Review: Dead Lost (Calladine & Bayliss #4) by Helen H. Durrant

Print Length: 222 pages

Publisher: Joffe Books (January 29, 2016)

From Goodreads.com:  An abandoned cotton mill holds horrific secrets

Police partners, D.I. Calladine and D.S. Ruth Bayliss face one of their toughest challenges yet. A group of homeless people have set up camp in the grounds of a disused cotton mill belonging to local businessman Damien Chase.

But one of the men is not what he seems. He has a secret he will do anything to cover up. And once Calladine and Bayliss investigate, they find the crimes go much further than they could have ever imagined.

Will Ruth be able to juggle her personal and professional lives, and can Calladine deal with their new boss, a woman he neither trusts nor likes? Willing to do anything to bring terrible suffering to an end, Calladine make an astonishing move . . .

                                                         *******************

My Rating: 4 stars out of 5

I have bounced around this series quite a lot, reading some of the later books before the earlier ones so to come back and start reading these earlier novels has been a bit weird for me knowing what I know about these characters from the later novels. One of the things I like about these novels is that they keep you guessing (and usually when I think I'm on the right track I'm proven wrong as the story continues). You also don't have to read them in order to be able to enjoy them. While the character's lives outside of police work do reach over multiple books, the crimes themselves do not. 

This story followed a similar formula of the prior novels - two different but intersecting things are happening at once - sex trafficking of young women, and the murders of homeless people. At first, the two crimes don't look linked at all, but as the story progresses it becomes clear that things are not always what they seem to be. Dead Lost is a very straight forward novel that allows the reader to follow multiple members of the police force as they tackle the various aspects of these cases until the final pieces of the puzzle fall into place and the perpetrators are taken into custody. 

My only real "complaint" with this story is that there were a couple of instances where the narrative jumped suddenly and it became a bit muddled to figure out who was talking to whom. Other than that, this was an even paced story that I am certain will appeal to those who enjoy police novels (especially those set in the UK). I am definitely going to read more from this author (and in fact have several more of her novels waiting for me on my kindle). 

                                                         *******************

                                
                                  Dead Lost is available from Amazon.com
                                    (for free if you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited)