Blurb; She began to sing, the girl. Her voice was soft, so soft it was almost of the wind. It was a lullaby. She cradled her arms, rocking them gently back and forth. As if she was holding a baby. But she was not. Her arms were empty.
On a cold morning a cyclist finds the brutally-slaughtered body of a woman in her car, on a remote lane leading to the long-abandoned Irish village of Kelly’s Forge.
But when Detective Finnegan Beck arrives from the nearby town of Cross Beg to investigate he notices there’s a baby’s seat in the back of the car. A bottle of baby’s milk lying in the footwell. And no child.
Little Róisín isn’t the first child to go missing from that same remote location though. There was another baby girl, taken more than fifty years before, who was never found. Has too much time passed for there to be a connection, or does something – or someone – link these two crimes?
Beck claims he does not want to stay in Cross Beg. His heart is back in Dublin, with the woman he loves. But, knowing that a child’s life depends on him changes things. He knows he has to find the missing baby girl. Because if he doesn’t, he fears there’s a chance everyone will give up the baby for dead, just like they did before…
My Review; Happy Publication Day. The Child Before is book two in the Detective Finnegan Beck series. It reads perfectly fine as a standalone as I haven’t read book one, but I will be going back to it after reading this one.
The story is fast paced, dark, thrilling and gripping. Had me well and truelly hooked as they say. A real page turner that I devoured. The story is told through short chapters too which I prefer. I loved the work relationship between Claire and Beck, they make a great team. But does this current case relate to something from the past? Something unfinished? You’ll have to read it to find it. Brilliant. I really enjoyed it. A well deserved four stars from me. Highly recommend.
Between The Pages Book Club 