REVIEW: The Altar Girls by Patricia Gibney

The Altar Girls (Detective Lottie Parker #13) by Patricia Gibney

Genre: Crime fiction, Crime thriller, Mystery, Police procedural

Read: 27th November 2023

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Amazon

Published: 9th November 2023

★★★★ 4 stars

DESCRIPTION:

The little girl looked like an angel in her thin white robe, her long black hair spread around her head like a dark halo on the snow. Her hands rested on her chest, fingers interlaced as if she had fallen asleep while praying. But she would never wake up again…

When Detective Lottie Parker receives news that a child’s body has been found in the frozen grounds of the cathedral, a shiver runs down her spine. She’s terrified it will be eight-year-old Willow Devine, reported missing that morning.

But when she arrives at the cathedral, holding a photo of Willow with her blonde ponytail and gap-toothed smile, she gets a terrible shock. The body is a young girl, wrapped in a white shroud, a rosary clutched in her frozen fingers. But her hair is dark, not fair. This girl isn’t Willow but another eight-year-old, Naomi.

Desperate to find a connection between the two girls and to find Willow before it is too late, Lottie speaks to the girls’ families and discovers that both girls were altar servers at the cathedral. The charismatic priest Father Maguire has a watertight alibi for the time the girls went missing, but Lottie suspects the confused old lady traumatised by the discovery of Naomi’s body is hiding something…

A day later, Willow’s little body is found wrapped in a white robe in the snowy grounds of a church across town. Lottie is devastated, convinced now that she can’t trust anyone, least of all the girls’ parents. Why did Willow’s mother claim the girls didn’t know each other? And why are there no photos of Naomi in her mother’s shabby house?

But when a little boy from the choir goes missing too, Lottie realises she must spread her net wider. Can she stop this twisted killer before another precious life is stolen?

A completely compelling page-turner from bestselling author Patricia Gibney. If you like Rachel Caine, Kendra Elliott and Robert Dugoni, The Altar Girls will have you hooked.

MY THOUGHTS:

The thirteenth installment of the Lottie Parker series, I'm beginning to wonder if Lottie and Boyd are ever getting married. They've been engaged forever. But then again, life hasn't gotten easier either. 

Last book Boyd had brought his 8 year old son Sergio to England to live with him...until Boyd's ex-wife Jackie returned and snatched him back, thus scarpering and living in hiding for the past three months. Boyd has spent the past three months searching for them to no no avail. Jackie and Sergio had vanished.

As for Lottie, her mum's dementia is progressing and this time I am finding that part of the storyline a little confronting as my own dad suffers from dementia and we have just put him in a care facility kicking and screaming, so it was just a little too close to home for him this time round. Of course, I don't see why her children don't help out a little more. They are all living at home and are better placed to do so rather than Lottie who works 20 hour days, especially when on an investigation.

This time the case at hand are two little girls found within hours of each other in the midst of a snowtstorm in the cathedral ground, clasping a hymn sheet in their hands. Why would someone kill two 8 year old girls? They were both in the choir there and from single parent families struggling to make ends meet. Is this a coincidence? The more Lottie digs, the answers keep coming back to Father Keith Macguire and the cathedral. Is he as innocent as he claims?

A parallel story is one of a car crash in Ballina in the north of the country with the body of an unidentified woman inside. No one knows who she is. There was no handbag, no identification, nothing to indicate who she might be. What has she to do with the case in Ragmullin?

This is one of the longer tales Gibney has spun at over 500 pages but it didn't feel as such with the short snappy chapters that kept the pace moving steadily along. But every time I pick up a book in this series it always seems to be snowing and is perpetually freezing. I know they have a totally different climate to me but it can't always be that cold ALL THE TIME. hahaha. I have friends from Northern Ireland and it rains...a lot...but they do get blue skies and the occasional nice day. Every book in this series seems to be shrouded in snow.

Anyway, it is another exciting addition to the series and wrapped up nicely by the end. I do have to wonder will Boyd and Lottie ever get married? They very nearly made it twice but now life just seems to get in the way. Ms Gibney, please give them their happy ending.

Overall, another compelling and enjoyable addition to the series.

I would like to thank #PatriciaGibney, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheAltarGirls in exchange for an honest review.

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Patricia Gibney is an Irish author of crime fiction who sold 100,000 copies of her first crime thriller as an e-book, and had total sales exceeding 500,000 copies in 2018. By 2019, total book sales had passed one million.

Patricia is from Mullingar, County Westmeath and has lived there all her life. She spent 30 years working with Westmeath County Council.

When her husband died in 2009, aged 49, three months after a diagnosis of cancer, Patricia turned to art and writing, self-publishing a children's book entitled 'Spring Sprong Sally'. She then started writing crime fiction and created her first novel in that genre featuring DI Lottie Parker with 'The Missing Ones'. She worked with the Irish Writers Centre to improve her writing. Eventually she began a second novel 'The Stolen Girls' and through that acquired an agent and a publishing contract with Bookouture.

Patricia currently has 11 DI Lottie Parker novels to date, with the eleventh 'The Guilty Girl' to be published in June 2021, and is set in the fictional Irish town of Ragmullin, which is an anagram of the real-life town of Mullingar, where Patricia lives.

Social Media Links:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

PUBLISHER:

Stay up to date with upcoming releases from Bookouture by following them on these social media accounts.

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

 

REVIEW: Three Widows by Patricia Gibney

Three Widows (Detective Lottie Parker #12) by Patricia Gibney

Genre: Crime thriller, Crime fiction, Police procedural

Read: 11th February 2023

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Published: 10th February 2023

★★★★ 4 stars

DESCRIPTION:

She kissed her daughter, turned out the light and entered her own room. Too late to run, she stood frozen as a figure stepped out from behind the door and a hand covered her mouth. Fear was a bomb in her chest ready to explode. Her children. They’d already lost their daddy; they couldn’t lose her too.

When young widow Éilis Lawlor disappears in the middle of the night, with her two little children asleep in their beds, it is a chilling case for Detective Lottie Parker. Since her husband’s tragic death, Éilis is all her children have, and when Lottie sees Éilis’s house keys and phone still lying on the kitchen counter, she is terrified for the vulnerable mother’s safety.

Then Éilis’s broken body is found by a nearby lake, wrapped in an unfamiliar yellow dress, her mouth sealed with duct tape – and Lottie’s worst fears are confirmed. Someone wanted this beautiful widow dead.

Desperate to find the person behind this brutal crime, Lottie discovers that Éilis was a member of a support group for widows. And when Jennifer, a close friend of Éilis’s from the group, is found on a rubbish heap, wrapped in a yellow dress, Lottie vows to get justice.

Lottie dives into Jennifer’s past, and learns that she had lived a reclusive life since her husband died. She hadn’t been seen at work for months and had sheltered inside her immaculate home, only emerging for meetings with the group. But when Lottie questions the other women about Jennifer’s isolation, they claim to know nothing.

Lottie is certain that the remaining widows are hiding something. Can she uncover the truth before another innocent life is lost?

An absolutely gripping and totally addictive thriller that will keep you racing through the pages all night long. Fans of Robert Dugoni, Rachel Caine and Karin Slaughter will devour Three Widows in one sitting!

MY THOUGHTS:

This is the eighth book in the series I have read (somehow missing books 2 to 5) and I have enjoyed watching Lottie's character grow and that of her children. However, they featured very little in this one as opposed to some previous ones. But as with the theme in all the books, Lottie's life is not an easy one. She now lives in the large house she inherited but it is in much need of repair and renovation but as Lottie spends so little time there, she hardly has had time to organise it.

This time round she is doing battle with her mother Rose who has developed dementia and is becoming even more unreasonable than normal, making Lottie's life a lot harder. Added to that is the sudden appearance of her significant other's eight year old son Sergio, who Boyd had only just found out about recently, his ex-wife having kept his son a secret until it suited her.

But Lottie has little time to ponder these troubles as a woman's body has been found on an industrial estate's wasteland, her battered body broken and her eyes gouged out. The victim was also wearing a yellow dress two sizes too big for her and her body has been washed of any DNA or forensic trace. It is soon discovered she was a member of a widow's support group called Life After Loss. And then another woman is discovered missing after her two young children raise the alarm to their babysitter that they can't find their mother. When a second body turns up, the team brace themselves for those little children becoming orphans.

Then another goes missing, along with two others and before long the bodycount is rising and the suspect pool is dwindling. Surely they can't all be killed off or they would have no one left. But the further the team dig, it appears everything comes back to missing businessman Tyler Keating who disappeared a year ago.

What do the widows and the missing businessman have in common? More to the point, what do their deaths have to do with his disappearance? Are they linked in some way? In one of their baffling and most disturbing cases yet, Lottie, Boyd and the team have their work cut out for them in their race against time before any more women are killed.

And then on top of Lottie's home life and the growing crime rate of Ragmullin, Boyd must now also contend with the reappearance of his ex-wife Jackie who has a proposition to put to him if he wants to keep his son. Honestly, I questioned as to why this was even included. Jackie is a nasty piece of work. She is so self-absorbed she can't possibly care more for her son than she does for herself and her inclusion in this story was so minimal it may not have even been there. All it served to do was put Boyd in a constant bad mood for the entire book. My one wish is that Gibney would just kill Jackie off in the next book PLEASE!!! There is enough angst going on we don't need anymore of what Jackie has to offer.

And speaking of another bone of contention...Lottie and Boyd. Can they just get married already? I mean Lottie even made it to her wedding day (and maybe even the church) but from memory Boyd didn't? And of course something had to throw it all to crap and stop them from finally marrying after half a dozen books of them will they/won't they. After twelve books, fans are getting bored and antsy of this crap and just want them to get it together at long last. I mean, are they even still engaged?

And then there is the motive for the actual murders that were the focus of this book. I mean, what was that? By the end, there were like only four people left that it could possibly be so the suspect pool was very small indeed. But when it was revealed I was like...really? Yeah...ok. I guess the motive kind of makes a weird kind of sense but it was just a tad delusional and kind of a let down by the end of the book. After 507 pages, I expected something a little more exciting that made a lot more sense.

However, don't get me wrong. I love this series and for the most part this was going to be a five star review. Until the end. And the senseless inclusion of Jackie. 

Overall, THREE WIDOWS is one of the darkest stories of the series that is compelling and a real pageturner. But not one of my favourites. Gibney can do better. And I look forward to seeing where she takes us next.

I would like to thank #PatriciaGibney, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #ThreeWidows in exchange for an honest review.

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Patricia Gibney is an Irish author of crime fiction who sold 100,000 copies of her first crime thriller as an e-book, and had total sales exceeding 500,000 copies in 2018. By 2019, total book sales had passed one million.

Patricia is from Mullingar, County Westmeath and has lived there all her life. She spent 30 years working with Westmeath County Council.

When her husband died in 2009, aged 49, three months after a diagnosis of cancer, Patricia turned to art and writing, self-publishing a children's book entitled 'Spring Sprong Sally'. She then started writing crime fiction and created her first novel in that genre featuring DI Lottie Parker with 'The Missing Ones'. She worked with the Irish Writers Centre to improve her writing. Eventually she began a second novel 'The Stolen Girls' and through that acquired an agent and a publishing contract with Bookouture.

Patricia currently has 11 DI Lottie Parker novels to date, with the eleventh 'The Guilty Girl' to be published in June 2021, and is set in the fictional Irish town of Ragmullin, which is an anagram of the real-life town of Mullingar, where Patricia lives.

