Terrified. Drugged. Abandoned. A rural area in the north of England is thrown into disrepair as teenage girls start to go missing, and local authorities are at a loss in their search for the one responsible. Charles Lee lives a very normal life, in stark contrast to his troubled past. Putting years of abuse, neglect and loss behind him, he has built a new life in the countryside with his beloved family and border collie. Yet all is not as it seems as his past soon starts to haunt him, as burned bridges are resurrected, old grievances resurface and a lust for revenge takes over. Will Detective Taylor and psychological profiler Georgina Riley uncover the clues and piece together the jigsaw in time to stop the disappearances?
A mystery thriller that broke my heart to pieces. A story about a man and the choices he made in life. And yet, I can't bring myself to hate him. My empathy for him was so staggering that I keep asking myself, what the heck is wrong with me?
Empathy stems from two different factors. One is emotional, meaning empathy is triggered by your baggage, your family experience, what you bring to the table. The other is cognitive, which is your perspective, and, say, how interested you might be in hearing another person’s side of the story.
And Lee wrote this in the MC's perspective so well that for the first time, I am seeing a troubled person in a new light.
How I wish he got the chance to meet his mother. Maybe then everything will be okay. What he did was unforgivable, even for the reason that set his mind to do it, but I really wanted him to be happy.
I hate not giving fully positive reviews as the authors have managed publication and for that I congratulate them. However, I did feel like I was reading a teenagers essay where women were portrayed as the stay at home good wives and even the female detective slept with the,married colleague within days. I love crime,and thriller novels and the actual story relating to this genre was ok but a good bit of the first half of the book was,almost a separate story and included a lot about the main characters military background - none of which was massively important to the main story and gave the impression of a disjointed book. Sorry - you've achieved a published book though and for that I admire you!
Chilling content and difficult continuing reading at some points as very graphic descriptions! Very interesting choice by the author to write it from a different perspective than most crime thrillers! Despite the controversial subject I felt compelled to keep on reading till the bitter end.
The story of a man who was adopted at a young age and then on losing these parents was then placed in to foster care. What happened to him stayed with him and despite becoming a professional family man the haunts are still there. A chilling tale of how the past can shape our lives if we let it and don’t seek help or are powerless to do so. Hiding a deeply disturbed personality we would think would be hard in someone leading a “normal” life without leaving clues or even small tell-tale signs. A well described book and fast moving enough to keep you hooked. For a first novel this is excellent- keep going Lee!! Can I just add that some other reviews have mentioned bad English- I am picky about such things and have not seen anything to date so please don’t be put off by a few others
Preferred the first half written wise, the second half was a bit cliched, still I've never written a book so can't criticise too much, I'm sure the next ones will be better. Good story though, bit gory in places.
An absolutely outstanding first novel from this author. Quite disturbing and difficult to read objectively at times, this book kept me turning pages right through to the end. Lee is an exciting new talent and I'll be first in the queue for the next book!
Gripping stuff, excellent narrative, realistic page turner. Strongly recommended police thriller, with great characterisation. Read and enjoy. But not late at night!