This is my first experience with the Detective Anna Gwynne series (the first is The Silent Girls). Like most heroines of this genre, she's competent on the job and comes with a bit of baggage from her past (think Lt. Eve Dallas of the J.D. Robb series). She's with the Bristol Police, just having returned to work after four months off as a result of serious injuries incurred, I assume, in the first book.
One of her first assignments is the years-old cold case murder of a child named Rosie Dawson, whose boiled-and-polished bones were found but not her murderer. When Blair Smearton, a young girl who is hearing impaired, goes missing now, Anna's technology team looks to the Dark Web and finds photos of both Rosie and Blair in what is almost certain to be the same room. The team's conclusion? Both were taken by the same person, no doubt a serial killer.
Hoping to find Blair before her bones meet the same fate as Rosie's, Anna and her colleagues ramp up an all-out effort. For her part, Anna turns for help to a in-prison killer named Hector Shaw, with whom she apparently has a prior and not happy relationship. Asking him for insights about how and why he killed his victims, she reasons, may be of help in locating Blair and unearthing Rosie's killer.
Interjected into the story early on is Detective Dave Woakes, a transfer from another police department who turns out to be a thorn in Anna's side. Alas, that seems to be his only purpose; he adds absolutely nothing to the story except to give Anna someone to complain about. Perhaps he's being introduced here with the intent of having him show up in a future installment, but otherwise, he's worthless.
Anna's investigation also puts her in contact with Dr. Hawley, an ER physician who was questioned and narrowly escaped being charged for Rosie's murder simply because he "allowed" the child, who has Down Syndrome, to climb on his lap and give him a smooch when he soothed her earache during an ER visit. Anna's confidence in the doctor's innocence, however, isn't shared by other members of her team. So who's right?
The answer to that doesn't come till late in the book (and no, I'm not going to reveal that information, nor whether or not the team gets to Blair in time to save her life). I will say that the end result, when it comes, seems a bit rushed; at the very least, I'd like to have had a little more detail about the abductor's background (one incident from his or her past, though reprehensible, does not necessarily a serial killer make).
Overall, my opinion is that this is well worth taking to a summer beach or on a longer airplane trip - and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy. It's got reasonably likable characters, a touch of modern technology to keep it timely and enough suspense to hold interest throughout. Honestly, other than the inclusion of that totally disposable Woakes character, my main issue with this book is the intended-to-tantalize subtitle: "A completely unputdownable mystery and suspense thriller." It's a mystery, yes, but the rest of that description? Sorry - not even close.
Blood Runs Cold by Dylan Young (Bookouture, May 2018); 304 pp.
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