The Birthday by Carol Wyer

When five-year-old Ava Sawyer goes missing from a birthday party at a local garden centre, the police are bewildered by the lack of leads. That is until two years later, when Ava’s body is found and another little girl, Audrey Briggs, goes missing. Audrey also attended that party …

Leading the investigation is Detective Natalie Ward. A mother of two teenagers, this case chills her to the bone, and is a disturbing reminder of the last job she worked on. One that still keeps her awake at night…

Natalie soon discovers that Ava’s mother has some worrying gaps in her alibi and as she digs deeper, she’s sure Ava’s father is not telling the full story. And what did the owner of the garden centre Elsa see that day? Something that she’s not telling Natalie …

Just as Natalie is facing up to the grim possibility that Ava and Audrey were killed by someone close to home, another little girl from the party doesn’t come home from her ballet lesson. Can Natalie find a way to stop this killer before more innocent lives are taken?

I have only recently discovered author Carol Wyer after seeing an interview with her online. I read her book Little Girl Lost and was instantly gripped and when I saw she had the start of a new series coming out the first of which is entitled The Birthday I was intrigued to see if this one would be as good as Little Girl Lost.

Harriet Downing’s birthday party went horribly wrong when one of the children went missing never to be seen again. Fast forward two years and the body of the little girl Ava has been found. DI Natalie Ward is on the case and is determined to get to find the killer but things have just got a whole lot worse….. the body of another child who attended the party has just been found. Natalie and her team pull out all the stops to try and catch the killer before any more children are harmed but this killer is expertly covering their tracks.

Wow I loved this book even more than Little Girl Lost. If you have read my review of Little Girl Lost you will remember I found it gripping but found that the storyline slowed in the middle part of the book and slightly lost me for a while, well The Birthday is gripping from the very first page right through to the last page. I was completely in the dark right up until the last couple of chapters and I didn’t have even the slightest suspicion until around 75% through and even then I was on the wrong track!

DI Natalie Ward has her own demons from a previous case which we know from little drips of information we are fed from Natalie which helps us understand why it is even more paramount that she solves this case and quickly. We get to know parts of her team members personal life too so we manage to build relationships with the characters which I am sure will develop further in the next book.

I would definitely recommend this book if you are looking for something to hold your attention with a storyline that will have you sitting trying to piece all the clues together.

Kindle