If I Can't Have You by Louise Mullins
Genre: Crime thriller, Police procedural
Read: 12th January 2023
Published: 3rd January 2023
★★★ 3 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Have you ever wanted something so much you'd do anything to get it?
I wanted her from the moment I laid eyes on her. I promised to do anything to make her mine. But like a caged bird all she wanted was to fly away.
Have you ever wanted someone so much you'd do anything to keep them?
When you love someone, you should never let them go.
MY THOUGHTS:
Having never read the author before, the premise intrigued me as it really didn't give a whole lot away. But even so, it was enough to whet my appetite to check it out. IF I CAN'T HAVE YOU is the third in the DI Emma Locke series but you don't have to have read the first two to make sense of this one as it suffices well enough as a standalone.
I was pulled into the story from the beginning when a young child was found wandering alone in the Welsh countryside at night with a blood-soaked dress. When a passerby tried approaching her, she fled into the dark. He instinctively called to report it to the police who then set about searching the darkened countryside for the little girl. Lead by DS Dafydd Tomos, the team scour the surroundings of an old farmhouse near to where the child was last seen.
While they do find the girl, whose description given was of a 5 year old, she is actually older than she appears due to malnutrition and various vitamin deficiencies. She doesn't speak and she appears to be frightened of women. Police can only test the blood on her dress to ascertain if it is hers or not, but she still refuses to utter a single word beyond "mum" and "hit head". What exactly took place in the remote farmhouse?
The team continue their search for clues leading to the identity of the little girl and whoever she was living with. They remove items with DNA to compare to the little girl and the blood found on her dress to see if she is any way related to these premises.
And then their search leads them to make a grim discovery...
DI Locke doesn't enter the picture until about halfway through the story and as soon as she does, it seems to take a different tangent to the point I felt as if I were reading a different story. DS Tomos had the leading role until DI Locke appeared and then he took a backseat, whilst still digging for answers. And then Emma's family life crossed over into her professional one whilst Tomos continued to remain professional at all times, despite suffering PTSD as a result of his time in the SAS and seeing his friend blown to smithereens and his wife having been confined to a wheelchair thanks to a drunk driver. Dafydd (Tomos) is an entirely likeable character who I really enjoyed whereas I found Emma Locke extremely hard to warm up to. She seemed to spend more time worrying about her alcoholic friend and his special needs son than the task at hand. And no one else seemed to have a problem with her scarpering in the middle of an investigation to make the two hour trek to Bristol on a hunch. No, she wasn't likeable.
To be honest, I enjoyed the first half of the book more than the second half. I think DI Locke's presence (or lack there of) spoilt it. But all throughout, the reader is waiting with baited breath for the child to speak and reveal what she had witnessed...or for the answers which come by the story's end. There is even a diary entry included that bears no relation to anything in the story...so why was it even included? And then an arrest/charge sheet for a suspect...that they haven't even caught yet! The whole thing is haphazard and makes no sense.
IF I CAN'T HAVE YOU (which I have no idea what the title even refers to) unfortunately doesn't give us any answers. Not really. Emma has scarpered, spending more time at home that at work, doing exactly what I'm not sure. And how did the case even end? Or did it? I'm not sure. I got to the final sentence, swiped my kindle to turn the page...and was greeted with a run-down on Book 4! That was it? I really felt cheated by the end. Nothing was resolved. Not really. And as intriguing as the story was (in the first half at least), nothing really happened except for the police chasing up forensics and scouring the farmhouse.
I give this book 3 stars which is more than I feel it deserves because it went absolutely nowhere, but for the fact I did really enjoy the first half and wished it continued in that vein throughout...along with some answers. I hate loose ends and books with no real ending.
I would like to thank #LouiseMullins, #DarkEdgePress and #ZoolooTours for an ARC of #IfICantHaveYou in exchange for an honest review.
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