This was not my favourite book by Lisa Cutts though was still a compelling read.

The story of people trafficking was rather graphic and it was something of a slow burner for me.

3.5 stars

This is the first book by this author I've read, and I will read some more of her in the future. I loved the way the trafficked women was portrayed with sympathy and dignity and how everything worked out in the end. This book was very well written, and highly recommended.
TB

The East Rise Series is a very good Police procedural which addresses the darker elements of life and Police work – murder, paedophilia, Police corruption, trafficking – written by a currently serving Police Officer.

Along with the plot in each book is the growing development of the two main characters Detective Inspector (DI) Harry Powell and Hazel – ‘Haze’. Their developing relationship adds another layer to the stories. It is not just Harry and Hazel there’s a team from DCI Barbara Venice to Tom, Sophie Pierre and, latterly, DC Gabriel Royston. As you read the books there is more to find out about each of them. Still Lisa Cutts pulls no punches on what happens to her characters to ensure authentic, captivating and believable storylines. As with all Series each book brings more to the characters giving greater clarity, understanding and interest. Each book can, as you would expect, be read as a stand-alone but then you would miss out on all the development and investigations of this family of police officers.

With Mercy Killings we are most certainly being introduced to the characters and there are quite a few so you may want to concentrate more on the storyline which is gritty and gives a fair bit of insight into how the police work and interact with each other, the crime scene, the witnesses, the main investigation and other elements of what is happening alongside it.

Buried Secrets brings Harry and the team back with an investigation into two deaths – close to home – and has a hard look at whether one of their own is corrupt or, perhaps, even a murderer. It shows how an investigation can affect those involved – the families, the suspects and the police who are investigating the crimes and those supporting the family. With this book Lisa Cutts is bringing to the reader a really good story and terrific characters.

With the latest in the series Lost Lives – and the best, so far – we are brought a dark, heart wrenching story of human trafficking. Bringing to life what happens to those people who are seeking a new and better life by buying passage to the UK and how they are caught up in such appalling and abhorrent situations. Will Harry and the team be able to unravel what is happening? Will they keep John safe? Will they find Anna? Will it be too late? Will there be devastating consequences for Harry and the team?

Each book brings a new investigation, a new plot and greater insight into Harry and the team. Each is quite gritty, hard hitting and well written. These are books which have grown into a tremendous series and is well worth reading.

Thanks

Whilst I purchased the first two books I was delighted to receive the third from Simon and Schuster via NetGalley. Many thanks for an eCopy of Lost Lives by Lisa Cutts.

Enjoyed this book a lot. It's part police procedural/crime thriller and also handles a difficult topic in people trafficking/modern slavery. The characters involved in the latter were so human and believable, which made it a challenging read at times. It was gripping and pretty fast paced, very multi layered too. I don't think I've been introduced to Lisa Cutts before but I'm sure it won't be the last of hers that goes on my Kindle!

This book held me from the first page. We really don’t know what goes on in the places around us, we see only what we want to see. You can not believe that this sort of thing happens in this day and age in the modern world.

I actually read it in one day, and I love Harry and hazel. I’m sure these characters are familiar to me but I just can’t remember.

It is an excellent book which tugs in the heartstrings. Modern slavery with desperate people and heartless traffickers. I would certainly recommend it.

My thanks to the author a

Wow what a book, this is a compelling and brutish way to learn about the horrors of people trafficking . DI Harry Powell goes to the scene of a shooting and the victim is involved in people trafficking and he now wants to be put in protective custody and will give details about the people being exploited.
Anna and Lili are caught up in they have journeyed seperately but ended up in the same place Anna had come to England to be able to send money home to Anna's daughter and Lili was trying to join her boyfriend who had journeyed here before her. They were both forced to work for nothing and live in the most barbaric way and as they had been forced to hand over their passports they can see no way out.
I really enjoyed the book but it does have a brutal honesty about it and the situations are made all the worse because you could imagine them really happening.
I would like to thank NetGalley for my copy of the book.

Oh my goodness.....this was certainly a gripping read by Lisa Cutts. The misery caused by human trafficking is truly harrowing and, at times, difficult to read. The book does have touches of humour and the characterisation is excellent. this is a well written crime thriller with a fantastic twist at the end. I can't wait for the next episode. Thanks to Net Galley for my copy. Reviews on Goodreads, Amazon and Facebook.

Thankyou to NetGalley, Simon and Schuster UK and the author, Lisa Cutts, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of Lost Lives in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
Wow. What a brilliantly written storyline on the subject of human trafficking I was engrossed from the beginning. It breaks my heart to think there are people who get treated this way.
Very gripping and harrowing.

This book focuses on people trafficking and the storyfollows two women, Anna and Lili, as they try to escape their captors. DI Harr6 Powell and his team are called out to investigate a shooting where the intended victim is involved in the people trafficking and the police then have to try and protect him.
It is a very harrowing and at times, upsetting read to learn how these people are treated, but also a compelling read.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Great premise and enjoyed starting to get to know the characters. Will read some of lisa’s Earlier works to hopefully get to know the characters better

I loved this hard hitting police thriller and cannot wait for the next one. The characters are super especially the DI who has a great team, there is just enough character building but then so much content, descriptions with true life police procedures. This is in my top ten of the year and I am sure will be a best seller. I have reviewed everywhere for you.

Lost Lives, the third novel to feature DI Harry Powell of East Rise police, was a highly entertaining addition to this compulsively readable series. The story heavily focuses on the trafficking of workers detailing their struggles in a sensitive and compassionate way. Although I am receptive to their issues and situation, I felt that the book should've had more of the unfolding police work. At some points, it did feel a little as though I was reading nonfiction due to that.

