Sara-Jayne Townsend is a published crime and horror writer and likes books in which someone dies horribly. She is founder and Chair Person of the T Party Writers’ Group. http://sarajaynetownsend.weebly.com/
Elspeth, Meggy and Xavier are locked in a flat. They don’t know where they are, and they don’t know why they’re there. They only know that the Shadow Man has taken them, and he won’t let them go.
So reads the blurb of this book, which begins as a fairly standard crime thriller. A woman has gone missing, and the case has hallmarks of another one, in which a woman has been found murdered in her bed. There are a lot of books out there that start off with the murder and/or kidnap of a woman, but this one puts an original spin on many of the tropes of the genre, leading to an intriguing and original story.
First of all, there are two other kidnap victims – a 12-year-old girl, and a disabled man. The disparity of the victims means it’s quite some time before the investigating police actually work out that they have all been taken by the same person.
The book is told partly from the point of view of each of the kidnapped victims, partly from the point of view of the kidnapper, and partly from the point of view of psychological profiler Connie Woolwine, working the case with Detective Inspector Brodie Baarda.
The kidnapper’s point of view throws up another rather interesting twist, because he suffers from an extremely rare but apparently real medical disorder that explains his motivations, and why he ends up kidnapping three victims so different that the police struggle to connect the cases. Connie, who is a far more interesting character than D.I. Baarda, ultimately comes up with the crucial piece of information that allows the police to connect all the kidnap cases.
Meanwhile the victims are busy trying to find an escape route, and it’s 12-year-old Meggy who proves to be more resourceful, and a far more mature and ‘together’ character than Elspeth, the grown woman who largely just falls to pieces. But again, this turns another rather tired trope on its head, when the child victim turns out to be far from helpless, and ends up looking after the adults.
Psychological profilers are two a penny in crime thrillers, but Connie’s background make her an interesting character with a refreshingly different perspective, and I enjoyed reading about her. I hope the author is planning to write more books featuring this character.
