I’ve read and thoroughly enjoyed the first three novels in Patricia Gibney’s Lottie Parker police procedural series.  They were fantastic! I’ve been meaning to read the fourth in the series for some time now – I’m SO glad to report that it was just as good as the first three.

Those of you who haven’t yet made the acquaintance of Lottie Parker, I’ll recap.
Lottie Parker is a Garda Síochána detective inspector who lives and works in the fictional town of Ragmullin in the Irish Midlands.

Lottie is one of those wonderful ‘flawed’ protagonists.  Over four years after his death, she is still grieving for her late husband, Adam. Lottie throws herself into her work – often to the detriment of her home life with her three teenage children and infant grandson whom she loves fiercely. In her mid forties, Lottie has an addictive personality and she valiantly tries to stay away from booze and painkillers. She doesn’t eat properly, is always tired, and her nerves are frayed. Lottie is of the ‘sandwich generation‘ – stuck between caring for her own children AND her mother. Although she is surrounded by people, both at home and at work, Lottie is very lonely.

Lottie Parker’s second in command, Mark Boyd remains loyal to Lottie at all times – though she often makes it very difficult for him to do so. In this outing it becomes apparent that Boyd cares deeply for Lottie on a personal level. Also, in this book Boyd’s younger sister Grace comes to stay with him for a few weeks.

The fourth book finds D.I. Lottie Parker and her team investigating the murder of Elizabeth Byrne, a young woman who was a regular commuter on the Dublin to Ragmullin train.

Simultaneously with her present heavy workload, Lottie is also looking into the cold case of another young woman who vanished after her train commute almost ten years previously…

As in the previous books in this series, during the first few chapters of this book, I was a tad impatient with Lottie Parker’s self-destructive behaviours. Then, as I got into the book, I realized that those things that I was frustrated with were the very same things that make Lottie Parker so special to me. She is devoted to her three children and grandson, even though they try her patience sorely at times.

This is a crime novel rife with sad and tragic family histories. It would be fair to say that during this instalment in the series Lottie faces some very traumatic personal challenges.

Excellent characterization and compelling plots are the highlights of this series, and this fourth book is true to form. With themes of sibling rivalry, extreme jealousy, and prejudice, this book was a compelling read.

I highly recommend this novel, and this series, to readers of crime fiction who are not deterred by distressing scenes, and emotionally draining circumstances. I hope that not too much more time passes before I get the opportunity to read the 5th novel in this stellar series.

Read what the author has said about her character, Lottie Parker.

Read my review of the first title in the Lottie Parker series: “The Missing Ones”.

Read my review of the second title in the Lottie Parker series: “The Stolen Girls“.

Read my review of the third title in the Lottie Parker series: “The Lost Child”.

This review was written voluntarily and my rating was in no way influenced by the fact that I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel from Bookouture  via NetGalley. (YES, it is a backlist title from my NetGalley review queue)

ISBN: 9781786814081    ASIN: ‎ ‎ B078JZZPFJ    440 pages

Patricia Gibney is a widow and the mother of three children. She lives in Mullingar, Ireland. She started writing, for therapy, when her husband Aidan died.
She secured an agent in January 2016 and she joined The Irish Writers Centre. She loves reading crime thrillers. Her novels feature Lottie Parker and a host of credible characters. They are all part of her extended family, you know the kind – people you love one minute and want to kill the next!

Connect with Patricia Gibney on Twitter, Instagram, or, visit her website.