In Bitter Chill (Inspector Francis Sadler, #1) (DC Childs Mystery)

by Sarah Ward

Bampton, Derbyshire, January 1978. Two girls go missing: Rachel Jones returns, Sophie Jenkins is never found. Thirty years later: Sophie Jenkins's mother commits suicide.

Rachel Jones has tried to put the past behind her and move on with her life. But news of the suicide re-opens old wounds and Rachel realises that the only way she can have a future is to finally discover what really happened all those years ago.

This is a story about loss and family secrets, and how often the very darkest secrets are those that are closest to you.

• ISBN10: 0571321003
• ISBN13: 9780571321001
• Publish Date: 5 November 2015 (first published 30 June 2015)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Faber & Faber
• Edition: Main
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

4.5 stars
"He said to do nothing. It's always been his default position. If in doubt, maintain the status quo..... None of us could have forseen the later events. But, without a doubt, your mother knew the whole story."


For this being a debut novel I was not expecting to like it as much as I did.
When Rachel and Sophie were taken as they were walking to school, their lives would be changed forever. Rachel would be scarred for life, and constantly questioning if a person was genuine or if they just wanted to be around her because of what happened to her. Rachel tries to go on with her life and becomes a successful genealogist and runs her own business. She keeps to herself and tries to stay out of trouble.
All of this changes though when Sophie's mom is found dead and her case gets reopened, and she tries to start figuring out for herself what happened in 1978.

We also get to see a point of view of Connie and Sadler police detectives and Palmer to (He's to stressed out about his upcoming wedding and isn't involved a lot). Sadler and Connie work together and try to stay one step ahead of the reporters and towards the end Rachel to figure out who the kidnapper was and what exactly happened to Sophie.

This story kept me guessing who it was. I did figure out who kidnapped them about seventy-five percent of the way through, but I still wanted to know why Sophie was the only one hurt and why they did it. I was not expecting all of the twists and turns the story took either and was surprised by some of them.

Mystery is slowly becoming my favorite genre and these types of books are why. Ward did such an amazing job of mixing police protocol and real-life and what Rachel now does as a job into the story and explained them in such a way that told you what you needed to know without it being an overload of information.
I did find the last page a little unnecessary though as we already knew that that is where she was and what happened.


"That's the funny thing about it. Everyone knew and did nothing. That's what you and I need to remember about the past. That secrets could be everywhere and no one would mention a thing. "

See more reviews like this on my blog.