Jonah receives a call from an old friend that he fell out with 10 years ago. He arrives at midnight to a deserted quay to find his friend’s body and others ready for disposal. Then he is attacked. When he awakes he finds himself a suspect and a link to a missing child case a decade ago. His own child…
The Lost is a stand alone crime thriller and the cover suggests this is the first in a new series.
Jonah Colley is a firearms police officer. He is surprised when his former friend Gavin calls hims out of the blue as they have not spoken in years. Flashback chapters to 10 years previously show that their friendship deteriorated after the disappearance of Jonah’s son Theo. He is therefore shocked to discover a link between events of the past with a series of murders that he himself is suspected of committing.
The book throws us straight into the action with a dramatic first chapter that grips the attention of the reader and doesn’t let go as revelations of Jonah’s past are uncovered. I liked the way that we see chapters from the past to show us Jonah’s terrible and terrifying experience of losing his son, every parent’s nightmare.
Jonah’s grief and confusion give him a vulnerbaility that endears him to the reader. Despite his physical strength and police training, it is his human nature which shines through this book due to the personal element to the crimes.
The writing feels brutal at times as the danger and pain of the world is never shied away from. Once again, the personal side to the case increases the tension as well as our emotive reaction to events along the plotline.
The Lost is an intense crime thriller that is relentlessly dramatic from the first page to the last.
The Lost book blurb:
A MISSING CHILD
Ten years ago, the disappearance of firearms police officer Jonah Colley’s young son almost destroyed him.
A GRUESOME DISCOVERY
A plea for help from an old friend leads Jonah to Slaughter Quay, and the discovery of four bodies. Brutally attacked and left for dead, he is the only survivor. A SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH
Under suspicion himself, he uncovers a network of secrets and lies about the people he thought he knew – forcing him to question what really happened all those years ago…
About the author
After an MA in English, Simon Beckett spent several years as a property repairer before a stint teaching in Spain. Back in the UK, he played percussion in several bands. He has been a freelance journalist since 1992, writing for The Times, The Independent on Sunday Review, The Daily Telegraph, The Observer and other major British publications. In 2002, as part of an article on the National Forensic Academy, he visited the Body Farm in Tennessee. This last commission was the inspiration behind the internationally bestselling The Chemistry of Death, which was shortlisted for the CWA’s Duncan Lawrie Dagger and has been translated into 21 languages. Simon Beckett is married and lives in Sheffield.
