A girl covered in blood. A missing man. A coded fairy tale.

Detective Laura Shaw seems to have it all: a supportive husband, a happy two-year-old and a great career. She is her team’s top victim interviewer, a genius at getting vulnerable people to open up.

That’s until she meets Jenny – a 14-year-old assault victim who talks only in fairy tales. Jenny’s stepfather is missing and the blood on her clothes isn’t her own, so Laura’s colleagues need answers fast.

But Laura’s strange behaviour makes the girl shut down even more, leaving her bewildered partner, Niamh, desperately trying to rescue the situation.

It seems that this case has triggered something deep within Laura, and Jenny is not the only one with secrets. As the clock ticks down, Laura teeters on the brink of disaster, grappling with the biggest question of all:

Is every life worth saving?

My Thoughts:

This was a unique story line centred around an interview, Detective Laura Shaw has the perfect life being the top interviewer getting people to open up about traumatic experiences. Laura’s colleagues are working on a case involving young Jenny who has been through trauma involving her step father. She is completely traumatised and shut down, but when her step father goes missing and Jenny is found to have blood on her clothes, can Detective Laura Shaw get Jenny to open up to her? time is of the essence and Laura needs answers. She also wants to help this young girl deal with what has happened in her past. This is quite a sensitive subject, but I feel as though the author has done her research well, it is sensitively written, I felt upset reading about what that young girl had gone through and how she was after, I don’t know how anyone could recover after that. I had to take a step back from this book, but then continued to read it. I liked Detective Laura Shaw and I hope to see her in other books, I thought she was brilliant at her job and someone you could totally trust. I liked the plot line even though parts were a bit heavy going.

I received an ARC copy of this book for an honest review.

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