One of those indie books that’s a joy to read.
The story is centred around several locations in America, which I always find fascinating to read about. Joseph Lewis pulls you in and takes you with him everywhere he goes.
It’s a hard-hitting crime thriller focussing on a spate of kidnapped children over several years. And then, after being missing for two years, they turn up dead. Forensic evidence shows that they’ve been horribly abused.
The team aren’t getting any breaks, but the boys keep going missing. The dice are loaded in favour of the bad guys. Until there’s a witness to the brutal killing of two lads in the burning heat of the Navajo desert. George, a young Navajo boy with heightened intuition and observational skills taught by his grandfather in the old ways, is thrown into terrible danger and agrees to help the police.
At this point, and later in the showdown, we have to release our hold on reality just a little bit regarding how much rope a group of kids would be given in police procedures and operations. However, that doesn’t distract from a great story well told.
Mr Lewis’ characterisation and descriptive powers are great. He writes his people with enormous warmth. However, he never goes down the road of over-sentimentalising when it comes to the victims. This is hard and gritty, and he keeps it that way.
The book is well-written so that you aren’t stumbling over typos and is fine read on a cold night–or even a hot one.
Website
https://www.bestbookeditors.com/
https://www.bestbookeditors.com/latest-news/
https://www.bestbookeditors.com/books-by-katherine-black/
https://www.bestbookeditors.com/what-you-get-for-your-money/
https://www.bestbookeditors.com/book-formatting-and-typeset/
https://www.bestbookeditors.com/book-cover-design/
https://www.bestbookeditors.com/illustrations/
https://www.bestbookeditors.com/marketing-and-promotion/
https://www.bestbookeditors.com/author-publisher-logo-design/
https://www.bestbookeditors.com/book-trailers-promo-videos/
https://www.bestbookeditors.com/author-interviews/
https://www.bestbookeditors.com/shop/
https://www.bestbookeditors.com/request-a-quote/
Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/Best-Book-Editors-102025145430197/
Facebook Group

Katherine Black / Susan (Sooz) Simpson
Founder of Best Book Editors
Katherine has held almost every single job imaginable, from painting gnomes to zookeeper. She spent most of her life in the caring profession and has managed both a nursing home and a care agency. But her passion for the written language always brings her home to novel writing.
Born in Tyne-and-Wear, North-East England, she has settled in the beautiful Lake District, Cumbria, with her partner, two dogs, a cat, an iguana and a python (just don’t ask her which of those six things is her favourite!).
She specialises in content creation and social media outreach, and has been a developmental editor for hundreds of clients. She owns and operates bestbookeditors.com where she helps foundling authors polish their skills. However, after being diagnosed with a dramatic brain condition in 2022, she has had to let 23 staff go, and scale back the business. BBE is still very much open, we are just fewer and can’t take as much work on.
Katherine Black is the author of psychological thriller/detective/fantasy adventure novels.