The Lost Girl by Tania Carver

The Lost Girl by Tania Carver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 3 days

Publisher - Little Brown Book Group

Pages - 416

Blurb from Goodreads

The terrifying new thriller in the Brennan and Esposito series - are you brave enough to read it?

When three men are found hanged in locations around Colchester, Detective Inspector Phil Brennan gets the shock of his life. Not only are the victims dressed to look like him, but each carries a defaced tarot card in the pocket of their identical leather jackets, scrawled across with one name: Phil Brennan.

The bodies aren't found in random locations - they're all in places where DI Brennan has caught a murderer. Someone is sending him a message. And he thinks he knows who it is...

Shocking and thrilling, in this dramatic new Tania Carver thriller DI Phil Brennan and his wife, psychologist Marina Esposito, have their lives turned upside down as the past comes back to haunt their present with terrifying consequences.


My Review

Firsty, if you haven't read the previous books in the series I think you can get away with picking this one up. There are mentions to things that have happened in previous books and this series I have read out of order and just as I find them. DI Phil Brennan and his wife Marina Esposito (psychologist) have been through so much already, they are cautious and do keep on top of personal safety. When three male victims are found, all in places Brennan has connections to it is clear someone is trying to tell him something. A high profile kidnap puts everyone on edge and questioning everything they know and their team. The killer is fearless, clever and has one mission on her mind, no one and nothing will get in the way and Phil and Marina find themselves facing their greatest threat yet.

We open in italics, with a little girl and an event that will change her life forever, anytime we visit her the italics highlights the switch so we can follow the story with ease. There are many themes in this book, murder, psychological torture, rape, abuse, pedophilia, prostitution, police teamwork, grief and loss, to name but a few. Certainly not for the faint hearted or easily offended, some of the scenes are really tough to read even for the hardest fans of dark gritty crime.

The chapters are short making it easy for dipping in and out, the subject matter is horrific in parts and the pace finds the reader struggling to put it down. I have read Carver before and will read him again, I just may need a few fluffy reads inbetween to draw some balance again. Carver creates some really deprived criminals that disgusts you but keeps you hooked to discover just what creates such monsters. 4/5 for me this time, as I said I have read him before and I would read him again but warn readers to pick this one up with caution.

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Every Dark Corner by Karen Rose

Every Dark Corner by Karen Rose
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 4 days

Pages - 624

Publisher - Headline

Blurb from Goodreads



When FBI Special Agent Griffin 'Decker' Davenport wakes from his coma, he is desperate to find the missing children he knows are in danger. At the end of his last investigation, when he thought it was all over and justice had been served, he discovered that not everyone had been rescued, but was shot before he was able to tell anyone.

Special Agent Kate Coppola has recently moved to Cincinnati. She says she's chasing a promotion but she's actually running away from a heartache. She's found the recordings from Decker's last investigation and has been at his side at the hospital while she tries to put together the pieces. Together they will search every dark corner to find the kidnapped children and bring their captors into the light.



My Review

The FBI are on the verge of exposing and bringing down child abusers and kidnappers. FBI agent Davenport is now out from undercover but in critical condition in hospital in a coma. The team need his information to help bring down the ring and save the children. Plenty of people don't want Davenport to talk and will stop at nothing to save their lucrative business, including blackmail and murder.

This almighty chunk of a book has a lot going on in it, book 18 of a series and many main characters from previous stories lines. I haven't read them all but have read a fair few & think I will head back and pick the rest up. Kids are being taken and forced into the sex trade, drugs are a plenty with the professor making a mint from college kids to high roller professionals. He has more to lose than most and won't allow his empire to tumble down. With the content, some parts of the story can be for hard reading although unlike some books there isn't a huge focus on the minute details of abuse these kid endure.

The pace is relatively fast, we are either following the bad guys and their dastardly deeds, manipulation, violence and of course murders or with the police and the undeniable attraction between some of the characters, particularly Coppola & Decker. As well as being a fast paced police investigation we have some relationship developments, scenes of a sexual nature and bad language used throughout. Characters, there are many who are interlinked and have definitely featured in previous books and some of them are related, if you haven't read the previous books you will be able to follow them however reading the backlog would certainly help. We do get an insight into the background of some of the characters and a way of explanation for how they are they way they but no in great depth.

I think some people thought the book could have been condensed however I disagree, I think looking at how many characters actually feature and we visit different scenes involved each it works well. 4/5 for me this time, I will pursue the previous works I have missed and absolutely read anymore that come out from this series. Thanks to BookBridgr for sending me a review copy.

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