“Intricately plotted and utterly gripping.”

 

NO MAJOR SPOILERS

A young child has disappeared. Anna and James Buck are the child’s parents, and we watch Anna’s descent into almost madness and James trying his best to understand her and cope with his own grief.

Anna’s desperation has her turning to a psychic for help. This psychic has already been involved in another missing child investigation and Detective John Marvel is not impressed. Since Edie Evans went missing John Marvel has been haunted by her, he can’t find her and he doesn’t want charlatans like Richard Latham getting involved.

What a brilliant character John Marvel is, he can be impossibly rude and a little bit arrogant, he’s certainly not perfect, but who is? He is, however, wonderfully human and I would love to meet him again in future books.

That is one of Belinda Bauer’s strengths, her characters have so much depth, even the peripheral ones have so much to offer.

Her other strength is humour. In the face of unspeakable grief you find yourself laughing out loud: Marvel trying to locate a missing dog springs to mind. But she hold your emotions in the palm of her hand and she tugs on them at will.

When I read Rubberneckers I knew I was in the hands of someone special and that is vindicated in The Shut Eye. I highly recommend this book.

****

 

Reviewed by:

Sandra Foy

Added 15th April 2015

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Sandra Foy