Little Girl Lost by Brian McGilloway - A Review.

BOOK BLURB

During a winter blizzard a small girl is found wandering half-naked at the edge of an ancient woodland. Her hands are covered in blood, but it is not her own. Unwilling or unable to speak, the only person she seems to trust is the young officer who rescued her, Detective Sergeant Lucy Black. DS Black is baffled to find herself suddenly transferred from a high-profile case involving the kidnapping of a prominent businessman's teenage daughter, to the newly formed Public Protection Unit. Meanwhile, she has her own problems: caring for her Alzheimer's-stricken father; and avoiding conflict with her surly Assistant Chief Constable – who also happens to be her mother. As she struggles to identify the unclaimed child, Lucy begins to realise that this case and the kidnapping may be linked – by events that occurred during the blackest days of the country's recent history, events that also defined her own girlhood. Little Girl Lost is a devastating page-turner about corruption, greed and vengeance, and a father's love for his daughter. 

Review

I was lucky enough to meet Brian McGilloway at a literary festival last year and I am the proud owner of a signed copy of Little Girl Lost. The book has been sitting on my bookcase for a year screaming out to me to read it so I took the opportunity whilst on holiday.

The book is set in my lovely Northern Ireland and just up the road from where we stayed during our holiday break so we were able to visit a few of the places in the book. The story immediately grabs the reader by getting stuck into the exciting plot straight away. DS Lucy Black is an instantly likeable character who whilst struggling to find out who the little girl is plus stay involved in a local kidnapping case, is also fighting some personal battles of her own. Her father has Alzheimers and is rapidly deteriorating. Lucy desperately tries to cling on to the memory of the father she knew and loved whilst trying hard to accept that her father may not have been all she thought he was when she was a little girl.

Brian McGilloway has written a face-paced, exciting and very clever book that will hook you from the beginning right through to the end. With more than one back story going on, there is plenty to keep the reader engrossed. I read this book over two days and found it very hard to put down. Highly recommended.

BUY