Blog Tour Reviews, Little Witness & Only the Children

They came in the dark. They took her parents. And now she is the only one who can save them.

Hidden away in an isolated cabin on the edge of her farm, seven-year-old Aisling Connolly shivers as the cold night air whistles through her thin jacket. It’s been two days since the men came, since her mammy told her to run like she’d never run before, to not look back. She hasn’t seen her parents since. And she’s terrified.

But when Aisling is finally found by the police, she knows instinctively she can trust Detective Tessa Burns. A former child-witness herself, Tessa understands what Aisling has been through, and that Aisling must remember everything she can about that terrible, dark night if she’s to save her parents. Something Tessa was unable to do for her own parents all those years ago.

As the little girl slowly starts to open up, Tessa uncovers much more than she’d bargained for – another murder, clearly a horrific warning to Aisling not to speak. But time is running out, and any hope of finding Aisling’s parents alive is rapidly fading. And Tessa must do everything in her power to ensure the little girl isn’t next…

An utterly gripping Irish police procedural filled with unexpected twists. Perfect for fans of Peter May, Lisa Regan, and Patricia Gibney.

My Review

Two of the things that is cool about this police procedural is it has non-traditional police officers on the team.  One lady has cerebral palsy and it in a wheelchair and has a service dog, Pavlov.  And you know how I am about dogs in books.  Another of her team was headed to jail.  The second thing is we watch Tessa build her team and how they learn to be a team and build each other up.  There is also a case to solve, but that is expected in this type of book.

Her team focuses on helping children.  They work to solve what happened to a child’s parents.  And it hits a little too close to home for Tessa.  I am intrigued by the people with no face from her past and can’t wait to see where that goes.

I like the quirky team and its members.  I liked that the story was a little gritty.  And I loved learning a little about each of the members as they acclimated to each other.

I had the audiobook in addition to the ebook and thought Melanie MacHugh did a great job narrating the book.  I loved her accent and didn’t have any difficulty following along like I have with some narrators with accents.

Only the Children Book Description:

The little girl stares up at Tessa, trembling so hard her whole body shakes. Her brothers stand clutching her hands, both pale with shock. ‘They told us not to speak,’ she finally whispers. But the terror in her tear-filled eyes tells Tessa all she needs to know…

When a cargo ship runs aground off the Irish coast, the police are horrified to find the captain dead at the helm, the crew missing, and three little red-haired children, terrified but unharmed, locked in the galley kitchen.As an expert detective running a child-centred taskforce, Detective Tessa Burns is called in to lead the case.

Despite Tessa’s best efforts, the children won’t reveal a thing – not even their own names. Slowly gaining their trust, Tessa uncovers a deadly secret about their past – and the mystery of their missing parents’ whereabouts – that turns everything she thought she knew on its head.

But just as it seems she’s cracked the case, Tessa’s team is attacked one dark night, and the youngest boy is kidnapped yet again. It’s clear the children are still in terrible danger. And when another senseless killing sends shockwaves through her team, Tessa realises the murderer is someone much closer to home than they could have ever imagined. Will she be able to uncover the truth in time, or will it be too late for her, and, most devastating of all, for the children…?

A totally unputdownable Irish police procedural with jaw-dropping twists. Perfect for fans of Patricia Gibney, Lisa Regan and Angela Marsons.

My Review

I thought this was even better than the first book in the series.  The team has started to mesh and I learned a little more about them as they worked the next case.

On a marooned ship, everyone claims to have seen a mermaid or a ghost.  That piqued my interest.  Again the team is protecting kids that were found on the ship.  The team ends up in danger themselves as they work to solve this one.  I read this in a day and didn’t want to put it down.  There is something about these characters and the setting that really makes this one feel fresh and different from the other procedurals I have read.

While these books are always set up to be able to be read as a stand alone, this is only book two and I think book 2 was partially enjoyable because of book 1.

Author Bio:

Shane Dunphy (S. A. Dunphy) was born in Brighton in 1973, but grew up in Ireland, where he has lived and worked for most of his life. A child protection worker for fifteen years, he is the bestselling author of seventeen books, including the number one Irish bestseller Wednesday’s Child and the Sunday Times Bestseller The Girl Who Couldn’t Smile. His bestselling series of crime novels (written under the name S. A. Dunphy) feature the criminologist David Dunnigan. Stories From the Margins, his new series of true crime books written for Audible, has been critically acclaimed and the second title in the series, The Bad Place, is an Audible True Crime bestseller.