to show up for whatever she has planned next.