Cry of the Children (The Lambert and Hook Mysteries Book 26)

Seven-year-old Lucy Gibson can barely contain her excitement when she learns that the funfair has come to town and Matt, her mother's new boyfriend, has agreed to take her. Despite her slight uneasiness in Matt's company and her upset over her parent's split, she readily goes off with him one evening, as excited as only a young innocent child can be. The next morning, Chief Superintendent Lambert briefs DS Bert Hook and DS Ruth David on the disappearance of a young seven-year-old local girl from a funfair the previous evening. On questioning her distraught mother, it appears that Lucy has vanished into thin air and so begins an intense investigation, racing against time, to discover who took the young girl – and to prevent more children from going missing before it's too late . . . “Gregson knows when to up the ante . . . in this tense procedural” as two British detectives investigate a shocking case of abduction and murder (Kirkus Reviews). The last time Anthea Gibson saw her seven-year-old daughter, Lucy, the girl was thrilled to be heading off to her first village fair. Then, a parent’s worst nightmare: Lucy never comes home. As the disappearance stretches from hours to days without any leads, Lambert and Hook cast a wide net over potential suspects: a roustabout well-known for his unsavory habits; a local female loner with a disturbing want for a child; Anthea’s estranged and pitiable husband; her current lover; and even the distraught mother herself who may have a motive for seeing Lucy spirited away. But when another child vanishes from the area, and something terrible washes up on the shores of the Wye River, the case takes a breathtaking twist. And even the seasoned investigators aren’t prepared for how dark it’s going to get. "When seven-year-old Lucy Gibson disappears into thin air at the local funfair, Chief Superintendent Lambert, along with DS Bert Hook and DS Ruth David have a race against time to discover who took the young girl and to prevent more children from going missing before its too late ..."--Amazon.com.