Little Girl Lost by Carol Wyer

What’s it about?

Her breath rose and fell in fearful gasps but it was too late. She could already see what she dreaded most. The back seat was empty.

Bye, bye, Mummy.

When a devoted teacher goes missing under suspicious circumstances and an actor is murdered at a local reservoir there’s no obvious link between the cases. But as DI Robyn Carter starts to delve deeper, her investigations lead her to Abigail, perfect wife and mother to beautiful little Izzy. What was Abigail’s connection to the victims? And why is she receiving threatening messages from an anonymous number?

Robyn’s instincts tell her there’s a connection between these deaths, that it’s personal, but the last time she acted on impulse her fiancé was killed. To break this case and earn her place back on the force, she must learn to trust herself again – and fast.

As she inches closer to the truth, Izzy is abducted. Unless she can get to the killer in time, a little girl will die.

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Review

This is my first time reading a book by Carol Wyer and if I didn’t know, nothing would have let me on that this is her first time writing a crime book, the plot was tight and the suspense was fantastic.

This is a book about revenge, loud and clear. We also know who wants revenge and why, the only thing we don’t know is where this person is hiding in the present day, but the chase is on!

The harrowing opener that lays the base for the book are the events happening one evening to 8 year old Alice who has been living in fear for her stepbrother Lucas ever since she and her mum came to live with media star Paul Matthews and his 2 children. It’s quite horrific what happens but even more so that nobody listens and believes her afterwards. That was 20 years ago.

In the present day Detective Robyn Carter is contacted by a woman who wants to report her husband Lucas missing. While Robyn tries to locate him and starts to pick his life apart, there are also alternating chapters told by Alice where she tells how she fared in the past right up to the events happening in the present.

Coming into the mix there’s another rather unexpected plotline about a woman called Abbigail Thorne, mother of a little girl nicknamed Izzy. She’s getting strange phone calls and threats. Someone, for some unknown reason, is targeting her. Who it is and what the connection is in all of this is only one of the many secrets Robyn Robyn has to solve while she contacts her because one of her friends might have a connection to Lucas. Abigail has 3 friends in this story, Zoe, Claire and Rachel and although it’s ‘only’ this small circle of 3 friends there’s plenty of suspicion to go round who might be behind all of this.

Robyn Carter is a great detective, she’s guilt-ridden and recovering from a personal tragedy. Although I like her and her team, I don’t feel I know and love her completely yet and I think it will take another book to really let me feel more of a connection with her, but this book didn’t need much of a sidestory really, it would only be interfering with what I really wanted to hear about ;-).

The search for Alice and the constant doubtfulness I had about Abigail’s friends, the scrutiny of everyone’s reliability was very compelling and kept me more than occupied. I kind of had a hunch about the truths in this story after a while but the drive to know for sure and to keep turning these pages was overpowering. Really well-written. I want more !

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion. 

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