It was ok, not great... I might try another, but not just yet ( )

I really, really wanted to like this book, but for me were there just too many things that bothered me to truly enjoy reading this book. The Lost Children started off great, with the discovery of a dead body in the old asylum and I enjoyed the flashbacks during the books progress to 1975 when young Lizzy is committed to the asylum. I was intrigued by the story and wondered what the past had to do with the present murder.

However, I started to feel a bit annoyed with Detective Lucy Harwin as the story progressed, especially her private life. Her ex-husband had left her for another woman, and to be honest can I understand him and I can also understand why their daughter wanted to live with him instead of Lucy. Lucy, in my opinion, acted more like a woman in her early twenties than her thirties. The worst thing is that I felt the same about Mattie, and yes he is a few years younger than Lucy, but it felt like they were adolescents not grown adults working as cops. And Mattie's crush on Lucy did not amuse me either.

Then we have the case, it was just too predictable and Lucy made some extraordinary leaps in the investigations that astonished me. I mean the kind of "I have no evidence to support this, but I think this is right since I'm clairvoyant, so let's go for it. No, she's not clairvoyant, but there were moments when I honestly thought she was since everything could be normal, but she had a gut feeling that something was wrong and of course it was. Then, we have the killers identity, no big surprise there either.

The part I like the best was the flashbacks to asylum if the book had focused more on the past and the girls there and had a stronger case with more mature characters would I have loved this book. This book had potentials and the first half of the book is good, but the later half just didn't work for me so much.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review! ( )

Wow Wow Wow seriously in love with The Lost Children, Helen Phifer has had the ability to do what others have failed at, get me to give a five-star rating to a detective novel.
From the moment I picked up this story, I was transfixed.
There was no pussyfooting around with this it was BAM!!! straight into the fire & then the sparks were seriously burning & fizzling & popping The Lost Children was none stop action from start to finish and I adored it.
We start our story with the Estate Agent showing a prospective buyer around the Asylum, an old abandoned hospital that was home to many forgotten children that had basically been left there by their parents to rot, so awful and sad.
Upon stumbling across a body the shocked pair call in the local police.
Detective Lucy Harwin, just back from a suspension over a previous case is called into investigate this case. Lucy & her partner Mattie are now on the job and to solve this murder they must dig into the past, but as the bodies start piling up the sand in the hourglass is running out.
This is the first book of what I assume will be a series and it has me hooked.
What I especially loved was the human nature of our main character's, I adored looking through the window at their everyday trials and tribulations, In my opinion, it made them more relatable more solid.
I liked how everything was interwoven so nicely and how the language used was so easy to follow and not overdone.
Lucy and Mattie were adorable and I can definitely see the seeds of mutual friendship blossoming into something more with these two besties.
The flashbacks to the asylum where incredibly poignant, but were integral to the story, in short, This was such a page turner and a brilliant beginning to what I am confident will be a compelling new series. A job well done in my opinion.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free E-Copy of The Lost Children By Helen Phifer this is my own honest opinion after reading.

https://www.beckiebookworm.com/
https://www.facebook.com/beckiebookworm/ ( )

Wow Wow Wow seriously in love with The Lost Children, Helen Phifer has had the ability to do what others have failed at, get me to give a five-star rating to a detective novel.
From the moment I picked up this story, I was transfixed.
There was no pussyfooting around with this it was BAM!!! straight into the fire & then the sparks were seriously burning & fizzling & popping The Lost Children was none stop action from start to finish and I adored it.
We start our story with the Estate Agent showing a prospective buyer around the Asylum, an old abandoned hospital that was home to many forgotten children that had basically been left there by their parents to rot, so awful and sad.
Upon stumbling across a body the shocked pair call in the local police.
Detective Lucy Harwin, just back from a suspension over a previous case is called into investigate this case. Lucy & her partner Mattie are now on the job and to solve this murder they must dig into the past, but as the bodies start piling up the sand in the hourglass is running out.
This is the first book of what I assume will be a series and it has me hooked.
What I especially loved was the human nature of our main character's, I adored looking through the window at their everyday trials and tribulations, In my opinion, it made them more relatable more solid.
I liked how everything was interwoven so nicely and how the language used was so easy to follow and not overdone.
Lucy and Mattie were adorable and I can definitely see the seeds of mutual friendship blossoming into something more with these two besties.
The flashbacks to the asylum where incredibly poignant, but were integral to the story, in short, This was such a page turner and a brilliant beginning to what I am confident will be a compelling new series. A job well done in my opinion.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free E-Copy of The Lost Children By Helen Phifer this is my own honest opinion after reading.

https://www.beckiebookworm.com/
https://www.facebook.com/beckiebookworm/ ( )

This was a fast-paced story with lots of action. Detective Lucy Harwin is always running around trying to find evidence and talk to forensics and go back to crime scenes. In that aspect, I think the author did a good job in showing the effort and dedication that goes into a career in law enforcement. The chapters switched perspectives, sometimes showcasing the voice of the killer, sometimes taking a flashback to the days when the asylum was still active, even showing the voice of one of the victims! While I found the excerpts from the asylum to be interesting, I found that seeing the perspective of the killer made it really easy to guess who it was. I figured out the identity of the murderer quite early on, which was a bit of a disappointment; I like having that slow thrill and anticipation of finding out who it is at the very end. I also found that everything seemed to happen a bit too easily for Lucy; it was pretty much as if everything fell on her lap and there wasn't as much real detective work as I would have liked. This was a decent detective fiction that had a really fast pace that kept me gripped - but the overall story itself had its flaws.

I received this novel as an advanced copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )