Nobody’s Child by Victoria Jenkins is book 3 in the Detectives King & Lane series.

Bam! Straight out of the starting gate this had me totally hooked. It was fast paced all the way through, hit after hit of tension, excitement and horror. There are plenty of twists to keep you guessing who the bad guy is, and no I didn’t guess, it was a complete shock actually.

There is a lot going on between Alex and Chloe in this book which adds another layer of angst in the story heightening the feeling of tension. The whole team are jumpy and uneasy as the crimes ratchet up in intensity and severity. Will they catch the bad guy before he will kill again? You will have to read the book to find out!

I really enjoyed this book, the first two in the series were also great (The Girl in the Water and The First One to Die). I recommend that you read the series in order but of course you can read this as a stand-alone but you will miss out on a lot of history between Alex, Chloe and the rest of the team.

I don’t hesitate in giving this 5 stars, it had me captivated and on the edge of my seat, devouring the pages. It was a great read and I highly recommend it.

As you know by now I don’t like to give any spoilers away, just my opinion on the book, so here is the publisher blurb:

An absolutely gripping mystery thriller with a jaw-dropping twist. This book will hook you from page one and keep you reading ‘just one more chapter’ late into the night.

On a damp October day, a body is found in an abandoned hospital, too burnt to be identified, but Detective Alex King knows that every victim is someone’s daughter or son.

Pushing aside her own troubles, Alex puts everything into finding the killer, but when someone else is found dead, she begins to suspect that the body in the hospital was just the first of many.

Just as Alex uncovers a heartbreaking link between the victims, she finds her own safety under threat. Is this a figure from her past hell-bent on revenge, or could the murderer be even nearer than she thinks?

Alex is running out of time. Can she catch the killer before they take another life, or will they get to her first?

A completely unputdownable detective thriller that will keep you up all night. Readers of Robert Bryndza, Karin Slaughter and Angela Marsons will love this.

Firstly thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for the chance to read this latest Victoria Jenkins book. This is the 3rd book in the series featuring Detectives King and Lane. Having read the first 2 I knew it was going to be a corker of a read and I wasn't wrong. Her books go from strength to strength and this one is even better than the first two (and they were belters). The pace does not let up from the beginning to the end with lots of twists and turns. Alex King and Chloe Lane are fast becoming two of my favourite literary detective duos. I could not put it down and I have no hesitation in recommending this book nor the first 2. Victoria Jenkins is fast becoming one of my favourite authors and her books are a pleasure to look forward to.

This was book 3 in the Detective King and Lane series and I always worry that I might be at a disadvantage having not read the previous two. I didn't have to worry in this case as it was perfectly able to be read as a stand alone - this is a sign of a good author I think, who teases a little bit of the previous story to make you want to go back and read them but doesn't stop you enjoying the book as a whole. I loved the twists and turns in this book and the different story lines playing out at the same time which kept up the interest. I loved that the chapters were short which kept me saying just one more way into the night! Initially I didn't warm to Alex and Chloe but this changed as the book progressed. I will be keen to read book 4 in this series and see how Alex moves forward with her career and life. A great read!

Nobody’s Child Victoria Jenkins

The legend at the top of the book says unputdownable, so did it live up to the gumph?

Oh Yes

What a great story.

Set in a small town in the Welsh valleys a series of assaults and arson attacks are investigated by DI Alex King and her team.

When a body is found, amongst the debris in a fire at a derelict hospital, it could appear to be a homeless person that has been involved in an accident. But when the post mortem confirms he had been killed prior to the fire King and her team have a murder on their hands.

When a local convenience store is torched is it a coincidence?

As the investigation into the two incidents continues the team are confronted with a series of assaults and arsons which have them desperate to find the culprits.

Meanwhile King is struggling in her own life. Somebody is sending her a message and it’s not a nice one.

As is typical in real life the story revolves around 3 or 4 families in a small community that are making life difficult for everybody else.

Internal wrangling’s, and feuds between the families seem to be the reason the crimes are taking place but trying to unravel the threads is proving impossible for the team.

Can they find out who is responsible for the crimes before more people get hurt?

No, the trail of human and property destruction gets longer, and the team follow it to what is one of the most tense climaxes of a book I’ve read for a while.

Ok, so any book which involves fire as part of the crime gets my attention. It’s what I do for a living, so it would do.

Yes, I do get a bit knit-picky and hyper-critical. Not with this book.

This is Book 3 in the series and I hadn’t read the first 2. Did I get the feeling I was joining the party half way through?

Actually, no I didn’t, this is a great stand-alone story which I have no doubt is complemented by the 2 previous books, which I have just downloaded onto my Kindle to read around the pool on holiday.

I’ll be eagerly waiting book 4.

Pages: 277
Publisher: Bookouture
Publishing Date: 19th June 2018

I would like to thank Netgalley and Bookouture for an advance copy of Nobody's Child, the third novel to feature DI Alex King and DC Chloe Lane, set in the Rhonda valleys.

Alex and the team fear they have a serial arsonist on their territory when two arsons occur in short order. The less serious one destroys the Hassan family business, the more serious one in an abandoned hospital uncovers a dead body. In the meantime Alex is being harassed by an unknown someone but whose identity she can take a good guess at.

I enjoyed Nobody Child which has several good twists and a resolution I didn't see coming. It is, however, one of those novels with an ever shifting point of view so it didn't hold my attention as much as a more straightforward narrative does. I find it difficult to get totally absorbed in a novel when every chapter concentrates on a different character because there is no continuity. To give Ms Jenkins her due this approach allows her to spread the suspicion around and conceal the real perpetrator well. She has plotted her novel thoughtfully with periods of frustration and a sense of spinning their wheels for the team interspersed with just enough developments to propel it forward and keep the reader interested.

I think the author is on less sure ground with her characterisation. Alex King is lonely with nothing in her life but her work and this leads to her to make some unwise decisions. I find it impossible to believe that a detective inspector would not formally report the attacks on her or confide willingly in her closest friend, DC Chloe Lane. None of it makes sense.

Nobody's Child is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending. 3.5*

I have titled the Novel Nobody's Child as this is what it will be titled on Amazon.

3 stars

Detective Alex King attends the murder of someone in an abandoned hospital. The body is burned, so there is no identification and they cannot even tell if it was a man or woman. DC Chloe Lane is her partner.

I agree with another reviewer who said that this book is a little hard to follow at first. So many characters are introduced that one almost needs a chart to keep them all straight.

I didn’t really care for the two main protagonists, King and Lane. King was more than often a little hard to take, acting short and intemperate. Although the book was well written and had some great surprises, it did not rescue the novel from its terrible characters. This is my first Victoria Jenkins book, so I have little with which to compare this effort. Unfortunately, I do not think I’ll be reading another. There are just too many book, and too little time.

I want to thank NetGalley and Bookouture for forwarding to me a copy of this book for me to read and review.