Stranger Child by Rachel Abbott

 

Emma and David met after both had suffered tragedies.  Emma's longtime fiance had suddenly broken up with her and several months later, committed suicide.  David's story was worse.  His family was in a car accident one night.  His wife was killed and his seven year old daughter was never seen again.  Had she wandered off and died?  Had someone taken her that night?  Both stunned by life, they met and fell in love and now have a small child, Ollie.

But life isn't through with them yet.  One day Emma comes into the kitchen to find a teenage girl standing there.  It is Natasha, David's lost child.  Emma and David are shocked and rush to hug the girl but she pushes them away.  She won't tell them anything about where she has been or what she has been doing.  She holes up in her old bedroom with the door locked and refuses to speak.

DI Tom Douglas is brought into the case.  Tasha refuses to speak to the police either but Douglas is determined to find out the truth.  He soon realizes that Tasha has been caught up with the local crime lords and that they apparently have been using children to help in their drug deliveries and other crimes.  There is a big job planned and apparently Tasha may be involved.  That is confirmed when Tasha takes Ollie for a walk and returns to the house without him.  Now the same cruel men who have had her for years have Emma and David's toddler.  

This is the fourth novel in the Tom Douglas series.  Rachel Abbott does a good job of threading together disparate timelines and cases to a stunning climax.  There are lots of twists and turns and the reader will be on the edge of their seat, hoping against hope that Ollie can be returned to his parents. In the first five years of the Kindle in the UK, Abbott was the top selling independent author and this book shows why readers love her work.   This book is recommended for mystery readers.