Social Media Links:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

PUBLISHER:

Stay up to date with upcoming releases from Bookouture by following them on these social media accounts.

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

REVIEW: The Guilty Girl by Patricia Gibney

The Guilty Girl ( DI Lottie Parker #11) by Patricia Gibney

Genre: Crime fiction, Crime thriller, Police procedural

Read: 14th June 2022

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Published: 15th June 2022

★★★★★ 4.5 stars (rounded up)

DESCRIPTION:

Something whistling through the door behind her caused her to turn. A shadow spread across the opening. She clasped a hand to her mouth, stilling the fear that was rising. The menacing shadow was followed by a face that sent a cold shiver down her spine…

When the call comes in about Lucy, a seventeen-year-old girl murdered after the secret party she held in her parents’ home, Detective Lottie Parker is first on the scene. As she picks her way through the smashed glasses and the blood spatter on the perfect cream carpet, she is horrified to see Lucy’s angelic face, silvery-blue eyes forever closed.

As Lottie breaks the news to Lucy’s heartbroken parents and the devastated partygoers, she discovers that hours before her death Lucy had revealed a terrible secret about her friend Hannah. And when Lottie finds Lucy’s bloodstained clothing hidden in Hannah’s bedroom, she has no option but to bring the shy, frightened girl into custody.

But Hannah claims to have no memory of the night Lucy died and Lottie begins to question her guilt. Then a fifteen-year-old boy who also attended the party is pulled from the canal. And as Lottie investigates, she discovers something shocking. Her own son Sean was at the party. Why did he lie to her? Is her beloved child a witness or a suspect… or is he now in the killer’s sights?

If you love Karin Slaughter, Robert Dugoni and Rachel Caine, you’ll be hooked by this heart-stopping thriller from Patricia Gibney. The Guilty Girl will have you gripped until the very last page.

MY THOUGHTS:

I am excited to be taking part in the #BooksOnTour #BlogTour for Patricia Gibney's lates crime thriller THE GUILTY GIRL.

With the exception of four of the earlier books, I have followed Detective Lottie Parker since the beginning. Having met Lottie and her team in the very first book "The Missing Ones" and absolutely loving it, I was surprised to have missed the next four before picking the series up in "Final Betrayal". With a title such as that, I feared it was the end of the series before I'd read the others (as Victoria Jenkins ended her King and Lane series around the same time and I had discovered both series together). However, that was six books ago and Lottie and her team are still crime fighting in Ragmullin. While I have enjoyed each book, THE GUILTY GIRL is by far up there with the first one "The Missing Ones" which drew me into Lottie's world from the beginning. And I loved it.

In the past we have seen Lottie's children somehow or other become involved in her cases somewhere along the line and this one is no different. Her youngest and only son, Sean, is a witness to the case Lottie finds herself landed with and she wonders how to keep this from her superiors whilst investigating the case. She knows beyond a reasonable doubt that Sean isn't involved...that he is just a witness...and she can be objective, right?

Seventeen year old Lucy McAllister throws a party at her parent's affluent home, whilst they are holidaying in Spain for three weeks, to celebrate the end of their exams and the school year. Amongst the guests is Lottie's seventeen year old son Sean who was out of his comfort zone and left early, clocking his mother outside in her car who then took him home. The clandestine party ends in the wee hours but when the cleaner arrives the following morning she gets more than she bargained for when she discovers Lucy's lifeless body upstairs.

Lottie is called in to investigate and is shocked to find it is the house from which she picked Sean up the night before and proceeds to question him about what he may have seen. What she doesn't know is that Sean crept back to the McAllisters around 4am because he'd left his very expensive leather jacket behind and feared his mum would go spare if he lost it. What he didn't expect was to walk into a crime scene and make a discovery that would leave him wondering what to do.

The investigation leads Lottie to Hannah Byrne, one of the party guests, who has no recollection of the evening beyond the cruel humiliation Lucy caused her. But when the team find a bloodied towel in Hannah's rucksack and what appears to be bloody beneath her fingernails, Lottie hauls the confused young woman in for questioning. But Hannah shows signs of having been drugged particularly when she has no memory of anything surrounding the event. Despite this, most of the evidence points towards Hannah's guilt - or involvement at the very least - along with another party guest who also appears to be hiding something.

And then another, even younger, victim who had been at Lucy's party turns up floating in the canal. He was only fifteen. The only possible motive is that he knew too much. After all, it was very probably him who spiked Hannah's drink at the party...but why? What did he possibly have to gain from it? And what does it mean for Lottie's son, Sean? 

Meanwhile, Boyd is on holiday is Malaga where he is spending some quality time with his newly discovered son, Sergio. Little does he know that his holiday will turn into a working one with possible links to Spain via the McAllisters who had been holidaying there when their daughter was murdered. 

Amid everything that is going on, Lottie must also deal with her mother Rose who is showing signs of a heartbreaking decline and moves into Farrensworth House with the rest of the Parker clan. I foresee this becoming an aspect that Lottie must face in the next installment to come.

THE GUILTY GIRL is a chilling, thrilling fast paced read that begins with readers looking at things one way and ends with us seeing it all in a whole other light. What first begins as a cruel joke that may have gotten out of hand soon turns out to be something far darker at play. There wasn't even a hint of what was to come in the beginning until one of Lottie's team, Maria Lynch, uncovered something amiss on social media. The subject matter is at times dark and disturbing but it is handled with sensitivity and care.

A fantastic read by all accounts, THE GUILTY GIRL is one of the best in the series I've read alongside the very first one which I also loved. I love the mix of procedural with thriller as we are privy to the various aspects of those involved. I always like procedurals written this way as it takes the mundaneness and monotony out of it solely being from a police perspective. It adds to the thrill and picks up the pace a whole lot more, making the story a whole lot more exciting.

If you like procedurals that are engaging and a little more than just a procedural, I highly recommend you check out Lottie Parker and her team. And THE GUILTY GIRL is up there as one of the best so far.

