Brian McGilloway gives Inspector Ben Devlin a bit of a holiday and introduces us to his new protagonist, DS Lucy Black of the PSNI Personal Protection Unit in Derry. During an investigation into the kidnapping of a local businessman's teenage daughter DS Black discovers a little girl wandering through a forest on a snowy night in nothing but her nightdress. It soon becomes apparent that the girl has been witness to something incredibly traumatic. So traumatic, in fact, that she retreats into herself and is unable to communicate. DS Black takes it upon herself to take the girl under her wing and try to get her to speak, but can she deal with an additional responsibility? She already cares for her senile father and has more than enough on her plate trying to crack the kidnapping case.
Little Girl Lost is quite a different book from anything McGilloway has written in the Devlin series. From the protagonist to the writing style, McGilloway has made a lot of changes, and all for the better. It should come with a warning, though. This one tugs, pulls and gnaws at your heart strings. Prepare to invest a lot of emotion into this read and don't expect to be paid back with the perfect Hollywood ending. McGilloway has gone all out. Little Girl Lost is darker than a Brothers Grimm fairy tale.
Word on the street is that this is the start of a new series (though we can expect a new Devlin book in the coming year) and this book proves that DS Black will be a welcome addition to the Northern Irish crime scene.
1 comment:
An intriguing departure for Mr. McGilloway. Stunning cover, too.
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