Andy’s been looking forward to the fair coming to town for ages. It’s one of the highlights of the social calendar, and all the kids at school are talking about it. Imagine his horror when his parents say he has to take his little sister along. What will his mates think?  From the first page,  we’re told how much Andy loves his kid sister, but he really doesn’t fancy being saddled with her when he wants to have fun. It sets the tone for the rest of the book and the guilt to follow. Willow disappears and that’s the last time he sees his sister. He grows, he marries, and he has kids of his own–but the blame and guilt he feels mar his life. Years have passed and the mystery hasn’t been solved–yet.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author and a new one for me.  She pulls you in with the enticement of the fairground from page one. The characterisation is good, and her people are believable. As you get to know them, the reader splits them into two camps … ‘Don’t like you,’  and,  ‘You’re okay.’  As with all good mysteries, as the detection starts, we’re cleverly pulled into suspecting everybody at the appropriate moments in the book This novel has everything you could ask from a detective mystery, and the writing is poignant and sensitively written, with the author having a sound understanding of her characters.  DCI Unwin Phelps is a likeable detective that it’s hard not to be drawn to.  And the pace is just right, it licks along nicely and never feels cumbersome or clunky. 

I highly recommend this book.