Series: Detective Jessie Blake #2
Published by Bookouture on September 26 2019
Amazon UK
Goodreads
Also by this author: Heartlands , Her Secret Past, Her Secret Past
She lays her baby in his cot – the sound of his quiet breath filling the nursery as she leaves the room. Soon Claire will be fast asleep herself. She won’t hear the back door opening or the footsteps on the stairs.
When Claire Lucas is woken by her husband asking where their baby son is, she is dazed and confused. When she follows Darren into their child’s bedroom, she hears nothing but silence. No baby cries, no cute gurgles. The only thing left in Finlay’s cot is his beloved teddy bear. Finlay has gone.
Detective Jessie Blake rushes to the family’s modern home in the rugged Scottish Highlands. She notices that Darren avoids eye contact, and Claire seems disconnected – unable to account for the last few hours of her afternoon. Jessie knows there’s no normal response to losing a child, but something doesn’t feel right.
Friends rally round the young family, as a search of the narrow lanes and green hills of Moncrieffe begins in earnest. And as helpers battle the wild Scottish weather, Jessie is sure that someone in the search party must know more than they’re letting on. Someone must have seen something.
As a ghost from her own past comes back to haunt her, Jessie must put aside her own personal tragedy to save baby Finlay. Can she get the people of the small town to talk before it’s too late?
If you love Cara Hunter, LJ Ross and Robert Bryndza, you’ll love this addictive new crime thriller from Kerry Watts. Safe Home will have you hooked from the start!
✮ My Review ✮
What I adore and love about Kerry’s books is the fact she throws so many characters at you, each with their own chapter and weaves a plot that you just couldn’t guess! So many red herrings, so many moments questioning what is in front of you and most importantly a bloody page-turner that is relentless. By introducing this small pool of characters each with their own chapter and subchapter just encourages you to keep flicking the pages, because just as something happens the point of view changes, making you eager to find out what is going but by no means breaking the flow of the story.
Her Missing Child is absolutely heartbreaking and I am glad that the main drive of this story is the characters. Like her previous book Heartlands, the characters drive and push this story to where it needs to go. We are led by them, each one prominent when they need to and fade in the background too only to appear when they need to.
I do love this series with Jessie Blake, I love her partnership with Dylan, and I feel we are slowly beginning to see more of her past and I have a feeling this will play a huge part in future books. It was a welcome addition to include Isla Wilde to the team of two, she was refreshing and she took everything in her stead, even though she was completely nervous about it. I hope she does move over to CID!!!
In Her Missing Child, ALL the characters are flawed and reckless, we unpick each of their lives, the pain, heartbreaks and anger resonate off the pages. So many mistakes have been made and it just takes that one tragedy to set off the Butterfly effect…I am pretty sure I said this last time with Heartlands. I think it’s safe to say that Watts has a formula that works fantastic for her, and I love it as a reader. I love the introduction to a pool of characters, I love that they have their own voice and their own story and we get to see and hear that although sometimes we just scratch the surface. This style of writing excites me and makes me want to find all the excuses in the world to not have to socialise and just sit and read all day! Although mini-me doesn’t make that easy!
With an ominous ending and no resolutions on some of the threads in this tightly woven plot, I have a feeling we may see more of some mysterious and not so mysterious characters in a future storyline…well I hope so! I really can’t wait to see what the future holds for Jessie Blake, please just let there be some sunshine for her!!!
Until next time xxx
What else has been said on tour?
This second book continues to pack a punch in what is looking to be a great series of police procedural/crimes books. It took me on a rollercoaster of suspense and tension which I didn’t want to get off until I’d reached the very end. Filled with twists and turns all the way through, this was an exciting and thrilling read.
B for Bookreview says
This is a kind of story where you could easily have pulled the sofa I was sitting in from under me and I would not have noticed in the slighest. I am often engrossed in a book, but when it’s about a child, it touches me in a different way. I suppose it’s because I am a mum too and you can better relate to the feelings of the parents? I see the the teddy bear on the cover and already my heart starts to break.
Blue Moon Blogger says
I have to say that I loved the first book in this series and had my hopes high for this one. Let me tell you Kerry Watts exceeded my expectations. This book had it all. Scandals, drama and lies, oh my. It took me on an emotional roller coaster ride that I never wanted to get off from. With every chapter the mystery deepened and you didn’t know who to trust and what was going to happen next. I couldn’t wait to find out what happened and devoured each page like it was the last. I couldn’t sleep until I found out what was going on. The ending blew my mind. I did not expect that at all. It was definitely twisted.
The Bookwormery says
With many characters, this has an intensity that fits with the fraught plot. It covers the many emotions of those affected by a missing child and mental health issues in such a compassionate way too.
A clever plot, full of emotions and tension, in a solid police procedural. A thoughtful and gripping read.
LoopyLou Laura says
This book was sooooo good. I read it in less than 24 hours. I really couldn’t put it down (poor Zach really didn’t get much attention from me that day!) Kerry Watts has written a truly wonderful police procedural novel that deals with a devastating topic and every parent’s worst nightmare. She cleverly misdirects the reader during the book so that we make assumptions about characters that then turn out to be innocent.
Be sure to also check out Shalini’s review by Blog buddy today!
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
yvonnembee says
Great review. I haven’t read anything by this author and she sounds like one I would enjoy, I love flawed characters!
Zoé says
It’s book 2 but you could get away with not reading the first, but don’t read it. The flawed characters are brilliantly done
likeherdingcatsblog says
Sounds great. Stop adding to my TBR pile ! ?
Zoé says
I’m innocent honest lol but glad in enticed you XX