I also found that the perspective shifts between a variety of characters later on in the book and is quite confusing as a result. The author also incorporates some real-world police issues into the novel by referencing the lack of money and resources and the consequences of having less police at their disposal. This is exactly what is happening right now in the UK. In this instalment, DI Harry Powell's usual strong and stable personality is beginning to fail him with the mask beginning to slip. Thought-provoking, chilling and hard-hitting, this is not a book for the faint-hearted. Added intrigue comes in the form of social and political issues incorporated into Lost Lives thereby mirroring the outside world. Recommended.

Many thanks to Simon & Schuster for an ARC.

Once again another cracking book from Lisa Cutts.

An exciting, chilling and somewhat traumatic police procedural featuring DI Harry Powell and his team, this book is not for the faint hearted, it’s gritty, gripping and skilfully written.

A very well deserved 5 stars.

This is a chilling and harrowing police procedural from Lisa Cutts that really is not for the faint hearted. The horror contained will turn your stomach as Cutts research gives us an all too real and in your face picture of the unconscionable treatment of migrants and the trafficked, their powerlessness, and what little value their lives have to the cold and ruthless controllers and those running this filthy and nightmarish trade. DI Harry Powell is called at a shooting in a place he knows two of the people who have flats in the building, convicted sex offender Martha Lipton and a colleague, DC Gabrielle Royston. The target of the failed killing is John Kersley, a man it turns out who tried to help some victims of trafficking. Kersley is a frightened man, aware of the powerful reach of those who wish to eliminate him, and this makes him a difficult man to get any information out of in the face of his obdurate silence.

Anna is a Hungarian woman from Budapest who had high hopes for a future in England, only to find herself in the hands of traffickers she will never be free of, working on a farm, constantly hungry and beaten. Her passport has been taken, and she has a debt that she will never be able to repay, and has to endure living in inhuman and degrading conditions. She forms a relationship with another migrant woman, Lili, as a form of support. The narrative is mostly from the perspective of Anna and Harry. Harry is traumatised by the condition of the migrants, as indeed are his officers. He puts his best police officer, the gay DC Pierre Rainer to try and get Kersley to talk but Kersley needs iron clad protection from the dangers that he faces before he talks. Police budget cuts make this extremely difficult for Harry but he does his best, roping in Pierre to look after Kersley. In a story that is enough to make your blood curdle, tragic outcomes and desperate danger are inevitable.

Cutts does a superb job in her authentic depiction of the below the radar brutal underworld of human trafficking and slavery in our contemporary world and the under resourced police forces that have to address this, suffering from poor morale and overwork. I found this an uncomfortable read but I was angry and outraged that such horror exists in our world, made so much the worse by the opportunistic, venal and populist politicians and media outlets that scapegoat migrants. This is hard hitting and brilliant crime fiction that provides insights into many of our red hot social and political issues of today's world. Many thanks to Simon and Schuster for an ARC.

Another brilliant read from one of my favourite authors.
This book is utterly gripping. I read this book in one sitting actually finishing it at 2.30am. A very good police procedural. A taboo subject which is harrowing, horrific and heart breaking. Modern day slavery and people trafficking not very nice subjects but Lisa Cutts treats it with compassion and heart.
This is masterful storytelling from a writer who is at the top of her game.
Another great read from this author to add to her shelf in my library.
I would like to thank the author Lisa Cutts, Simon and Schuster UK and Net.galley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for giving an honest review.

I am already a fan of Lisa Cutts and was delighted to receive an ARC of her latest, Lost Lives.

DI Harry Powell and his team are called to a drive by shooting where thankfully nobody was injured. As the case moves on, they discover they are dealing with human trafficking and slaves in the modern world as the intended target of the shooting was protecting two escapees. The story also follows the plight of two young Hungarian women, Lili and Anna who try to escape from their “controllers”. With constraints of budget cuts to policing and little resources to protect the witness, can they win out?

This book is a real gripper, I read it within the day, I couldn’t put it down, it was fast paced and chilling in what is a realistic situation.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster UK for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I really like DI Harry Powell and his team. This kept me hooked right from the beginning and read it in one sitting.

Lisa Cutts is another new author to me (thank you, Netgalley, for introducing me to so many different authors!) and I am so glad I have discovered her. Lost Lives is a great thriller that I just couldn't put down. It is a believable, realistic story and Cutts' writing style is great. It is a book in the DI Harry Powell series and I shall be reading the previous books now (although this can be read as a stand alone too).

DI Harry Powell is back in the latest book in the East Rise series.

With short, snappy chapters, this is a novel that is guaranteed to keep you on your toes!

This is definitely a compelling read, what starts off with a shooting, zooms in with a focus on trafficking. You will find it hard to put this book down.

What I love about Lisa's writing is that it is truly believable, using her own knowledge from working within the police, there is an abundance of detail that at times is quite harrowing but all the more engaging.

And although this can easily be read as a stand alone, this is a series where one book just won't be enough!

Authentic, gripping and moving, Lost Lives is an expertly written crime thriller that I can highly recommend.

Lisa Cutts has written this book from the heart. It deals with people trafficking in the south of England, the area in which she works as a detective constable. The horrors of this dreadful trade are well described as we follow two "workhorses" as they try to escape from their captivity. In parallel we have the story of an attempted shooting of someone who tried to help an escapee and the police's attempts to protect him. The effects of government cuts to the police service also feature prominently in the book which is well plotted with credible characters and bursts of nerve-racking tension. A must read!