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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The idea is there but everything just fell flat for me. I wanted more depth and gritty details. It felt like the answer to every question was "well thats just how it was".
The Lost Children is a debut detective novel by Helen Phifer , featuring DI Lucy Harwin
On DI Lucy first day back from work she comes across a heinous murder committed in an asylum that has been closed down for many years. The asylum was a place for troubled children and horrible crimes were committed against them . It finally shut down after a scandal but somebody is bent on taking revenge against the people who ran that place .DI Lucy and her team are on the case and piece by piece the horrors that the kids went through in the asylum are slowly revealed.
It’s a great start to the police procedural series with believable characters. A few twists , fast read and will definitely look forward to more in the series.
Many thanks to Bookouture & NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review.
This and more reviews at https://chloesbooksblog.wordpress.com/
On DI Lucy first day back from work she comes across a heinous murder committed in an asylum that has been closed down for many years. The asylum was a place for troubled children and horrible crimes were committed against them . It finally shut down after a scandal but somebody is bent on taking revenge against the people who ran that place .DI Lucy and her team are on the case and piece by piece the horrors that the kids went through in the asylum are slowly revealed.
It’s a great start to the police procedural series with believable characters. A few twists , fast read and will definitely look forward to more in the series.
Many thanks to Bookouture & NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review.
This and more reviews at https://chloesbooksblog.wordpress.com/
In the mid 70s, 9 year old Lizzie can’t stand her younger baby brother. He’s stolen her parents attention and all he does is cry. She decided to take matters into her own hands, and smothers him with a pillow. Unable to stand looking at their daughter, her parents send her to The Moore, an insane asylum for children, where lobotomies are a common practice.
Fast forward to the present day, a man is found murdered in the now abandoned asylum, and DI Lucy Harwin is called to the scene to investigate. Shortly after the man is found, another murder occurs, and Lucy can’t help but feel they are connected. It appears that someone is murdering people with connections to the old asylum. It’s up to Lucy to figure out who is committing the murders, and why now? As the murders escalate, Lucy finds that she too may be in danger…
It’s been a while since I’ve loved a police procedural so much! I sometimes find the police work piece to be a little tedious, but this was not the case with The Lost Children. I was instantly hooked from the first chapter where we are introduced to Lizzie and the other children in the asylum, and stayed hooked through the rest of the book.
The Lost Children is told primarily from Lucy’s point of view, however there are some chapters told from her partner Mattie’s point of view as well as from the killer’s. I loved having the glimpse into the killer’s mind and learning why they felt like these crimes needed to be committed. I also loved how everything tied together in the end. While I did have the ending figured out really quickly, that didn’t stop me from throughly enjoying the book.
I loved the writing in the book. It was quick and flowed well, and I felt that Phifer did an excellent job of showcasing the strengths and weaknesses of each character, while maintaining separate voices for each. I sometimes feel that characters sound too much the same in books where one character is the predominant lead, and the supporting characters end up sounding the same as the protagonist, but that was not the case here. Each character felt well developed and rounded out, and I really enjoyed that.
I also loved seeing where Lucy started and ended. She started the book with some issues with her daughter, love life, alcohol, and work, but ended the book in a much better place, and I really enjoyed reading that progression. The one tiny thing I didn’t love was the ending felt like it ended REALLY quickly. It was like I turned the page expecting more of a “what happens now” resolution, but the book was over. I know this is just the first book in the series, but the ending did feel a little abrupt, and I wish it had been elaborated on a little more. That said, I can’t wait to read the next book in the series and see where Lucy and Mattie are headed next!
Despite my small qualm with the end, I can’t find much fault in The Lost Children, and definitely recommend it for fans of thrillers and police procedurals. This was a 5 star read for me! A huge thank you to Netgalley, Helen Phifer, and Bookouture for an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review. The Lost Children is out now, so be sure to pick this one up now!
Fast forward to the present day, a man is found murdered in the now abandoned asylum, and DI Lucy Harwin is called to the scene to investigate. Shortly after the man is found, another murder occurs, and Lucy can’t help but feel they are connected. It appears that someone is murdering people with connections to the old asylum. It’s up to Lucy to figure out who is committing the murders, and why now? As the murders escalate, Lucy finds that she too may be in danger…
It’s been a while since I’ve loved a police procedural so much! I sometimes find the police work piece to be a little tedious, but this was not the case with The Lost Children. I was instantly hooked from the first chapter where we are introduced to Lizzie and the other children in the asylum, and stayed hooked through the rest of the book.
The Lost Children is told primarily from Lucy’s point of view, however there are some chapters told from her partner Mattie’s point of view as well as from the killer’s. I loved having the glimpse into the killer’s mind and learning why they felt like these crimes needed to be committed. I also loved how everything tied together in the end. While I did have the ending figured out really quickly, that didn’t stop me from throughly enjoying the book.
I loved the writing in the book. It was quick and flowed well, and I felt that Phifer did an excellent job of showcasing the strengths and weaknesses of each character, while maintaining separate voices for each. I sometimes feel that characters sound too much the same in books where one character is the predominant lead, and the supporting characters end up sounding the same as the protagonist, but that was not the case here. Each character felt well developed and rounded out, and I really enjoyed that.
I also loved seeing where Lucy started and ended. She started the book with some issues with her daughter, love life, alcohol, and work, but ended the book in a much better place, and I really enjoyed reading that progression. The one tiny thing I didn’t love was the ending felt like it ended REALLY quickly. It was like I turned the page expecting more of a “what happens now” resolution, but the book was over. I know this is just the first book in the series, but the ending did feel a little abrupt, and I wish it had been elaborated on a little more. That said, I can’t wait to read the next book in the series and see where Lucy and Mattie are headed next!
Despite my small qualm with the end, I can’t find much fault in The Lost Children, and definitely recommend it for fans of thrillers and police procedurals. This was a 5 star read for me! A huge thank you to Netgalley, Helen Phifer, and Bookouture for an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review. The Lost Children is out now, so be sure to pick this one up now!
Okay
Good enough story line. Likeable characters. But slow at times little bit predictable, but still some good twists and turns
Good enough story line. Likeable characters. But slow at times little bit predictable, but still some good twists and turns
solid procedural. i dont like the budding work romance. for me it took away from the story
This seems to be the same book as Dark House. A great listen.
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
What goes around comes around.
An old man is found brutally murdered in the ward 13 of an abandoned asylum known as The Moore, once home (or rather a prison) to difficult, unwanted or disabled children.
The police begin their investigations and when an old woman, once a nurse at the same asylum, is murdered, they realize there is a connection between the murders and the notorious asylum.
A dark, intense and unsettling read, The Lost Children is the first in the Detective Lucy Harwin series.
Thanks Andrea for the recommendation. x
An old man is found brutally murdered in the ward 13 of an abandoned asylum known as The Moore, once home (or rather a prison) to difficult, unwanted or disabled children.
The police begin their investigations and when an old woman, once a nurse at the same asylum, is murdered, they realize there is a connection between the murders and the notorious asylum.
A dark, intense and unsettling read, The Lost Children is the first in the Detective Lucy Harwin series.
Thanks Andrea for the recommendation. x
slow-paced