Series continues with another excellent procedural.
In this 16th book of the Detective Lottie Parker series, the entire team is consumed with an investigation involving the apparent murders of an entire family after they hosted a birthday party for the daughter, Freya. The inquiry is complicated by the subsequent disappearance of a mother and daughter in the neighborhood -- former good friends of the victims. The probe leads down one rabbit hole after another as the current crime is also tenuously linked to a decades old unsolved case where a mother and her daughter were also killed.
Keeping all the characters straight was definitely a feat as the complex plot continues to yield new clues. Secrets from the past are revealed that connect some really nasty actors. There is so much going on in this installment that I had to read it all in a single sitting to find out who did what to whom. In addition, Lottie is juggling so many professional and personal issues it's definitely a herculean feat that she holds it all sort of together. I like her but sometimes I want to shake her to pay attention to what's really important. She's the kind of flawed that makes her more human instead of a messed up torpedo bound for self destruction going off half cocked. I hope she can get her life a bit more together. Between her kids (this time Chloe gets into it) and Boyd, as well as her mom, Lottie still tries to solve the mystery and keeps her main focus there. I didn't particularly like how the end came so abruptly with some unanswered questions that made it a sort of cliffhanger.
Looking forward to the next episode.
Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for the e-book ARC to read, review, and recommend.
Book Blog Stop/Tour
This is the 16th book in a series that should be read in order.
Tags and genre: police procedural, crime thriller, murder, grooming, secrets and lies, abuse, sexual assault
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