A little girl with cancer is snatched from a hospital. Her abductor is found dead shortly afterwards but Rosie is still missing. Behaviour specialist Jessie Boyle and DS Seamus Keneally begin a frantic search for the little girl but her time is running out..
Her Child’s Cry is the third book to feature Boyle and Keneally but the first that I have read. There are mentions of events from previous books and I presume the serial killer character appeared in an earlier book.
This book is full of tension right from the beginning. A little girl with cancer is kidnapped which is a highly emotive case. I liked the main trio of investigators as they work together to figure out who took Rosie and why. Their boss Dawn Wilson is a great character, a strong woman in a male dominated world and a fabulous leader.
The book is set in Ireland and there are some historical elements to the plot. There are many different plot strands as the investigation proceeds and they explore cults, gangs and internet predators.
There are some chapters written from specific characters viewpoints including Rosie’s. This gives us a personal perspective as well as increasing the tension as we fear for their safety. I enjoyed following the twists and turns of the plot developments and want to read the previous books to see how the serial killer interacted with the lead characters.
Her Child’s Cry is an entertaining crime thriller novel.
Her Child’s Cry book description:
‘I just want my little girl back. She’s so little, she needs her mummy. And she doesn’t even have her panda bear with her. Find her, please find her, before it’s too late.’
Little Rosie Blake has been taken. Since going missing from the hospital where she was being treated for cancer, Rosie’s distraught parents haven’t heard a word. And time is swiftly running out. They have to find her, and right away, because Rosie can only survive for ten days without her medication.
With the police unable to find any leads at all, criminal behaviourist Jessie Boyle and her team are brought in to help. Who would be so evil as to steal a sick child? Narrowing down on a suspect, Jessie quickly moves to arrest them, only to discover the suspect’s dead body instead… And with no Rosie in sight, the case becomes even more desperate.
Who killed their chief suspect, and where is Rosie now? And is Rosie’s disappearance linked to the sudden revival of Dublin’s Hellfire Club, an ancient and terrifying cult obsessed with death and human sacrifice?
As the race to find Rosie intensifies, her heartbroken parents know their little girl’s time is running out. The clock is ticking, but Jessie clings on to the hope of finding her safe. Then her search leads her to Ireland’s remote mountains… Will Jessie be able to survive the deadly threat that awaits her, rescue Rosie, and get her back to safety, before it’s too late?
An utterly compelling crime thriller that will have you hooked from the very first line. Fans of Patricia Gibney, Lisa Gardner and Lisa Regan will not want to miss this.
Author Bio:
Shane Dunphy (S. A. Dunphy) was born in Brighton in 1973, but grew up in Ireland, where he has lived and worked for most of his life. A child protection worker for fifteen years, he is the bestselling author of seventeen books, including the number one Irish bestseller Wednesday’s Child and the Sunday Times Bestseller The Girl Who Couldn’t Smile. His bestselling series of crime novels (written under the name S. A. Dunphy) feature the criminologist David Dunnigan. Stories From the Margins, his new series of true crime books written for Audible, has been critically acclaimed and the second title in the series, The Bad Place, is an Audible True Crime bestseller.
