#BookReview The Lost Victim by Robert Bryndza @RobertBryndza #TheLostVictim #RobertBryndza #KateMarshall #KateMarshallSeries Title: The Lost Victim

Author: Robert Bryndza

Series: Kate Marshall #5

Published by: Raven Street Publishing on Jul. 9, 2024

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 326

Format: Hardcover

Source: Robert Bryndza

Book Rating: 10/10

When school girl Janey Macklin disappeared from the seedy side of London in 1988, her case went cold, with no body and no witnesses. Now, thirty years later, private detective Kate Marshall has been approached by a true crime podcast producer with an intriguing question they need her help answering: What if Janey was killed by Peter Conway, the notorious Nine Elms Cannibal?

The contract would be the most lucrative of Kate’s career, but it comes with a price of its own, dredging up a sordid, complicated past that she would sooner forget . . . one that the paparazzi are determined to keep in the headlines.

As Kate and her partner, Tristan, scour King’s Cross for clues, no two leads seem to point in the same direction. The last person to see Janey alive has already been tried, convicted, and then acquitted of her murder, Peter Conway is in poor health and fading fast, and the line between their clients and their suspects is blurring with each new revelation about the case.

With little to work from, can Tristan and Kate wade through clandestine phone calls, decades-old secrets, and deteriorating DNA evidence to solve Janey’s murder, or will she remain one of London’s countless missing persons, forever lost to time?

Can be read as a stand-alone.


Review:

Mesmerizing, dark and unpredictable!

The Lost Victim is an eerie, twisty thrill ride that takes us back to the UK, where Private Investigator Kate Marshall and her partner Tristan Harper now find themselves on the thirty-year-old cold case of a missing teen that will not only see them heading to the streets of London but will have Kate confronting the demon from her past one last time.

The writing is insightful and edgy. The characters are multifaceted, diligent, and clever. And the plot is an ominous, compelling mix of twists, turns, red herrings, secrets, deduction, duplicity, mayhem, manipulation, malicious intentions, violence, and murder.

Overall, The Lost Victim is another intricate, engrossing, highly entertaining thriller by Bryndza that once again highlights his exceptional ability to write police procedurals that have well-drawn characters and disturbingly realistic storylines. It is the fifth novel in the Kate Marshall series and definitely one of my new all-time favourites.

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

     

 

 

Thank you to Robert Bryndza for providing me with a copy in exchange for an review.

 

About Robert Bryndza

Robert Bryndza is an international bestselling author, best known for his page-turning crime and thriller novels, which have sold over four million copies in the English language.

His crime debut, The Girl in the Ice was released in February 2016, introducing Detective Chief Inspector Erika Foster. Within five months it sold one million copies, reaching number one in the Amazon UK, USA and Australian charts. To date, The Girl in the Ice has sold over 1.5 million copies in the English language and has been sold into translation in 29 countries. It was nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery & Thriller (2016), the Grand prix des lectrices de Elle in France (2018), and it won two reader voted awards, The Thrillzone Awards best debut thriller in The Netherlands (2018) and The Dead Good Papercut Award for best page turner at the Harrogate Crime Festival (2016).

Robert has released a further five novels in the Erika Foster series, The Night Stalker, Dark Water, Last Breath, Cold Blood and Deadly Secrets, all of which have been global bestsellers, and in 2017 Last Breath was a Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Mystery and Thriller.

Most recently, Robert created a new crime thriller series based around the central character Kate Marshall, a police officer turned private detective. The first book, Nine Elms, was an Amazon USA #1 bestseller and an Amazon UK top five bestseller, and the series has been sold into translation in 18 countries. The second book in the series is the global bestselling, Shadow Sands and the third book, Darkness Falls, has just been published.

Robert was born in Lowestoft, on the east coast of England. He studied at Aberystwyth University, and the Guildford School of Acting, and was an actor for several years, but didn’t find success until he took a play he’d written to the Edinburgh Festival. This led to the decision to change career and start writing. He self-published a bestselling series of romantic comedy novels, before switching to writing crime. Robert lives with his husband in Slovakia, and is lucky enough to write full-time.