Her Lonely Bones
Wendy Dranfield
417 pages
Bookouture
published October 5, 2023
About the book
The house is deathly silent as the summer sun starts to creep in through the dusty windows. The children should be waking up, the parents should be cooking breakfast. But they all lay still, their heads on their pillows, lifeless eyes staring at nothing, their bodies waiting to be discovered…
When a couple and their young twin boys are discovered brutally murdered in their beds, everyone suspects this is a home invasion gone tragically wrong. But as Detective Madison Harper walks into the run-down house that is eerily empty, she isn’t so sure.
Talking to the neighbors, Madison soon discovers that the family only recently moved to the small town of Lost Creek, Colorado. No one has met them, and no one knows their names. With nothing to identify them in the house, or even to show that the house belonged to them, Madison is suddenly faced with not only having to find a cold-blooded killer, but needing to identify the victims too.
Then, Madison’s heart stops in her chest when she discovers a small yellow t-shirt in the back of the family’s vehicle that says Daddy’s Girl. The couple must have had a daughter as well as the twin boys, but where is she? Madison suspects she’s been abducted, and vows to find the missing little girl before it’s too late.
But as Madison makes a breakthrough in identifying the family, she discovers they had a secret that changes the whole course of the investigation. Madison knows with every second that passes the chances of finding the girl alive get smaller, but she’s prepared to risk everything to find her, even her own life…
My Review
A little bit of a romantic chase, a huge case to solve, life changes to contend with, and a dog. This book had it all. I thought I had read a book in this series before this one, but I am either getting forgetful or I haven’t. I liked the back story of Madison and Nate and with them both having been in prison and now they are working to find justice for those wronged. Her as a detective and him as a PI. It makes me want to read the previous books in the series to read more on their back story.
But more about this one. A family brutally murdered that Madison must work to figure out who they are before attempting to solve the case. And then she discovers there is a missing infant. That ups the stakes of the case. The case was complex and layered. I like the personal and professional lives of the characters. I love that Madison is both spunky and at times vulnerable. This one kept me guessing and that is always a plus. And Brody, a working yet playful dog made me smile as the case was sometimes a little intense.
This worked as a stand alone for me, but I now need to go back and learn about these characters. If you love crime procedurals, you should give this one a read.
About the author
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