This was a brilliant read and it did the job of keeping me guessing. I was gripped by the storyline from start to end. Lottie Parker is a likeable character and I look forward to the second and third installments.

A first installment in a police procedural is complicated to write, and to read. Had I started the series with The Missing Ones, I believe I would not have been as enthusiastic as I was when I read the second book. I probably would have picked it anyway because there is a lot of potential in The Missing Ones, but it all felt too blurry, too messy, and I had issues connecting with Lottie until the very end, which is so weird as I felt a lot for her during my read of the next book. I am happy I got to know the Parker family more, I enjoyed how the author created this dark and sad world, I appreciate the plot, but overall it was just okay. I am glad the series gets stronger, and I do not regret going back to the beginning to get a better picture of everything!

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishers, Bookouture for this review copy.

This is the first book in the Lottie Parker series. Lottie is a Detective Inspector in the Irish Garda. She is a widow, with her husband dying a couple of years before. She is finding it hard juggling between work and home. She knows her 3 children need her around, especially as they are still struggling with the loss of their dad, but they also really need the money so giving up her job is not an option. Lottie is thrown into a case of a woman’s body which was found in the local cathedral, and then a few hours later a man is found hung in a tree outside his house. The two cases appear connected – the victims knew and worked with each other and they both had the same distinctive tattoo on their legs. Lottie and her team struggle to find a connection between the two which would cause them to be murdered. The only thing, other than work, that links them is St Angela’s, a former children’s home which was run by the church in the 1970’s.

I have to admit I struggled with this book initially. Whilst it was the first book in the series, it didn’t feel like it was. Lottie had so much back story that it felt that there had to be another book before it. I struggled with the connection between Lottie and Boyd, again feeling there should have been something before that explained it. As the story moved on, some of Lottie’s past became understandable and the story became easier to follow. I still didn’t understand Boyd’s relationship with Lottie throughout the whole book to be honest, but perhaps it becomes clearer in the next book!

I felt a huge amount of empathy for Lottie’s character. She’s a young widow, has three teenage children to contend with, struggles for money and has lots of run in’s with her superior at work. I also feel for her children – three stroppy teenagers are bad enough, but then add in that they are still grieving for their dad and need their mum at home more than she is and it’s just a recipe for disaster. Lottie also doesn’t have a very good relationship with her mother. There is a reason for this, but you don’t really get to find this out until the very end.

The case that Lottie finds herself in the middle of isn’t an easy one. It involves a closed children’s home which was run by the church in the 1970’s. The children’s home also has a link to Lottie’s past which makes it all the more uncomfortable to her. The case reveals years of abuse not just within the children’s home and also within the church, but you are left to try and work out just who is involved. Given the subject matter, it’s not an easy read and may not appeal to all tastes. The plot twists and turns as it moves through the story and there were lots of people who I thought were involved, but turns out they weren’t! The ending is a great twist and whilst it was great to get there to finally find out who was involved, it was also tinged with sadness for what it eventually reveals.

A gripping read which was enough to make me start the second book, The Stolen Girls, straight away!

Four stars!

The is a dark and gripping police crime thriller and not for the faint hearted . I absolutely loved it and found it hard to put down . It's the first in a series involving DI Lottie Parker . I can't wait to read more in this series .

thanks to netgalley for introducing my next favorite author.
I loved this book. it kept you guessing right to the very end. Characters were realistic and there definitely a few love/hate characters. cant wait to read the next instalment.

Wonderful new crime series starring a strong but damaged Detective Inspector, her name is Lottie Parker and she's very good at her job but she's still grieving the loss of her husband and can't seem to connect with her 3 teenage children, they remind her too much of her husband.

She manages to hold things together though while she works to solve the case.

Loved this book and highly recommend it to all!

This was the first book in a new series featuring supercop DI Lottie Parker. This book set a strong base for more novels to follow and I enjoyed Lottie's strong personality and no-nonsense way of handling her life. Greatly enjoyed and recommended!!!!

I love nothing more than discovering a new author, especially in the crime genre and especially when they can come up with a story as twisty and amazing as the one that Patricia Gibney has written here with The Missing Ones. I was reminded of Angela Marsons a few times as I read this book, not just because her and Patricia are both published by Bookouture, but because that is the last time (with Silent Scream) that I finished the start of a brand new series with such a high level of excitement at what was to come in the future.

The Missing Ones introduces us to Detective Lottie Parker who is a fantastic character who felt to me almost like a real person. Her feelings and thoughts are at times palpable, and I felt as if I was with her on every step of her journey here. For a crime series to truly stand out to me there has to be something about the main detective that sets them apart from others in the genre. For the first hundred or so pages it was all pretty standard on that front, but then Lottie really started to come into her own and by the end of the story she had become to me a standout character in this genre and one that I hope I am reading about for many more books to come.

