Blurb:

Two girls go missing. Only one will return.
The couple that offers the highest amount will see their daughter again. The losing couple will not. Make no mistake. One child will die.

When nine-year-old best friends Charlie and Amy disappear, two families are plunged into a living nightmare. A text message confirms the unthinkable; that the girls are the victims of a terrifying kidnapping.

And when a second text message pits the two families against each other for the life of their children, the clock starts ticking for D.I. Kim Stone and the squad.

Seemingly outwitted at every turn, as they uncover a trail of bodies, Stone realises that these ruthless killers might be the most deadly she has ever faced. And that their chances of bringing the girls home alive, are getting smaller by the hour…

Untangling a dark web of secrets from the families’ past might hold the key to solving this case. But can Kim stay alive long enough to do so? Or will someone’s child pay the ultimate price?

Review:

I loved reading Lost Girls as a buddy read with Gemma from Between The Pages Book Club Blog..

I am delighted to be catching up with Detective Inspector (DI) Kim Stone once more. When the parent of a missing child requested Kim personally  I knew it would be a case that she (and I) could get my teeth into. Her determination and involvement in the cases is second to none and I knew I could trust her to get to the bottom of this horrific, but rather complex crime  Her boss brings in two new members of the team – Matt, a negotiator, and Alison  a psychological profiler – and I really enjoyed how this allowed Marsons to play with the team dynamics and give us some new characters to get to grips with

It is not just the regular characters who give the reader something to think about. The victims and their families all have their own stories and I enjoyed getting to know them too. There are chapters written from the perspective of the victims and this helped me to think about the different themes whilst also showing how horrific their ordeal was for them.

When I spoke with Angela Marsons on Twitter recently, she told me that Lost Girls is her favourite book in the series and I think I.can see why. The plotting is so clever and complex that it took me until about three quarters of the way through the book to work out how everything was connected  In the end, it comes together really well, with the huge levels of tension I now expect from these books. There is also a big twist that I did not see coming at all!

I’m looking forward to seeing what the next instalment brings!

Lost Girls is available from Amazon