NetGalley Top Reviewer

NetGalley Top Reviewer
NetGalley Top Reviewer

Friday, July 20, 2018

The Birthday (DI Natalie Ward #1) by Carol E Wyer

DI Natalie Ward with the Samford Police Force has a chilling task -- to find the person who murdered 5-year-old Ava Sawyer and buried her behind a garden center 2 years ago. Ava had disappeared during a birthday party and was not found until the center was sold and excavation for expansion by the new owners had begun. After the discovery of the little girl's body, Natalie and her team are rocked by two new killings of little girls -- both found dressed in yellow party dresses.

DI Ward, Sergeants Lucy Carmichael, Murry Anderson, and PC Ian Jarvis make up the investigative unit that has a terrific job to do. Find out who is snatching and killing these little girls right under their noses. When a 4th girl is taken, the stakes are higher as this child is the daughter of a former detective who worked on the initial case. Can they find out the identity of the serial killer and stop him in time to save Sage?

Lots of red herrings and suspects in this one with the voice of the killer narrating an occasional chapter. Natalie is an interesting character, haunted by her failure in a former case involving a child, and is driven to solve this at the cost of her home and family life. I'm interested to see how she develops in the second book of this series. Looks like we will see more personal drama among members of the team as well. It's always fun to start a new series with fresh characters!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this e-book ARC to read and review.

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