One Last Child by Anni TaylorMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Ah it's so hard to find a surprising crime novel these days but damn if she didn't do it. I had no idea where this was travelling.
Here's the lowdown: Five 3-year-olds go missing from a daycare excursion. One of the children is granddaughter to our cop protagonist, Kate, so you can bet she's gonna move earth and water to find the people responsible. Three years later, four of the kids show up unexpectedly. Now Kate is really mad because guess which one wasn't returned?
One thing that really struck me with this book is that it seems a lot of care was taken to research and include realistic details. Procedures, interview tactics, childcare, cameras and technology ... all of it seemed pretty in depth. I liked that.
This one is all about the children, but Kate's got another case as well, looking for a young woman's murderer, so that leads us down an interesting side-path to keep things varied. I always assumed they'd end up entwined somehow, but working multiple cases at a time is reality. So I enjoyed its inclusion.
Kate's a grandma so, as a single lady, her family stuff didn't really do much for me. She's got her rock solid husband, drama with the daughter, an ailing mother ... all things that I can't relate to. However I think there's a lot who will be able to relate to Kate and thus will feel a stronger bond with her. She didn't do much for me but she got the job done which I did enjoy.
The tension wasn't particularly tight throughout but I certainly had a lot of questions, and towards the end it got pretty hard to put down. Things went in directions I didn't expect and it all seemed to come together in the end quite well.
My thoughts on the ending:
(view spoiler)
Overall a decent crime novel that will keep you guessing. I'll be keeping an eye out for the next one.
With thanks to Netgalley for a copy.
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