I am delighted to be one of the Book Bloggers opening the Tour today and to share my review today for Three Little Girls by Jane Badrock. This is the second book in the Karen Thorpe series, and while it is good to read a series in order, I do think it would work well as a stand-alone.

My huge thanks to Zoe at Zooloo’s Book Tours for my spot on the Blog Tour and for arranging my copy of this book from the publisher Question Mark Press.

THREE COLD CASES ONE DETERMINED COP
Someone’s playing tricks on Karen at home and at work. When two cold case files about missing girls turn up on her desk, she’s fuming. When a third file arrives…
she blows a fuse.
Her boss demands she take a holiday leave just as Karen discovers her late father was involved in one of the cases. Now she’s compelled to investigate them.
Karen’s accompanied by sometime boyfriend John- but can she trust him or his friend and map keeper Mr Binks?
She has formidable detective skills but will they work in places where old-world magic is still powerful?
Karen’s life is in serious danger… but from whom…. or what?

MY REVIEW

This is the 2nd book in the Karen Thorpe series, and I have read the first book. I can say that they do work well as stand-alone. As I had read the previous book I immediately wanted to read this one, I didn’t read the synopsis so it was a very pleasant surprise to see the story that the author had in mind for our detective.

As I started reading this I remembered the main protagonist, Karen Thorpe, not particularly likeable. She is abrupt, short with people and very, very work-focused. She is a character that thrives on her work, it is all she thinks about and in her job she has no time for fools. It’s a good job that her on/off/maybe-boyfriend John understands her and the work, and his role plays out so well in this story.

When case files randomly start turning up on her desk, Karen is sure someone is taking the mick out of her. Then she starts to see something in them, something that reminds her of her Dad. The more she tries to work out the more bizarre things become, even the level headed John is puzzled. The three cases are from 50 years ago, unsolved and opened by various people over the years but never resolved. Karen and John team up to try and sort through the mysteries and the clues that will lead them to several cities.

This is the second time I have read a book by this author, so I am not familiar with her style yet. Given how much I enjoyed the first book in the series I was a little bewildered at how this story was going. There are definitely more sides to this author and I believe she may like to enjoy swapping genres and mixing things up. It was only when I finished the book that I actually read the synopsis, yeah I know it’s the wrong way around, but it has made this book a really interesting and unexpected read.

I am aware of this being a bit of a vague review, and now I have read the synopsis I do see that there is a mention of what this story was going to be. I am in fact rather glad that I came to this one blind, it made for a really interesting police procedural with a strong mysterious vibe to it. For me, it worked well and I did enjoy the journey.

One for those who like a crime and mystery read that is a little different but also very addictive reading. It is one I would happily recommend.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jane writes novels, short stories and poems, usually with a good dose of humour in them. She probably owes it all to her late grandmother who, she’s just found out, also wrote short stories and poems. She tends to get an idea and then run with it whether it be a 100-word short story or an 80 thousand word novel. It all depends on the voices in her head at the time…

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Many thanks for reading my post, a like or share would be amazing 🙂 xx