When a young girl is snatched from a West Yorkshire town there are eerie similarities with a cold case from many years earlier. It can’t be the same killer, can it?
1994. Eighteen-year-old Adrian Brown spends his days working at the local newspaper, and his evenings in his local pub. But under this ordinary surface lies a haunting story. Aged ten, Adrian was kidnapped by a shadowy figure known as the Lollipop Man, who had abducted three children before. Adrian was the only one to escape.
When another child goes missing, the media whips up a frenzy that the Lollipop Man has returned. Journalist Sheila Hargreaves, troubled with memories of her involvement in the reporting of the previous abductions, is determined to dig deeper, atone for what she did nearly a decade ago and bring a killer to justice.
I was lucky enough to be gifted an advance digital copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley for the purpose of review, for which I am very grateful. I have reviewed the book honestly and impartially.
This was a really fascinating book with loads of twists and turns and dead ends before we got to the solution of the mystery. So much so that I was almost dizzy by the end and had no idea how it was going to resolve.
I really enjoyed the setting of West Yorkshire in the early 1990s, given I am a Yorkshire girl myself and I think it provides the perfect backdrop for this kind of murder story, given that this area was the haunt of the Yorkshire Ripper. People now also associate the Calder Valley with the TV Show, Happy Valley, and the moors which rise up to the west of the area with the Moors Murders, so the area has a dark cloud cast over it, if only in people’s minds. It’s not really all bleak, I promise, but it helps for the purposes of this book, which needs a dark cast.
The characters of Adrian and Sheila, who are both haunted by their roles in the disappearance of three young girls eight years before, work brilliantly to carry this story of regret, redemption and resolution. It also touches on the subject of family secrets and being true to yourself. Adrian is battling with letting his parents know who he is, but they also haven’t been honest with him. Sheila is also keeping secrets from her friends but she can’t sit on them if she wants to repair the mistakes of the past.
I thoroughly enjoyed this rollercoaster of a thriller. However, I have to say that the motivations of one of the antagonists at the denouement of the novel were disappointingly unresolved and glossed over, which I found disappointing in terms of payoff for the amount of time invested in the book. It made the ending feel a bit rushed and inadequate, as though the author were less invested in the mystery than the arc of the two main protagonists. This may well be the case, but the reader deserves a proper ending to the crime in case they don’t feel the same.
Accomplished writing with a slight sting in the tail. Ah well.
About the Author
Daniel Sellers is the author of the Kindle-bestselling Lola Harris Mysteries and is an obsessive fan of Agatha Christie. His crime thrillers are pacy and dark, with as much interest in whydunnit as who. He grew up in Yorkshire, and has lived and worked in Liverpool, Glasgow, Ireland and Finland. Sellers now lives in Argyll in Scotland.
The first in a new series will be published in 2025 by Allison & Busby, set in West Yorkshire in the 1990s.
Connect with Daniel:
Website: https://www.danielsellers.co.uk
Facebook: Daniel Sellers Author
Twitter: @DJSellersAuthor
Instagram: @danielsellersauthor
– Kelly Lacey & Love Books Tours
