Durrant's writing is taut and suspenseful, skillfully building tension with each new revelation. The pacing is excellent, propelling the story forward and ensuring that readers will be captivated from beginning to end.

The character of Detective Rachel King is a standout in the novel. She is a determined and tenacious investigator, driven by her pursuit of justice. As she unravels the layers of the case, Rachel faces numerous obstacles and challenges, including her own personal secret—a pregnancy she must keep hidden from her colleagues. This adds an extra layer of complexity and vulnerability to her character, making her relatable and compelling.

The supporting cast, including DS Elwyn Price, is well-developed and adds depth to the story. The dynamics between the characters are nuanced, filled with trust issues and hidden agendas. Durrant expertly crafts an atmosphere of suspicion, leaving readers questioning the motives and loyalties of each individual.

The setting of the novel, the notorious area of Manchester, adds an atmospheric backdrop to the story. The gritty and dark surroundings reflect the underbelly of the city, further intensifying the sense of danger and uncertainty that permeates the investigation.

One of the strengths of "Forgotten Victim" is the author's ability to weave together multiple plot threads seamlessly. The intertwining of gangland violence, personal secrets, and a murder mystery keeps readers guessing until the final pages. Durrant's attention to detail and meticulous plotting ensure that every piece of the puzzle falls into place, delivering a satisfying resolution.

Helen H. Durrant's masterful storytelling, well-drawn characters, and skillful pacing make this book a must-read for fans of the genre. Prepare to be immersed in a world of secrets, danger, and relentless pursuit as Detective Rachel King races against time to uncover the truth before more lives are lost.

This is the first book I have read by this author. Too bad I started on book 4 of the series. I didn’t feel like I had to go back and read 1-3 first though. The plot is well written with multiple suspects to watch, and several twists and turns. The characters and relationships are believable. I liked how the professional and personal lives are blended. I would like to go back and read the first 3 books now. I really enjoyed this one.

Another great addition to the series! A bit of a slow start but then it was a great whodunnit. Left on a bit of a cliffhanger as to what happens to the main character in her personal life.

Forgotten Victim by Helen H Durrant is book 4 in the DCI Rachel king crime thriller series. This time the team are investigating a murder from three years ago and then crimes which are current, including murder. This is a very clever, interesting and intriguing storyline and it appears that there are also significant changes on Rachel’s domestic life.
Highly recommended

Forgotten Victim by Helen H. Durrant is the fourth book in the Detective Rachel King series and it was a quick read. When a remains of a unknown person is found in an abandoned mill, Detective Rachel King is called to investigate She need to find out who this person is and who killed them.
Does she find the Killer before they kill again?
I loved this book and all the characters.

I highly recommend all of Helen's book they are always a joy to read.

Big Thank you to Netgalley and Joffe Books for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review

