Plot outline: Two years later, Ava’s body is found and another little girl, Audrey Briggs, goes missing. Audrey also attended that party …
Leading the investigation is Detective Natalie Ward. A mother of two teenagers, this case chills her to the bone, and is a disturbing reminder of the last job she worked on. One that still keeps her awake at night…
Natalie soon discovers that Ava’s mother has some worrying gaps in her alibi and as she digs deeper, she’s sure Ava’s father is not telling the full story. And what did the owner of the garden centre Elsa see that day? Something that she’s not telling Natalie …
Just as Natalie is facing up to the grim possibility that Ava and Audrey were killed by someone close to home, another little girl from the party doesn’t come home from her ballet lesson. Can Natalie find a way to stop this killer before more innocent lives are taken?
My Review: The Birthday is the first book written in the Detective Natalie Ward series, and is mind-gripping from the beginning.
As you find out about Eva, and how she disappeared without a trace, a few years later, her body is found buried in the ground of where she went missing and it is up to Natalie to find the culprit behind it. A few days later however, the case takes a twist, when another girl who went to the same birthday party as Eva was found dead, as well as, a few days after, when another girl from the same birthday party is found dead.
The suspects are plenty throughout the whole process, and even I had a suspicion half way through the book, about who killed all three girls. However, it is not to the very end, that all the pieces of the puzzle come together and everything makes sense, including finding out who killed the girls, and why.
This book will leave you frustrated throughout, as each lead turns out to be a dead end, and on the very edge of your seat.
Recommendation: I would recommend this book.
My Rating: 4*
- Genre: Crime, Mystery
- Publisher: Kindle Edition only – Bookouture
- Approximate Page Number: 304
- Amazon link: The Birthday – Amazon
- Add to Goodreads: The Birthday
Happy Reading! 🙂
