zooloo1983
Written on Jul 15, 2020
I LOVED Natalie Ward, this character is such a wholesome character. What do I mean by this? Well, she is raw, she is real, she is flawed! We learn all of this in the opening chapters and I was hooked because of her. How she manages to juggle everything at home and at work where sometimes I can barely function as a mum and working full time. I am just in awe of her at times, trying to juggle this awful case and still trying to help at home. David, her husband, is a stay at home dad but you can sense the tension with the pair. I would say he is at times, slightly jealous and resentful of Natalie, you can tell this won’t end well.
The prologue is chilling, chilling to the core. A little girl at a birthday party goes missing. I found this terrifying being a mum, (doesn’t help one of my friends has a little girl called Ava!) makes you fear every time you leave them with people who are meant to be looking after them. I hated the attack of abuse and the spiralling life the mother had after Ava went missing. Again, it felt like it could have been someone that you know, everything felt too real and close to home. Then Ava’s body is found and another girl from the same party has gone missing!? What the hell is going on? Someone obviously does not like yellow!! (Must remember this!). When I was listening to this, I have to say Di Croft scared the bejeezus out of me with her narrating of the killer when we are confronted with Ava’s chapter. It literally sent chills down my spine!
As I have said I did love Natalie, despite everything, and her team. I loved the setting of near Stoke-on-Trent, as I could clearly picture the places well, having lived up there back in my university days. This book was damn near perfect to me. I am glad this is the first in the series because I want to read more of Natalie and her team, Lucy is epic too. Lucy and Murray these two, they are solid friends and I love that Carol made this shine, the lengths of their friendship are shown and it is something I can get on board with!
Natalie’s backstory was intriguing with the case of another child whose murder she could not solve, it haunts her and she brings it with her when she is trying to solve the case. I hope we get a book on that story because you can just see how this moulds Natalie to who she is today.
The second time I read this, I listened to the audiobook, after seeing Di being interviewed by Carol on Facebook I was really excited to see how she would carry this story! I have to say, I loved listening to her voice, ok the men kinda had the same accent but I can deal with that. Everyone else had their own voice and well she creeped me out with the killer’s voice!! I am looking forward to the rest of the series with her narrating it!
It is an intense, thrilling and terrifying book because it is about children, not adults, it makes everything much more heightened. However, it is also sad, the sadness for the loss of the children but you feel sorry for the person behind it all, which I find amazing that I even have empathy for them! This tells you something about Carol’s writing! All senses and emotions go off the charts as you have to feed the addiction of solving the murders as you burn the midnight oil. I actually thought I had solved this one, but no as my daughter would say, Carol, was being “tricksy”. I didn’t see it coming, and to me is the sign of an awesome writer (I can’t keep saying epic! lol) with an OMG ending!
I just want the next book now – is that a bit demanding?! lol