An entertaining and gripping mystery.
The characters are well developed and interesting, the plot is tightly knitted and the solid mystery kept me guessing.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This is the fourth book in the series featuring Detective Rachel King. I must admit I haven’t read the first three books but enjoyed this as a stand-alone. The book opens with two young boys playing in an old disused cotton mill. They hear the voice of a local drug dealer and as they run to hide from him they fall through some rotten floorboards into a cellar with a bricked up tunnel. They then discover the remains of a man’s body. Rachel and DS Elwyn Price are sent to investigate and soon realise that the man was murdered three years previously, but who knew the tunnel was there? A credit card found on the victim leads them to a pub landlady, an ancestral home and links to people who are lying as they are afraid of their lives. In Rachel’s personal life we discover that she is three months pregnant to an ex boyfriend who was a gangster, but she hasn’t told anyone yet, not even him. This is a fast paced and intense thriller, with tension and suspense. A highly recommended read.
Thanks to Netgalley and Joffe Books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is the fourth book featuring DCI Rachel King and the series is another favourite of mine. After three stories I have come to know the main characters well so the book is very easy to slip into. Rachel is a working mother of two argumentative teenage girls, student Megan and schoolgirl Mia, and has the strange living arrangement of having her ex-husband Alan living next door. Handy for childcare and home-cooked meals but sometimes she feels trapped by the past. That however looks set to change with the appearance on the scene of Alan's new girlfriend Belinda. Local crime baron turned property developer Jed McAteer is still around, now with the knowledge that he is Mia’s father and he is no longer a wanted man. Of course what he has yet to learn is that Rachel is pregnant by him again after a fling abroad. Unsure what she plans to do, Rachel has only confided in Elwyn so far. Elwyn is also a good friend to her and the only one who knows her about secret past with Jed. She is still stationed at East Manchester CID running her small loyal team of DS Elwyn Pryce and DCs Jonny Farrell and Amy Metcalfe. They are waiting to find out who is taking over from Supt Harding, and Rachel has a shock when Mark Kenton turns up to fill the post. Rachel knows him from their past overlapping cases and it immediately looks like he is going to be a pain to work for. The story begins in the disused Shawcross Mill in Ancoats where two young boys are playing in what used to be a huge cotton weaving shed. They panic when they hear the voice of Dylan "Spider” Healey, a small time local drug dealer, and in their haste to get away, fall through the rotten floor into a cellar where they find a bricked up tunnel. The tunnel is hiding a grim secret – the remains of a man’s body. It’s definitely murder, confirmed by Dr Jude Glover and Dr Jason Fox from forensics when Rachel and Elwyn arrive at the scene. The victim certainly didn’t shoot into his own knees and brick up the tunnel himself to die there. The question is who even knew the tunnel was there? Evidence at the scene and eventual identification of the man shows he was killed nearly three years ago and Kenton wants Rachel to hand the investigation over to the cold case unit but she is determined to solve this one herself. After all it might be her last for quite a while. As their enquiries proceed, taking them from a pub landlady to an ancestral home and meeting some very unsavoury characters along the way, they discover links to a group of people, all of whom seem to be lying and scared of someone. Someone who will kill to keep their secrets buried. With more lives at risk time is not on Rachel’s side as the detectives race to solve the case. As I have come to expect from this author there are loads of delicious twists and surprises in a story with great pace and an engrossing plot. This book could be read as a stand alone but I would definitely recommend reading the series in order as these characters have a lot of history between them. I really hope this is not the last we are going to hear of DCI Rachel King. Some threads have been left open including the new suspicion over the death of her parents, and I wonder if we will soon be reading a story also featuring new faces Nell and Rio? 5*

Remains of a body are found in an abandoned mill and detective Rachel King is trying to find who is the victim and who killed him It is not an easy task but she is checking all the suspects. I loved the plot and the characters.
Thank you Netgalley for this book.

Another gripping read featuring Dci Rachel King

With a pregnancy she is unsure about,a boss who counts the costs given to him in solving crimes you know from the off that you are in for a read like no other

Alongside the goings on in this instalment there is also the mystery surrounding her parents dearh which i hope develops further in future instalments

Book four in the Detective Rachel King series.

This was a fast-paced gripping crime novel with plenty of suspicious well written characters. As the story unfolds and develops clues and motives are explored making it a real edge of your seat Who Dun It? challenging everything you previously thought.

A great edition to a gripping crime series.

This book by Helen Durrant doesn't disappoint the reader. 2 young boys are playing in a disused cotton mill, they fall through some rotten floorboards and discover gruesome remains that have been in a blocked up tunnel for about 3 years Rachel King and her team have the unenviable task of trying to identify the victim and discover who murdered him and why. Plenty of people are in the frame for the murder but nobodies talking. Add to Rachel's worries she's pregnant and hasn't told the father or her boss
Really enjoyed this book
Received this book from #Netgalley and publishers in exchange for an honest review

Forgotten Victim is the fourth instalment in the DCI Rachel King series, set in and around the city of Manchester. In a fantastic prologue, the story really starts with a bang that had me hooked even before I had swiped my e-reader to take me to the second page. In this episode, Rachel, the mother of two teenage daughters, is three months pregnant with her ex Jed McAteer’s baby. She is asked to investigate when two boys, 12-year-old Finn Kendal and 11-year-old Jack Handley find the remains of a body in a disused and decaying cotton mill. DS Elwyn Pryce aids Rachel and the pair go in search of the victim's killer. They know it was a murder as there are gunshot wounds in both kneecaps.

Helen H. Durrant has drawn a very deep and complex character in DCI Rachel King. She, fittingly, has secrets that she'd prefer to keep buried. As with the other books I've read by this author, including the first in this series, one from her 'Calladine & Bayliss' series, and one from the 'DI Harry Lennox/DS Jess Wilde' series, the intricate plot is well written. There are multiple suspects to watch, and several twists and turns that resemble a long roller coaster ride. The characters and their respective relationships are credible and I especially enjoy the way their professional and their private lives are interlaced.

