Little
Girl Lost by Irish author Brian McGilloway (Pan Macmillan, 2011) is the
first book about Detective Sergeant Lucy Black. Black transfers from the
Lisburn police station to the CID unit in County Londonderry to stay closer to
her father who suffers from progressively worse dementia. A month into her new
job finds the entire force caught up in the search for the missing daughter of
a wealthy Derry businessman. During a heavy snowfall a girl is reported in the
woods near Prehen and the team is called out to the site. Lucy gets there first
and finds a child, not the missing teenager, in soaked pajamas and freezing
cold. She does not speak, even to give her name, clinging to Lucy who
accompanies her to the hospital.
Because Lucy
is the only person who can approach the child without setting off piercing
shrieks, the powers that be temporarily assign her to the Public Protection
Unit to find the child’s family to her great disappointment. Her new commanding
officer seems a decent sort but she can’t help feeling sidelined from the
action swirling around the high-profile case of the kidnapped girl.
While Lucy
begins calling schools to ask about missing students, the forensics tech looks
over the child’s clothing and finds it is covered with a fine spray of blood.
Not hers, because she is unhurt beyond hypothermia, but someone else’s. There’s
enough to believe the child came from a crime scene somewhere, making the need
to identify her more urgent than ever.
An absorbing,
complex, and realistic police procedural. The multiple plot threads come
together in a surprising way, solving an old crime as they do.
Lucy Black is
a wonderful character. Her intelligence, kindness, and determination make her a
promising police officer. Anyone who has worked in a bureaucracy will
understand her struggles with the politics and the favoritism of the police organization.
Her attempts to avoid putting her father into a care facility as he becomes
progressively worse are heartbreakingly realistic. Watching her juggle the two
as the larger drama of the kidnapping plays out is fascinating. Recommended.
Starred
review from Library Journal.
·
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
·
Publication date: May 6, 2014
·
Language: English
·
Print length: 336 pages
·
ISBN-10: 0062336592
·
ISBN-13: 978-0062336590
Amazon Associate Purchase
Link: https://amzn.to/3WJBYMI
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
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