Two young girls go missing in a small town where usually families feel safe. DS Karen Hart is one of the officers investigating the disappearance. She believes that her current case is somehow connected to a disappearance of nineteen year old Amy Fisher who disappeared eighteen months ago.

A very interesting story and I look forward to the release of the next book. but I felt like not enough of Karen's background was really explained well. It was like all of the sudden the writer told us that her daughter and husband died in a car accident. No clear details or anything.

The opening chapter of this book was very promising and written with credible realism as the two girls leave school and enter the woods.

However, by the time I reached 69% on my Kindle, I started to lose patience with how wooden a lot of the book was. The characters weren't really fleshed out or described, except by position and name. I was about a third of the way through before I realised DI Morgan was male. A lot of the action could have been edited out: details such as shutting doors and thanking the school receptionist and walking to the car were achingly dull.

I thought this book could have been really improved with more character description and more getting inside the narrators' heads. We know Karen's tragic past, but I don't feel I know Karen. There were also a lot of characters to keep up with but none that really stood out.

I've read a lot of books along a similar vein and somehow they kept me guessing, but this one didn't. It was clunky and was more like a list of events than a gripping story.

BRING THEM HOME by DS Butler is is a great suspense novel. I had never read any of Butler's novels before but I will be on the hunt to read more from this great author.

This book was a disappointment to me. I'm such a fan of British mysteries set in rural areas. This one, about a female detective sergeant with an obsession for 3 missing persons - one young woman from an old case and two girls who've just gone missing - should have clicked on every level for me. It didn't.

From the beginning, the dialogue seemed stilted and formal, the narrative seemed to feature at least one cliche per paragraph, and the main character was problematic on many levels. I didn't mind that DS Karen Heart was unlikable; that's a category into which some of the best protagonists fall. To me, she was unprofessional and not believable. Of the dozens of police officers I've known and worked with and the thousands I've known (on both sides of the Atlantic) via the printed page, Karen Heart's interactions with her co-workers, and especially her superiors, were unique. And I mean that not in a good way.

I think we are to understand that she has a highly developed intuition that governs her police work. Instead, she came across as flighty and emotional, conforming to the very worst stereotypes of women at work.

I'm truly sorry to have to express these views; I wanted more from this book. In fact, if I hadn't received an ARC that carries the implicit expectation of writing a review, I wouldn't have finished the book.

I would like to thank Amazon Publishing UK/Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for letting me have a copy of ‘Bring Them Home’ by D S Butler in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.
Ten-year-old Emily Dean and Sian Gibson leave school early as they’re going to meet Emily’s “friend” who’s taking them to look at the ponies. When they don’t return home DS Karen Hart and her new Inspector Scott Morgan send out search parties but apart from the discovery of one glove in a hedgerow there’s no sign of them. Karen thinks it’s similar to the disappearance of Amy Fisher, nineteen, who was last seen eighteen months earlier.
‘Bring Them Home’, the first in a two book series, is an exciting and fast-paced thriller with engaging characters and lots of action. There are twists and turns, a number of suspects, and an ending that caught me by surprise. I was so engrossed in the story that I started reading at mid-day and couldn’t stop until I’d finished that same evening. I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to book number two.

Karen Hart is a great character. She is just the right amount of feisty. Her instincts serve her well. I would have liked to have more back story. I felt that I had entered a series in the middle instead of book one. I will be looking forward to the next book.

An absolute gripping story from start to finish, 2 young girls go missing from school and no trace found
An old missing persons case is at the heart of this story and a strange family hold the key to all

Amy went missing 18 months ago, with no clues and no where to turn, How will the DI Karen Hart find clues? Then another possibly abduction occurs, this time 2 10 year olds, is there a connection? Who is the connection? Will the girls be found alive? A race against time to find out who took them. DI Karen Hart is a believable police officer, along with her team. I loved this book, I loved the storyline, loved finding out about each member of the team. Will be reading more from this author for sure

I rather enjoyed reading this book, it is extremely well-written - good use of English and sentence construction which made it flow, and the main storyline with several sub-interests are woven together seamlessly. I particularly enjoyed the relationship-building between DS Hart and her new boss which, to be honest, would probably be my main reason for a follow-up reading of a series, just to find discover how that pans-out. I felt that there was incredible detail (some of which I personally feel was unnecessary, but that's just my opinion) put into the fascinating investigation with all its twists and turns, only to feel it was all a bit 'rushed' for the conclusion. Having said that, the final narrative tied up all the loose ends, but almost as an afterthought to all the drama which had previously transpired. Not the best detective mystery I've read, but definitely not the worst.

This is a difficult one to review for me, probably more 2.5 stars than 3 unfortunately.

I liked the ideas in the book and the plot worked well. Much as I like a thriller with lots of twists and turns, I do also enjoy a more straightforward mystery. I like to read books where the detectives use good police work and logic, rather than astonishing leaps of faith or guesswork, and that's what we have here. The drawback to that was that I found some of the statements made by characters to explain what was going on were kind of obvious, and it felt like being talked down to. I think the author should trust her audience more, and have faith in their understanding and deductive reasoning powers.

Characters wise there wasn't any that I felt I really connected with. DS Hart, the main character, was annoying and a little unbelievable. She has an obsession with a local family and seems to want to do whatever she can to tie them to the disappearances. She also makes some very bad judgement calls such as entering a property without waiting for back up, and argues with her superiors regularly. I think the author is aiming for a character who is confident and a bit of a maverick, but brilliant with it, unfortunately I didn't get that feel with DS Hart. It came across more that she can't separate her emotions from the case she's working on, and isn't willing to listen to reasonable advice.

For me personally this one was a bit of a miss, and I probably won't read the next in the series. That said, fans of straight police procedural novels will like this I think.

Thanks to netgalley for the arc.

Detective Karen Hart has been called in with her team to investigate the disappearance of two young girls. She is battling her hunches that a local family are involved with the disappearance as historically when another girl went missing they were her main suspects. Can she find the girls before their bodies turn up?

I really enjoyed the different characters and the back stories with each of the main police officers and I look forward to their evolution in the next book. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Enjoyed this book although I guessed very early on who had taken the young girls. I liked the way we got to see several of the detectives characters developing hoping that we see more if them in future books

I thoroughly enjoy this book it center on two young girls who went missing from school. When lead DS Karen Hart is on the case she can't help but think that it's connect to a case she been working on ,on the missing women Amy Fisher so she focus on the Palmer family. I won't tell if they are involved or not you have read and see but I can say does have a happy ending and bring closure to a early mystery. Thank you for letting me read this book I'm looking forward to the next book.

An unusual crime story with various substory lines leading to a happy ending and bringing a conclusion to an earlier mystery.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for an advance copy of Bring Them Home the first novel to feature DS Karen Hart of the Licolnshire police.

When two young girls disappear from their primary school the police mount a massive hunt. DS Karen Hart is heavily involved and can't help but draw parallels with the unsolved disappearance of 19 year old Amy Fisher 18 months previously, a case she still hopes to solve.

I enjoyed Bring Them Home which is a straightforward hunt for missing girls. That is not to say that it doesn't have some twists and turns but it is basically the uncovering of secrets, eliminating suspects and discovering the truth. I like the slow accumulation of facts, the discussion of possibilities and the irrelevant secrets that crawl out of the woodwork. I also think that Ms Butler does a good job of portraying the grieving parents and the panic/emotion of investigating missing children. I'm not so sure about the ending which, while clever and unexpected, posed more logistical problems as to its possibility than I could comfortably believe.

I must admit that I didn't particularly take to Karen Hart. Yes, she is smart and resourceful and very much a people person but her fixation on one suspect with nothing to back it up except a hunch is unprofessional, old fashioned and quickly got irritating. There are hints that her obsessive behaviour may change in future novels so I'll probably give her another chance.

Bring Them Home is a solid read. 3.5*

I really liked this book and although the ending was a bit predictable and wrapped up too nicely, it wouldn't stop me from reading the next book in the series as I feel you get to know more and more behind the main characters as the books develop and their home lives which the author gave us a glimpse of. Having said that it's an enjoyable read with some suspense . I would like to thank the publishers and netgalley for letting me have the arc to review and the opinions expressed are entirely my own and are unbiased.

I really like this book. The characters were well developed and likeable, or not. This story grabbed me from the very beginning and held my interest throughout the book. This story has excitement, suspense. This is the first book I have read by this author but I will be looking for more to read.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the eARC.
D.S Karen Hart is still upset about a missing 19-year old, Amy, who disappeared 18 months ago when 2 10-year olds go missing. She has to put Amy's case aside and focus on the now and find these 2 little girls. Her suspicions are focused on a strange family, an elderly father with a grown son and daughter. The 2 men are brutish, nasty men, who totally rule the daughter, who is obviously deathly afraid of them. Karen is sure the 2 men were involved with Amy's disappearance and cannot shake the feeling they 're also involved with kidnapping the little girls. Her boss thinks she's obsessed with that family and should look further to find answers to this new crime.
This was a good mystery, the ending was a bit of a surprise, but all in all it was like so many other mysteries, nothing outstanding or different...A pleasant, quick read, but it didn't stand out for me.

#Bring Them Home; #Net Galley published by Amazon Publishing UK written by D.S. Butler. The UK Publishing should have been a suggestion that this book might have given the American reader some problems. It was hard to understand who the police characters were when they were introduced, maybe not enough explanation of terms and rankings. By the end of the book, I felt like I knew them all, it would have been refreshing to have known them better during my read. I did enjoy the story of the book, it was right on with the title. My attention was captured right from the beginning with the author giving details from the little girls' viewpoint. It was an easy reading and it held my attention. For the American reader, I would suggest more description of terms used for and by the police in Lincolnshire County. Also, it would have been helpful to possibly include a map of this area of England on one of the first pages since i am not familiar with the English countryside. Overall - good book, I enjoyed the read.

Good read if a bit forgettable... similar to the other police procedurals I read. Still fun to read though