I would like to thank #PatriciaGibney, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheGuiltyGirl in exchange for an honest review.

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Patricia Gibney is an Irish author of crime fiction who sold 100,000 copies of her first crime thriller as an e-book, and had total sales exceeding 500,000 copies in 2018. By 2019, total book sales had passed one million.

Patricia is from Mullingar, County Westmeath and has lived there all her life. She spent 30 years working with Westmeath County Council.

When her husband died in 2009, aged 49, three months after a diagnosis of cancer, Patricia turned to art and writing, self-publishing a children's book entitled 'Spring Sprong Sally'. She then started writing crime fiction and created her first novel in that genre featuring DI Lottie Parker with 'The Missing Ones'. She worked with the Irish Writers Centre to improve her writing. Eventually she began a second novel 'The Stolen Girls' and through that acquired an agent and a publishing contract with Bookouture.

Patricia currently has 11 DI Lottie Parker novels to date, with the eleventh 'The Guilty Girl' to be published in June 2021, and is set in the fictional Irish town of Ragmullin, which is an anagram of the real-life town of Mullingar, where Patricia lives.

Social Media Links:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

PUBLISHER:

Stay up to date with upcoming releases from Bookouture by following them on these social media accounts.

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

REVIEW: Little Bones by Patricia Gibney

Little Bones (DI Lottie Parker #10) by Patricia Gibney

Genre: Crime fiction, Crime thriller, Police prodecural

Read: 22nd September 2021

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Published: 22nd September 2021

★★★★ 4.5 stars

DESCRIPTION:

She lifted up her granddaughter from the cot, clutched her to her chest and, without looking at her beautiful daughter lying dead on the floor of her bedroom, ran from the house. Only when she was outside did she let a wail escape her lips, frightening the baby who joined in her screams.

When Isabel Gallagher is found murdered on the floor of her baby’s nursery by her mother, it’s a gruelling case for Detective Lottie Parker. Isabel’s pyjamas have been ripped, her throat cut and an old-fashioned razor blade placed in her hand. As Lottie looks at the round blue eyes and perfect chubby cheeks of Isabel’s baby daughter, she can’t understand who would want to hurt this innocent family.

That very same day she receives a call with devastating news. Another young mother, Joyce Breslin, has gone missing, and her four-year-old son Evan has been abducted from daycare. Lottie is sure that the missing mother and son are linked to Isabel’s death, and when she finds a bloody razor blade in their house, her worst fears are confirmed.

Desperate to find little Evan, Lottie leaves no stone unturned as she delves into Isabel and Joyce’s pasts and when she realises the two women have been meeting in secret, she knows she must find out why.

But when Joyce’s body is found in a murky pond and some little bones are found on a windy hillside, it feels as if this merciless killer will stop at nothing. The bones aren’t Evan’s but can they give Lottie the final clue to find the innocent child before more lives are taken?

This absolutely gripping and unputdownable crime thriller from bestselling author Patricia Gibney will leave you gasping for breath. A perfect read for fans of Angela Marsons, Robert Dugoni and Rachel Caine.

MY REVIEW:

I am excited to be taking part in the #BooksOnTour #BlogTour for Patricia Gibney's action-packed crime thriller LITTLE BONES.

I always look forward to a new Lottie Parker book and, as the tenth in the series, LITTLE BONES doesn't disappoint. What I love so much about this series is it is not wholly procedural and we get perspectives from various other players in the story - the victims, their families and even the villain themselves. Patricia Gibney continues to keep readers guessing from the first page to the very last and I admit to being hoodwinked for much of the book.

The story opens with a graphic prologue which will leave you heartbroken as to its outcome and yet it pulls no punches. The characters in the prologue are unnamed but as the story progresses we begin to work out who they are, with the final piece revealed as the tension in the climax builds.

DI Lottie Parker has a busy professional life as well as a confusing personal one. Having partially inherited the rambling dilapidated Farranstown House from her biological mother (revealed in a previous book) with her half brother who is living in New York, Lottie and her family move in with Boyd half living there, half not. Along with her children - daughters Katie and grandson Louis, Chloe and youngest son Sean - Lottie is trying to balance renovating the place so that it is half liveable whilst juggling her busy career. Her mother Rose is a constant fixture, although she has her own place, who is often there cooking up a storm for when Lottie and Boyd return home.

And then they get a call to a murder scene in which mother Anita Boland discovers upon arriving at her daughter Isabel's place to babysit three month old Holly. Unable to raise her daughter at the door, she enters and after a search of the house, hears Holly crying from the bedroom and finds Isabel in a pool of blood, brutally murdered in front of her daughter. When Lottie arrives she learns that the SOCOs have discovered a razor blade clutched within her hand and healed cut marks on her feet. What does this all mean? Lottie enlists one of her team to find Isabel's husband, Jack Gallagher. With his abrupt and abrasive attitude, it doesn't take long for the detectives to suspect him of having committed the crime. Particularly when they learn Isabel had no mobile phone and was given a small allowance for groceries and anything else she may need.

Then another woman, Joyce Breslin, goes missing when she fails to pick her son Evan up from daycare...but how is she linked to Isabel? Then the team discover that Isabel had once worked at the daycare, Bubbles, until her pregnancy deemed it too difficult. She was apparently to have met with the owner, Sinead Foley, of Bubbles the morning of her murder to discuss Holly attending. An appointment that was never kept. Sinead keeps Evan with her into the night, hoping that Joyce or her partner long distance lorry driver Nathan would soon collect the boy. But then Evan disappears from Sinead's house while she was in preparing the daycare room for the following day. There was no sign of a break-in, so did the abductor have a key?

When Joyce's car is found abandoned by a lake revealing nothing except for an envelope stuffed down the side of the driver's seat with an address and a razor blade, Lottie is convinced Joyce's disappearance is linked to the murder of Isabel. The question is, how? How do the two women know each other?

In an attempt to find Joyce's missing little four year old boy, one of Lottie's team, Kirby, decides to look into the address found in the envelope. It had to be of some significance to have been left in Joyce's car. When he manages to gain entry to the seemingly abandoned house he discovers what looks to be an old crime scene with splatters of dried blood in the kitchen and in the cot upstairs. Further investigation reveals razor blades hidden in a scarf in a cupboard. Kirby has an awful feeling about this.

Added to that is the discovery of some old bones belonging to a child found on an ancient site by a tree on a hillside. But how are all these apparent crimes and crime scenes linked? They nearly all involve razor blades, bar those of the children. So what links them all? Lottie cannot figure it out. But time is running out for little Evan unless Lottie and her team can find the little boy before it's too late. And on top of that, she and Boyd still haven't managed to tie the knot after their failed wedding in a previous book when Boyd fell ill.

There is a lot going on in this book that makes Lottie's head spin, but it is clear from the start that each part is a piece of the puzzle that ties the two women, and their secrets, together. Tensions are high as the race is on to solve the convoluted case, or cases, before time runs out. The pace remains steady throughout which is hitched up a notch as the tensions builds to a spectacular climax. The suspect pool is huge and continues to grow, leaving Lottie and her team at a loss trying to figure out what's going on.

LITTLE BONES is a fantastic addition to the Lottie Parker series which just seems to get better and better. I just wish Lottie and Boyd would hurry up already. And Katie, her eldest daughter, really should have found her feet by now. She was living in New York throughout the last book but now she's returned having decided that Farranstown is the perfect place to raise her son Louis. Although she doesn't feature as heavily in this books as previous ones, in fact none of Lottie's children do this time, she still comes across as a little flaky. 

A solid procedural-cum-crime thriller, LITTLE BONES is an enjoyable read and a spectacular addition to the series. And as to expected from previous books in the series, LITTLE BONES ends with a cliffhanger of sorts to be resolved in the next installment. I look forward to that, however I expect I will have forgotten it by then as I have where the previous one left off also.

A good solid read with a fairly likeable team, LITTLE BONES can be read as a standalone but to do so one would miss out on some important background pertinent to the series as it stands today. Perfect for fans of Carol Wyer Victoria Jenkins King and Lake series and Carla Kovach.

I would like to thank #PatriciaGibney, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #LittleBones in exchange for an honest review.

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Patricia Gibney is an Irish author of crime fiction who sold 100,000 copies of her first crime thriller as an e-book, and had total sales exceeding 500,000 copies in 2018. By 2019, total book sales had passed one million.

Patricia is from Mullingar, County Westmeath and has lived there all her life. She spent 30 years working with Westmeath County Council.

When her husband died in 2009, aged 49, three months after a diagnosis of cancer, Patricia turned to art and writing, self-publishing a children's book entitled 'Spring Sprong Sally'. She then started writing crime fiction and created her first novel in that genre featuring DI Lottie Parker with 'The Missing Ones'. She worked with the Irish Writers Centre to improve her writing. Eventually she began a second novel 'The Stolen Girls' and through that acquired an agent and a publishing contract with Bookouture.

Patricia currently has 8 DI Lottie Parker novels to date, with the ninth 'Silent Voices' to be published in February 2021, and is set in the fictional Irish town of Ragmullin, which is an anagram of the real-life town of Mullingar, where Patricia lives.

Social Media Links:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

PUBLISHER:

Stay up to date with upcoming releases from Bookouture by following them on these social media accounts.

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

REVIEW: Silent Voices by Patricia Gibney

Silent Voices (DI Lottie Parker #9) by Patricia Gibney

Genre: Crime fiction, Police procedural

Read: 30th January 2021

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Published: 5th February 2021

★★★★ 4 stars

DESCRIPTION:

The words blurred as she read the note. She could feel her blood turning to ice. ‘Before you make the biggest mistake of your life, meet me. If you don’t, her blood will be on your hands.’

When Beth Mullen returns home, expecting to find her twin Rachel waiting for her, the silent house sends a shiver down her spine. She races upstairs to find her beautiful beloved sister cold in her childhood bed, her sparkling blue eyes closed forever, the morning after attending a glittering party…

Newly engaged Detective Lottie Parker knows that Rachel has been murdered the minute she enters the bedroom. Rachel’s neck is bruised and a shard of glass placed in her throat. Confronted with such a horrifying killing, Lottie wastes no time in pursuing every clue.

While interviewing the partygoers, Lottie discovers that Rachel’s handbag and keys are nowhere to be found. But as she is searching for them, a brilliant young doctor is found murdered with glass in her throat. The doctor was nowhere near the party and Lottie is forced to question everything. Two beautiful young women with the world at their feet have been brutally silenced. Why did the killer need them to die?

Desperate to find proof of what really happened to Rachel that night, Lottie gets close to the hostess of the party, whose two daughters were friends with Rachel. But Lottie’s hunt for the truth is getting under the killer’s skin, and when Lottie’s fiancé Boyd goes missing, will she be able to find him before it’s too late? Or will he too be silenced forever?

An unputdownable crime thriller from bestselling author Patricia Gibney, with an ending that will blow your mind. If you like Lisa Regan, Robert Dugoni and Rachel Caine you’ll be totally hooked by Silent Voices.  

MY REVIEW:

I am excited to be taking part in the #BooksOnTour #BlogTour for Patricia Gibney's latest crime thriller SILENT VOICES.

It only seems like yesterday that I first met DI Lottie Parker, DS Mark Boyd and her team. And here we are at book 9! I may have missed a few in between the first books and where I next picked up with Lottie and Boyd, but it feels as though I have been with them every step of the way. And when a new book comes along it is always a treat to catch up with them all once again.

That being said, SILENT VOICES suffices quite well as a standalone (as does each book in this series) but as with all series it is always best to start from the beginning to get to know the characters and their backstories. Sure, I've missed a few pertinent happenings but I'm well caught up in the books that have followed since.

This 9th installment of the DI Lottie Parker series may be called SILENT VOICES, but I think "Silent Screams" might have been a better choice, given how the victims in the book died...which soon becomes clear.

For the past several books, we have been skirting around Lottie and Boyd's engagement and wonder are they ever going to get married?  After all, the two certainly danced around the topic often enough. But finally, that day has arrived. After an opening which saw the death of a young boy being pushed to his death in a quarry, we then move on to the prologue which sees Lottie out of her standard jeans and shirt and wearing a chiffon dress in front of a mirror, pondering the day ahead. This is her wedding day! After a tumultuous week, she and Boyd were finally getting married! But when she walks outside and sees her daughters, her mother and Boyd's sister Grace standing together along with Kirby, acting as Boyd's best man, her stomach drops. Something has happened. Racing into the cottage where Boyd and Kirby were dressing for the ceremony, she finds a note addressed to "Mark Boyd" with a cryptic message inside...as the world suddenly goes black and Lottie falls to the floor.

Rewind a week earlier and Rachel Mullen attends a drinks networking gig at the newly opened Annie's Restaurant, owned and operated by Annie Fleming. The next day Rachel's twin sister Beth returns home from Dublin to find her dead, her back arched, her fingers clawing at her neck and her mouth opened in a silent scream. The cause of death returns as strychnine poisoning, a particularly nasty (and very painful) way to die. But who would want to kill Rachel? And in such a painful way? Who hated her that much? Lottie and her team pose the question to her devastated twin Beth who can think of no one. As the team dig into Rachel's background they discover that she was just starting her own cosmetics business which was to be sustainably sourced from organic products such as rock and stone...things found in a quarry. And then they learn that her meeting just prior to the drinks party she attended the night before at Annie's restaurant was with Matthew Fleming, Annie's estranged husband...and owner of a local quarry. Are the Flemings somehow linked to Rachel's death?

Then a couple of days later 15 year old Maddy Daly returns the bike she had borrowed from her friend Ellen Gormley, but upon getting no answer to her knock, goes inside. There she finds Ellen in a broken heap at the bottom of her stairs, her face in apparent agony and her mouth open in a silent scream. Toxicology comes back also as strychnine poisoning. But the time of death was at least 24 hours prior to Rachel's. Lottie must work out how the deaths of these two women are related...and where does young Maddy fit in, whom Boyd seems to have a soft spot for?

When a third woman is found in similar circumstances, Lottie realises she has her hands full...what with the investigation and Supt Farrell breathing down her neck. How is she to get this case solved and put to bed before her wedding in two days' time?

And then Lottie's sixteen year old daughter has an apparent new boyfriend whom she is yet to meet, and who she knows nothing about. But Chloe has been through a lot in the past five years since her father's death from cancer, as has the whole family, Lottie has given her daughter the freedom to work at a local pub and become her own person. It's her son Sean that is the worry for her. Her eldest Katie now lives in New York with her two year old son Louie, whom Lottie misses terribly. But they will be back for the wedding which she can hardly wait for - on both counts.

Then when there the massive storm that has been brewing all week hits on the Thursday and flooding half the town, Chloe rings Lottie in a panic because the hotel where the wedding reception is to be held has been flooded and they have no back-up plan! But then a though occurs to Lottie...however unethical it might be. She just wants to marry Mark Boyd.

There is so much going on in this book, but in a good way so you don't get confused. Murders, Maddy, weddings...with a bit of drug dealing and the odd quarry explosion not to mention the batch of shifty characters...there is everything in SILENT VOICES you need for another twisty suspenseful thriller. I love how the Lottie Parker series is not JUST a police procedural...but a crime thriller as well. You get to see the story from various perspectives without giving anything away. For me, this is the best kind of police procedural, as it keeps the pace going at the rate of knots.

I have loved to see Lottie grow into the woman she is now. I have to admit to not really liking her all that much when I first met her. She was stubborn (she still is) and a bit arrogant in wanting to get to the truth whatever the cost, whilst going home to down a couple of bottles of red or white or whatever was on offer. These days she has mellowed somewhat and I think Boyd has been good for her. I must admit to missing Boyd working alongside her in the previous couple of books, what with his receiving treatment for leukaemia. In the last book he was still there but not back at work yet, so it wasn't quite the same. The book before I don't recall him being around much at all and I must admit to missing him at Lottie's side. Together they make the perfect partnership...which begs the question, where will that leave them when they marry? Will their partnership be split after their marriage?

SILENT VOICES is a brilliant addition to the series and very probably the best yet...but that may be down to the return of Boyd to their partnership. I have no hesitation in recommending this book or the entire series for that matter. Should you choose to read this as a standalone, it can be done, but I do recommend starting from the beginning to appreciate the characters and their personal growths more.

Overall, a fast paced thriller that kept me turning the pages right up to the end. Thoroughly enjoyed it and welcome the return of Lottie and Boyd!

I would like to thank #PatriciaGibney, #NetGalley, #Bookouture for an ARC of #SilentVoices in exchange for an honest review.

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Patricia Gibney is an Irish author of crime fiction who sold 100,000 copies of her first crime thriller as an e-book, and had total sales exceeding 500,000 copies in 2018. By 2019, total book sales had passed one million.

Patricia is from Mullingar, County Westmeath and has lived there all her life. She spent 30 years working with Westmeath County Council.

When her husband died in 2009, aged 49, three months after a diagnosis of cancer, Patricia turned to art and writing, self-publishing a children's book entitled 'Spring Sprong Sally'. She then started writing crime fiction and created her first novel in that genre featuring DI Lottie Parker with 'The Missing Ones'. She worked with the Irish Writers Centre to improve her writing. Eventually she began a second novel 'The Stolen Girls' and through that acquired an agent and a publishing contract with Bookouture.

Patricia currently has 8 DI Lottie Parker novels to date, with the ninth 'Silent Voices' to be published in February 2021, and is set in the fictional Irish town of Ragmullin, which is an anagram of the real-life town of Mullingar, where Patricia lives.

Social Media Links:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

PUBLISHER:

Stay up to date with upcoming releases from Bookouture by following them on these social media accounts.

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

REVIEW: Buried Angels by Patricia Gibney

 

Buried Angels (DI Lottie Parker #8) by Patricia Gibney

Genre: Crime fiction, police procedural

Read: 2nd December 2020

Goodreads

Amazon

Published: 26th May 2020

★★★★ 4 stars

DESCRIPTION:

Bubbles of cold sweat trickled down Faye’s spine. The hole wasn’t empty. Before she could turn and run, she caught the two sightless eyes staring up at her. Only then did she scream.

When Faye Baker discovers a fragile child’s skull behind the walls of her new home, Detective Lottie Parker is called to investigate. The house has been owned for years by the family of Faye’s boyfriend Jeff, so when Jeff starts acting suspiciously, Lottie wonders what he might be hiding…

Lottie doesn’t have long to dig deeper before a child’s bones are found by eleven-year-old Gavin on nearby railway tracks. The bones don’t match the small skull behind the walls, but Lottie can’t ignore the coincidence. Someone out there must be missing their loved ones and it’s up to her to put right a terrible wrong.

Unable to shake a feeling of foreboding, Lottie goes to speak to Faye, and discovers that she hasn’t turned up for work. When Faye’s body is found stuffed in the back of her car, Lottie needs to find out who wanted her to keep quiet.

As Lottie hunts for Faye’s killer, the case takes a darker turn when Gavin goes missing. Faye and Gavin are connected only by the grisly body parts they discovered. But who are these little victims and why has their killer come back? Can Lottie find the answers before another precious life is taken?

This thrilling new novel from bestselling author Patricia Gibney will keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. If you like Lisa Regan, Robert Dugoni and Rachel Caine, you’ll love Buried Angels.

MY REVIEW:

I've been a fan of the Lottie Parker series from the beginning and, despite missing a few books in between, it's always a pleasure to meet up with Lottie and Boyd again. BURIED ANGELS picks up around six months after the culmination of events in the previous book "Broken Souls" with an even greater puzzle for Lottie and her team to unravel this time around.

The story begins with the brutal murder of a mother and her two young daughters twenty years prior before picking up in the present day. Their names are as yet unknown as is their killer. But before long, DI Lottie Parker will link these past murders to the case she is currently investigating. The question is how are they related?

Lottie already has her hands full with Boyd's recent leukaemia diagnosis and ensuing treatment, not to mention her growing teenage children and adorable grandson. And then her eldest daughter Katie announces she wants to emigrate to New York.

Eleven year olds Jack and Gavin are busy flying Jack's drone before school when they discover the decapitated torso on the railway tracks. Suitably shocked, the boys raise the alarm and the Gardai are called with Lottie and her team tasked with identifying the victim and bring the culprit to justice. But then it is discovered that the torso is that of a young girl, leaving Lottie wondering who on earth would cut up an innocent child so callously. And then a hand is found a short distance away and as the team continue their search, a leg is discovered in the nearby canal. The question is - are these body parts from the same victim?

When Jeff Cole's aunt dies bequeathing him her house, he and pregnant girlfriend Faye Baker starts making plans to turn this into a family home. Desperate to make a start, Faye begins by ripping down the hideous wallpaper and discovers a hollow cavity where a range used to be. Deciding that the nook would be perfect for some shelving, Faye takes to the plaster with a hammer...only to reveal more than just an old nook. She gets the fright of her life when a skull rolls out from behind the plaster. She immediately tells Jeff who assures her that it is probably just a fake and discourages her from reporting it and wasting police time. But Faye feels a certain chill about the house...and after reading about the recent discovery of the torso, decides to report her find to the Gardai.

But when Faye turns up dead in the boot of their car, the investigation takes a different turn. If these discoveries are from an historic case, then why was Faye killed now? Then one of the boys who made the initial discovery of the torso disappears and is found dead the following day, it is clear someone will stop at nothing to keep the past dead and buried.

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised to find Lottie's family wasn't involved in any way this time...aside from her son Sean's friendship with one of the suspects' children. It made for a refreshing change...as did Lottie's demeanour this time round. Usually, she is surly and irritating but her relationship with DS Mark Boyd has mellowed her. And given that they have been engaged for the past couple of books, I look forward to when they actually tie the knot. I really hope this is a new start for Lottie after the heartache she's had to contend with in the past.

BURIED ANGELS is the eighth outing for DI Lottie Parker and her team and little by little, she gets better and better. While this is the eighth in the series, it still works well enough as a standalone with enough elements of Lottie's backstory woven throughout to keep the reader up to speed had they not read any other of the others. However, to make more sense of Lottie's journey and her growth, as well as the plots that have involved her children, beginning from the start always gives the reader a better perspective. 

As with any Lottie Parker book, we hear from a variety of characters throughout as we try to piece the puzzle together alongside Lottie and her team. And I have to say, this time I was outwitted and didn't have a clue. I had my suspicions and while partly right, they weren't completely correct. 

Still, it was an enjoyable read that had a steady pace throughout and keeps the reader engaged from start to finish. Always intriguing and I look forward to Book 9 coming in February 2021.

I would like to thank #PatriciaGibney, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #BuriedAngels in exchange for an honest review.

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Patricia Gibney is an Irish author of crime fiction who sold 100,000 copies of her first crime thriller as an e-book, and had total sales exceeding 500,000 copies in 2018. By 2019, total book sales had passed one million.

Patricia is from Mullingar, County Westmeath and has lived there all her life. She spent 30 years working with Westmeath County Council.

When her husband died in 2009, aged 49, three months after a diagnosis of cancer, Patricia turned to art and writing, self-publishing a children's book entitled 'Spring Sprong Sally'. She then started writing crime fiction and created her first novel in that genre featuring DI Lottie Parker with 'The Missing Ones'. She worked with the Irish Writers Centre to improve her writing. Eventually she began a second novel 'The Stolen Girls' and through that acquired an agent and a publishing contract with Bookouture.

Patricia currently has 8 DI Lottie Parker novels to date, with the ninth 'Silent Voices' to be published in February 2021, and is set in the fictional Irish town of Ragmullin, which is an anagram of the real-life town of Mullingar, where Patricia lives.

Social Media Links:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

PUBLISHER:

Stay up to date with upcoming releases from Bookouture by following them on these social media accounts.

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

REVIEW: Broken Souls by Patricia Gibney (ARC)

Broken Souls (DI Lottie Parker #7) by Patricia Gibney

Genre: Crime fiction, police procedural

Read: 31st October 2019

Goodreads

Purchase: Amazon

(publication: 18th October 2019)

★★★ 3.5 stars

I'm no stranger to DI Lottie Parker and have been a fan of the Irish crime series since the beginning. So I was excited to see where this one would lead, as I thoroughly enjoyed the last book "Final Betrayal" but for the cliffhanger Ms Gibney left us on. The premise for BROKEN SOULS was intriguing with two women found dead in suspected suicides, both wearing wedding dresses.

Cara Dunne, a schoolteacher, was found hanging in her bathroom, a belt pulled taut around her neck. By all accounts it appeared to be a suicide, particularly as she had recently been jilted by her fiance local pub owner Steve O'Carroll. What little was known about Cara said that she was devastated over her broken engagement. Is that why she chose to end her life wearing her wedding dress? But why was there no note? And wasn't hanging a little dramatic? Women usually opt for an overdose of pills, a clean and painfree end. Something didn't add up for Lottie. Cara had scratches on her neck that weren't easily explained. Added to that, her new found faith would see suicide as a mortal sin. Surely she wouldn't jeopardise her eternal soul for the sake of a broken engagement?

Fiona Heffernan was a nurse at the Ballydoon Abbey nursing home and, having finished her shift the day before she was to married, she is found dead by a colleague, having seemingly thrown herself from the Abbey roof. She, too, was wearing a wedding dress. But not, it seems, her own - unlike Cara who was.

No sooner were investigations into Cara's death underway with her body having hardly reached the mortuary when word reaches the team about Fiona. Two suicides in one day? In Ragmullin? Surely not. Then through the course of their investigations, the team learn that Fiona had an 8 year old daughter that no one had thought to tell them about, until her husband-to- be Ryan did, and the race is on to locate her. Her last known whereabouts was at the theatre where she has dance practice. But upon their arrival, there is no sign of Lily.

With two suspicious deaths and now a missing child to contend with, Lottie needs to make sense of it all, piecing together the puzzle and work out how each case is linked. But most importantly, to find Lily and her back safe and sound.

Then the team find a link to the suicide of a Robert Brady, who was found hanging from a tree two weeks ago. But where he was found was of great interest to Lottie...just a few hundred metres from the residence of their prime suspect, shift solicitor Colin Kavanaugh, Fiona's ex-partner and father to her daughter Lily. It seems wherever she turns, Kavanaugh's name continues to crop up. So what exactly has he got to do with these cases?

Aside from the pressures of her professional life, Lottie's personal one seems to be just as much turmoil. Although one would think that after the abduction of her own daughters in the previous book, it would draw them all closer as a family but it seems to have the opposite affect. Her daughters are now both adults and doing their own thing while her 15 year old son angrily shuts her out. I was very surprised at the dynamics in her family after such a traumatic event.

And then there is Lottie's relationship with her DS, Mark Boyd. His proposal at the end of the last book surprised us, including Lottie, but in this book both are behaving like they are anything but engaged. Boyd's behaviour has become somewhat furtive as he continually skives off to Galway on what Lottie believes is a pretense of seeing his mother. Lottie thinks he's found someone younger so that puts her in a continually bad mood, sniping and snarling at everyone...instead of actually sitting down and talking with Boyd. However, it is Boyd who broaches the subject and says they need to talk at the close of the case. Lottie thinks "This is it. He's changed his mind and doesn't want to marry me. He's found someone else." and voices her thoughts of that nature to him before he can get a word in. But when he does...nothing will prepare her for his revelation.

I do like Lottie but I find her increasingly frustrating. She has an annoying habit of pre-empting everything, which is especially annoying in her personal relationships with her family and Boyd...instead of talking to them. And in many cases she is way off the mark. I really like Boyd though he was more of a silent partner on this outing, probably due to his personal issues. Sometimes I have to wonder what he sees in Lottie but then he is about the only one who keeps her centred when she starts to spiral out of control. Her family feature so little in this book, except as ships passing and all that, although Lottie does enjoy a little outing with her grandson Louis.

I don't think BROKEN SOULS was as exciting or as thrilling as past books but it was still marginally compelling. I think because the case seemed a little convoluted in parts making the investigation long and frustrating on all count. And I found her kids incredibly frustrating as well when they should have been drawn together, particularly after the last case.

BROKEN SOULS is an intriguing police procedural with mystery, murder and mayhem all combined to make for a compelling read. There are references to previous events and occurrences from the series but while I don't think they deter from the storyline, the series is best read in order to gain a fuller understanding and appreciation of Lottie and the other characters.

After the bombshell delivered at the end of this book, I can hardly wait to see what happens for Lottie next!

I would like to thank #PatriciaGibney, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #BrokenSouls in exchange for an honest review.