Book Review: The Lost Girls of Penzance by Sally Rigby

  Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook, free of charge, from Storm Publishing via #netgalley, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it. All opinions are my own.

From the bestselling author of the Cavendish & Walker series, you won’t be able to put this murder mystery down. 

Synopsis:

The pale outline of bones in the dew-laden grass catches and holds Lauren's gaze. In the distance, she can hear the faint sound of crashing waves and the eerie screech of seagulls. Whose life was so brutally cut short in this beautiful, lonely place? 

Detective Lauren Pengelly has only been part of the Penzance police force for less than two years, but that’s enough time to know that the sleepy Cornish town doesn’t see many murders. So, when the bones of a woman with a hole in her skull are discovered behind a derelict cottage, she immediately assumes the worst.

Rallying her team, Lauren is flooded with a strange sense of relief when the bones turn out to be almost twenty years old, not a recent victim. But it quickly turns to dread when she receives her second heart-stopping call of the day – a little girl, Isla, has been kidnapped from her nursery and seemingly vanished, despite strict security in the building. Are the two cases connected, or could the peaceful town of Penzance be harbouring more than one monster?

With the help of Detective Matt Price, her newly arrived second-in-command, Lauren is certain the suspicious behaviour of Isla’s estranged father on the day of her disappearance is a critical clue. But when another little girl is taken, again from her nursery in the middle of the day, it’s clear Lauren and Matt are still dangerously far away from discovering the harrowing truth…

Review:

This is book 1 in the author's new a Cornwall murder mystery series. I have to admit up front that I was not a fan of Lauren, and that may have skewed my reading somewhat. I did guess who the suspect was rather quickly and that may have also played into my feelings about the story. As a police procedural it wasn't bad, I was just expecting more, based on the author's other books. While it's an engaging enough story with it's modern twist, I'm hoping that perhaps as the series evolves, both the character and the formula will turn a bit more traditional.

About the Author:

Northampton, UK. After leaving university she worked in magazines and radio, before finally embarking on a career lecturing in both further and higher education. Sally has always had the travel bug and after living in Manchester and London moved overseas. From 2001 she has lived with her family in New Zealand (apart from five years in Australia), which she considers to be the most beautiful place in the world. Sally is the author of the acclaimed Cavendish and Walker series, and the more recent Detective Sebastian Clifford series. In collaboration with another author, she also writes psychological thrillers.Sally has always loved crime fiction books, films and TV programmes. She has a particular fascination with the psychology of serial killers.