Book Description:
Having attended a Murder Mystery evening at Goldsborough Hall, DCI Cyril Bennett returns to the station to find his team involved in a missing persons’ investigation. He is initially perturbed as this area of crime would not normally fall within their jurisdiction.
In total, five people have disappeared with no pattern to age nor gender. Bennett is exasperated by the actions of a vigilante group bent on confronting and exposing paedophiles.
A body is found on a popular walkers’ route and the case becomes a murder investigation. Frustration creeps in as the team concentrates on locating the remaining missing persons. Another body is discovered, seemingly a case of suicide.
The detectives concentrate on trying to filter muddied waters as they discover existing relationships between the missing. The team engage in a painstaking search in order to solve the case. Hard facts are required, not supposition as the motives of revenge and retribution surface.
My Thoughts:
It’s hard to believe we are at book thirteen in The Harrogate Crime series. It doesn’t seem two minutes ago since my first introduction to them and yet I feel like I have been through so much with Bennett and Owen it’s like greeting old friends each time I open the next book in the series.
The story starts off with Cyril at a Murder Mystery evening with his partner Julie. If you know these characters, you will understand my delight at reading this as it was a great start and a funny one at that. I love how the author sets not only the story in Harrogate but uses real places. I have never been to Goldsborough Hall but it was great to be able to look it up on the internet and see for myself this stunning place.
The case is anything but straight forward and one that had my feelings and emotions at loggerheads with each other. Due to the nature of the storyline that deals with paedophiles and sexual abuse, it does make for some sombre reading but as always the author writes it sensitively with just enough information given without too much detail.
Trapped Secrets is a dark and gripping read that lures the reader in and takes them captive as once the story takes hold, you won’t want to put it down. It had me go through an array of emotions and I was grateful to the author for throwing in some lighter moments to heighten my enjoyment. I’m not sure if it is right to say you adore the main characters in a crime series, but I really do love Bennett and Owen. I think the chemistry in a detective partnership really is the key to a successful series and this speaks for it self in volumes in the fact that we are thirteen books in to the series.
My thanks to the author for an advanced readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own and not biased in anyway.
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