Enjoyable third book in series. I did however work out who was the abductor/murderer before the end of the book ( )

I didn't enjoy the narration much, but I like the series ( )

Meh. That's about all the excitement I can conjure up for this book. Predictable, and all too tiresome in repeating the same things about the same characters in previous books. ( )

Unfortunately did not realize this was the third book in this series and I usually don't like picking up books that are already part of a continuing series. Despite that, I liked this one. Good plot, young girls going missing, found dead dressed in white after a short time and a new ten year old taken. The setting, a psychiatric hospital, where a famous killer is incarcerated or is a patient, whichever you refer. he refuses to talk and only writes notes. The main character, Alice, has had past dealings, having helped the police, in particular one certain policeman, and is asked to help again. By talking to Kinsella, since the murders seem to be mimicking his.

So a good plot, interesting setting, a little romance, some profiling and psychological digging made form very interesting and fast paced read. Though in the interest of fairness I questioned some of the actions of Alice, they moved the story forward and provided tension but they were somewhat unbelievable.

ARC from NetGalley. ( )

The Winter Foundlings – Stunningly Brilliant

I would love to know why I have not heard of Kate Rhodes because I have just finished her latest crime and psychological thriller and oh wow what a stunning read. This is one of the most intense, compelling and absolutely convincing read I have had in a while. Rhode’s prose is excellent and the imagery it gives off is so evocative you feel that you are in the centre of the plot.

The Winter Foundlings is now the third book in the Alice Quentin series and now I have read this I want to read more of her series. Dr Alice Quentin is a Forensic Psychologist who is usually based at Guys Hospital in London but at the moment is on a six month secondment to Northwood high security hospital. For those who were scarred by the TV series Cracker Alice Quentin is the absolute opposite, she is intelligent willing to look at the wider picture and more importantly she works in the field rather than the cosy world of academia.

Alice Quentin is on a research secondment at Northwood looking in to the care and mental health treatment of some of society’s scariest criminals. When a colleague from the Met DCI Don Burns contacts her to approach and interview Britain’s most prolific child killer Louis Kinsella for help in finding a killer who is copying or carrying on his body of ‘work’.

Kinsella rarely communicates with any of the therapists at Northwood unless it is by a handwritten note and he is the reason his last therapist has had a breakdown. It is through his note and her interviews she is able to guide the Met in the investigation, even though her old Masters supervisor Professor Alan Nash is doing everything he can to undermine her.

When Ella Williams goes missing Quentin promises her sister Suzanne that she and the Police will do everything they can to bring her home. In what becomes a race against time and more girls being taken Quentin realises that Kinsella is conducting the disappearances somehow even though he has no contact without the outside world.

It is by finding out about Kinsella’s obsession with The Foundling Museum that somehow Quentin will be able to crack the case. Unfortunately that just seems to be yet another blind alley for the investigation, but Quentin is positive that there are unseen connections that she cannot see. It is by finding what connects the abducted children, Kinsella and his proxy will she be able to crack the case.

Kate Rhode’s has written a stunningly brilliant thriller in The Winter Foundlings a psychological thriller at its best. This is a fast paced evocative read that draws you in and holds your attention all the way through to the end. This is a thriller you just do not want to put down it is so well written you just do not want the book to end.

Kate Rhodes has brilliantly researched this book and especially the high-security hospital aspects, having visited one here in the north the only thing not mentioned are the airlocks between the outside world and those patients. But with Kate’s description of the Laurels she could be describing the many therapy rooms that these hospitals have that and the magnolia paint that seems to be widespread.

The Winter Foundlings has been researched with care and love so everything is on point and no creative licence has had to be used. Alice Quentin is a well developed and developing character as are all the other supporting characters. Through her writing Kate Rhodes has written an atmospheric and in places quite terrifying read and the central character of Dr Alice Quentin is one of the best I have read in a long time.

Kate Rhode’s is another example of an excellent female writer taking crime fiction to another level and long may she continue. ( )