This was such a gripping crime thriller that had my heart racing at times and once I had started reading, I didn't want to put it down. I was enthralled right until the great reveal, which was unexpected, to me anyway. Forgotten Victim was brilliant, highly addictive and fast-paced and I can't wait to see what treats might be in store if there is a book five. This is a must-read, very highly recommended.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Joffe Books via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

Not holding what it promises. A major disappointment for me, because I hoped for an intriguing and captivating thriller and what I got was simply boring, dragging tellings over and over. The twist was not a twist at all and the book itself held nothing that made it stand out from other thrillers I've been reading which I personally would consider better written.
What annoyed me most was the female detective's past. How about we not use assault and rape on females to create suspense and a Dramatic Past? Thank you.

I received a free ARC by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I admit to resisting the temptation to read this for a while now as I had other books that I felt I should read. I'm glad I did in that they were mostly disappointing. I knew this would be good and it was. Plenty of twists along the way while DCI Rachel King and Team try to unravel the grisly remains of a murder in an old cotton mill tied up with current drug issues in the local town. Well written as usual and plenty of context to help the reader along the route. Whilst the murder and detecting aspects were as good as I expect from the author I'm less sure about the chief character - Rachel. For a very competent police officer this seems so at odds with her bizarre personal relationships. Divorced with teenage daughters and living next door to ex-husband, involved sort of part-time ex con lover with whom she is now pregnant by accident. Angst over does she tell him, does she want the baby are starting to take over too much from the policing and I'm sort of hoping that she might gracefully fade away into late motherhood. Thanks to NetGalley and Joffe Books for an advance copy in exchange for my hones review.

We are now far enough into the series for me to feel I am getting to know Rachel and the relationship with Jed brings something different to the series. Totally different personalities that work together brilliantly Rachel determined to keep Jed at a distance and him determined to break down her barriers. And now she is expecting his baby. How long can she keep that secret from her team and Jed?

An then the story wow so many twists and turns.

A new boss who turns out to be the last person the team wanted or expected and not only is Rachel trying to connect the few clues she has but she is given a deadline and to make life even more difficult her new boss refuses to accept the recent death is connected to a cold case.

But if they thought Rachel could be beaten they were wrong.

Another brilliant story from a favourite author. 5 golden stars from me.

A really enjoyable book and the first one I have read in the Rachel King series. Although I enjoyed this book, I think it would have been even better had I read the earlier ones in this series, simply to have a more comprehensive knowledge of Rachel and her family and team.

Love this author but as much as I loved the book I found it very predictable. Would this stop me from reading this author no way

I wouldn't say that this is one of Helen Durrants best novels. It wasn't bad but it was rather predictable and the ending was very abrupt. There were lots of different aspects that did not gel for me:
Does she really like the father of her unborn baby or not?
What happened to Alan halfway through the story
What significance did the man who keeps telling her about her parents have? Will all be revealed in the next book?
It won't stop me reading another Helen Durrant book as hopefully this was a one-off.
Thank you Netgalley and Joffre for giving me the opportunity to give my unbiased opinion

When two young boys fall through rotten floorboards and discover a decomposing body in a hidden tunnel under a disused Manchester cotton mill, the case lands in the lap of DCI Rachel King. Identifying the body is the first hurdle to cross, since the local residents are both close-mouthed and wary of kingpins running the drug trade out of the disused mill.

With a new boss breathing down her neck and threatening to hand the case off to the cold case team, and her personal life getting more complicated by the day, Rachel’s under pressure to solve the case fast. But there are a lot of leads to follow, threads to tug on, each one only revealing a small new scrap of information. Until they realise, this wasn’t actually the first victim…

The first thing I have a problem with here is that the title is misleading. Yes, the victim was forgotten (never even reported missing) but the subtitle just doesn’t deliver. There is no massive twist. And frankly? It wasn’t all that gripping. I had my suspicions who the villain was from the first moment of his introduction. His motive was obvious, he had the means and the opportunity and… yep. That was it. All Rachel and her team had to do was join the dots and prove it. I’m not even sure what the ‘massive twist’ was supposed to be… the realisation that there’d been two murders that were connected? Not that massive a twist for a homicide squad, I’d think.

Frankly, this felt like a very ‘average’ homicide case. Person with power abuses it to kill. The concealment of the body enabled them to get away with it for a while. Then the police find out, investigate, and he’s caught. There’s never really any sense of urgency or peril; the weird sub-plot with the mystery man who kept trying to tell Rachel her parents’ death wasn’t an accident didn’t seem to lead anywhere, and with Rachel about to take extended maternity leave and apparently being replaced, the series also seems pretty dead in the water.

The writing is actually pretty good here, with excellent grammar and sentence construction, but I struggled to like Rachel or understand her motivation, and I just didn’t feel gripped by the plot at all. It was all far too predictable. I’m afraid I was thoroughly uninspired, and therefore I’m giving this two stars.