Welcome Bookworm, make yourself at home and see the exciting book I have for you today! It’s the first in a new series of The Missing Children Case Files, featuring investigative journalist Emma Hunter and if this novel is anything to go by, I’ll definitely be reading the rest! While you help yourself to a slice of shortbread (ignore the cat, he’s not allowed any), let me tell you about the blurb:

Some secrets are too big to bury… Investigative journalist Emma Hunter never thought she’d be a bestselling author. Especially not for a blistering exposé of the brutal horrors committed at a children’s home. Some secrets breed in the dark… All she wants is to return home to the anchoring salt air and solitude of Weymouth where questions still fester unanswered and a twenty-year-old secret binds her to the beach. And some of them always escape… But then she finds herself sucked into the chaos of another cold case and soon realises the search for the missing girl will not only unearth the rot ravaging the safety of children across the south of England, but could even solve the mystery that has tortured her since she was seven years old.

And what about the author of this riveting book? Here she is, telling us a little about herself:

Hi, I’m M.A. Hunter and have been a huge fan of crime fiction since a young age, and always fancied the idea of trying to write some myself. That dream became a reality when One More Chapter signed The Missing Children Case Files series. Born in Darlington in the north-east of England, I grew up in West London, and moved to Southampton to study law at university. It’s here I fell in love and have been married for fifteen years. We are now raising our two children, on the border of The New Forest where we enjoy going for walks amongst the wildlife. We regularly holiday across England, but have a particular affinity for the south coast, which formed the setting for the series, spanning from Devon to Brighton, and with a particular focus on Weymouth, one of our favourite towns. When not writing, I regularly binge-watch the latest shows from streaming services, or have my head buried in the latest story from Angela Marsons, Simon Kernick, or Ann Cleeves.

So now it’s time for my review: The story is told in split times and from different perspectives. I didn’t take to the story or characters straight away and I think that’s due to the change from first person perspective in the present to the third person narrative in the past. Once I got used to it though, I was hooked!

Emma Hunter is a strong, likeable character and I found her easy to identify with. The fact that her introverted nature made her squirm with embarrassment when she was recognised from the media made me appreciate her all the more, as introversion and imposter syndrome are both things I can relate to. She has some interesting relationships within the book and I’m interested in learning more about her journalist friend, Rachel.

The Hilliard family came across as cold, spoiled and calculating to me and once opened, their personal can of worms just kept on wriggling out. I enjoyed the way the past and present were very cleverly linked together, even though I was at first puzzled as to how they were related.

I found this a fast-paced, page turner and would definitely recommend it to fans of Angela Marsons, Simon Kernick or Peter James.

Does that sound like a book to tempt you, bookworm? If so, you can purchase a digital copy via the following button (which I don’t get any commission or money for by the way) or the paperback will be available to purchase from 10th December 2020: