About The Book
Three lives cut short. Two decades of silence. One evil secret.
By day, the park rings with the sound of children’s excited laughter. But in the early hours of the morning, the isolated playground is cloaked in shadows – the perfect hiding place to conceal a brutal murder.
When London journalist, Mark Roberts, is found battered to death, the police quickly arrest petty thief, Nick Connor. Criminal defence lawyer, Dan Grant, along with investigator Jayne Brett, are called to represent him – but with bloody footprints and a stolen wallet linking him to the scene, this is one case they’re unlikely to win.
Until help comes from an unlikely source…when the murder victim’s mother says that Connor is innocent, begging Dan and Jayne to find the real perpetrator.
Unravelling the complex case means finding the connection between Mark’s death and a series of child murders in Yorkshire over twenty years ago. Father of two, Rodney Walker, has spent years in prison after being convicted of killing of 6-year-old William and 7-year-old Ruby back in 1997.
My Review
With thanks to the publisher for the copy received. I have read books by Neil White before but The Innocent Ones, book three of a trilogy is the first that I have read in this series. Not knowing the characters didn’t impact on my enjoyment of the book and I will be reading the books I have missed as soon as possible.
In Dan’s latest case he is defending a local criminal who has been charged with murder. But the victim’s mother isn’t convinced that they have the right man and convinces Dan to find the answers in a cold case that her son was writing about. He gets back in touch with Jayne, a woman he defended in the past and who had done investigative work for him. In doing so he places both of them in danger.
It is a quite a while since I read a book that left me on edge so much. I became totally mesmerised by the cold case. At times, I forgot that there was also a current case that was being investigated. As the truth was revealed I was horrified, appalled and unable to stop reading. When the two cases overlapped and you saw exactly what evil they were facing I was numbed into silence, devastated by the tragic events.
Sometimes a book like this is unbelievable but the storyline is handled so well I was convinced by every reveal and twist. I was also convinced by the location. I have lived in Lancashire most my life and spent sometime trying to work out which town Highford was based on. In the author’s notes at the end my suspicions were correct. They were the only thing I did get right in this book.
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