My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Goodreads rating: 4.52 with 735 ratings (as of 8/24/2020)

One by one the girls disappeared…

When the frail body of a teenage girl is discovered strangled in a parking lot, shards of ice form in Detective Natalie Ward’s veins. As Natalie looks at the freckles scattered on her cheeks and the pale pink lips tinged with blue, she remembers that this innocent girl is somebody’s daughter…

The girl is identified as missing teenager Amelia Saunders, who has run away from home and her controlling father. Natalie’s heart sinks further when it becomes clear that Amelia has been working on the streets, manipulated by her violent new boyfriend Tommy.

A day later, another vulnerable girl is found strangled on a park bench. Like Amelia, Katie Bray was a runaway with connections to Tommy, and Natalie is determined to find him and track down the monster attacking these scared and lonely girls.

But when a wealthy young woman is found murdered the next morning, the word ‘guilty’ scrawled on her forehead, Natalie realizes that the case is more complex than she first thought. Determined to establish a connection between her three victims, Natalie wastes no time in chasing down the evidence, tracing everyone who crossed their paths. Then, a key suspect’s body turns up in the canal, a mole in Natalie’s department leaks vital information and everything seems to be against her. Can Natalie stop this clever and manipulative killer before they strike again? …Synopsis from Goodreads

200 Word Review

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review. The opinions are entirely my own, and any quotes are taken from the ARC and may be different in the final published copy.

Somebody’s Daughter is the 7th book in Carol Wyer’s Detective Natalie Ward series. If you have read my reviews of her earlier works, you know I enjoy her series. Somebody’s Daughter is no exception.

This time, significant changes have shaken up and changed the dynamics of the team. Detective Natalie Ward has been promoted to DCI and Lucy Carmichael is now the DI for the team.

The new team’s first case finds Natalie not sitting behind the desk as much as she should. But would anyone expect anything else from her? At first, the killings seem unrelated, and Lucy is unsure if it is even one murderer or two. The bodies pile up, and the team begins to doubt themselves and feel pressure from the top to close the case.

Wyer’s police procedurals are well-written with relatable characters. She focuses on solving the crime but also on the police team’s interactions with each other and with their home life. By now, they are so familiar they feel like old friends.

No future books are listed on Goodreads, but Wyer recently tweeted she completed the first draft of her 25th novel! Of course, I will be on the lookout for it.

This 200-word review was published on Philomathinphila.com on 7/15/20 and updated on 8/24/20.

This review was published on Philomathinphila.com, Smashbomb, Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble on 8/24/20. When available, the review will be published on Scribd.com and, using Overdrive, will be rated in 9 libraries.

Genre: Mystery, Crime Drama, Police Procedural
Print Length: 336 pages
ISBN: 9781838888732
Publisher: Bookouture
Publication Date: July 9, 2020

Purchase at Amazon *** Barnes and Noble