The story here in The Missing Ones is just incredible. On paper I don't think it sounds like an incredibly original story, however as I started to read I found myself gripped to my Kindle, unable to stop reading because Patricia writes in a way that makes you want to read on, and even if you do manage to stop reading, the story will not leave your thoughts until you can read the final page. The opening chapters are both intriguing and chilling in equal measure, Patricia takes full advantage of the wintery setting in this fictional but believable Irish setting. The town of Ragmullin becoming a character in itself and being used to highlight how some truly awful crimes can be hidden up very easily within a small community, and how once buried secrets start to become uncovered, nobody and nowhere is safe anymore.

As both a woman and a detective Lottie is not without her flaws, but that is what made her such an interesting and enjoyable character to read about. She has three children, and is juggling being a detective with being a single mother after the death of her husband. She is somewhat of a renegade detective at times, but I think that's what most of us look for in a fictional detective, someone who isn't afraid to break the rules and Lottie certainly isn't. Again, on paper this could all sound very 'been there, done that' but that is absolutely not the case here in The Missing Ones and Lottie's decision making processes are believable once the reader is given more information and they are certainly understandable once the full picture is revealed at the end of the story. As I read, because there's so much happening in the story, I had about ten different theories flying around in my mind and on some of them I was right, but on others Patricia truly kept me guessing and I couldn't read quick enough to discover how everything was going to play out.

The Missing Ones is an emotional rollercoaster from start to finish, not just because of the despicable crimes we are reading about but also because of the actions of those in the present. I felt genuine anger of course at the bad guys in this story, but also at some of those who are meant to be the good guys. It'll become clear as you read but I despite politics in crime fiction, and Lottie's boss is one of the worst I've read for this. That said, it only made Lottie's impulsiveness all the more fun to read about and endeared me to her even more. Lottie's backstory plays a really big part in the story, and when it's revealed fully to the reader just what her past entails it's a real heart stopping moment, or at least it was for me and as I read the final paragraph of the story, a tear threatened to fall down my cheek. I was emotionally invested in this story and in Lottie's story and I read that last page of my Kindle with a heavy heart but full of excitement for more from Lottie and Patricia Gibney. Patricia is an incredibly exciting new voice in the crowded field of crime fiction and I cannot recommend The Missing Ones enough.

3.5 stars! The Missing Ones is a fantastic debut novel from Patricia Gibney. When a woman’s body is found in a cathedral, Detective Lottie Parker is called in to investigate the murder. Within hours another body is found and Lottie realizes the two are connected to St. Angela’s, a former children’s home. I enjoyed the plot and thought the characters were well written. The only reason I took off half a star is because I felt it was too lengthy and somewhat repetitive at times. However, I definitely will be reading the next in the series as I think it will only get better from here!

Wow what a debut book! Loved it!

It wasn’t the first crime thriller with this kind of plot I’ve read just lately but it’s definitely the best by far. I read it in one sitting with several cups of tea and far too much chocolate, I even took it to the loo with me (yes I washed my hands).

Please let me introduce you to DI Lottie Parker, a cancer widow of three years with three teenage children and as you would she expect she finds it difficult to balance her home and work life. She also has a fondness for alcohol and just to top it off there are anxiety issues afoot. Her trusty sidekick DS Mark Boyd, and the rest of the crew Kirby, and Lynch all have their own stories to tell and hopefully we will find out more about them all in due course.
We begin this story in the 1970s with three small children looking out the window of St Angelas a former home for wayward children. It was a place where families could and did take children drop them off and a few were never to be seen again. and one of them utters the immortal question ‘which of us will be next?’ as they see the body wrapped in a flour sack and the hole in the ground.
In the present we have a woman dead in the cathedral and some time later we have a man hanging from a tree. As Lottie and her squad work the leads they find more murders happen. Each of the murders have a link to St Angelas, what could be be that bound them to it?
DI Lottie and Mark are a match made in heaven but ooo not just yet, we are to be teased in a Ross and Rachel from friends kind of scenario, so be prepared or warned. I’m stopping now as I can feel the need to tell you far too much and spoil it.

When you read this book be ready to be made uncomfortable, as the subject matter is of historical child abuse and murder written tastefully graphic, that’s if there is such a thing. It certainly made me think about what has happened in the past and what we continue to hear about now.

Read for an honest review. Thank you very much Netgalley and Bookoutre

This one is insanely disturbing. It's a four star book for me, and I am stunned that it's a debut novel from the author. Prepare to be disgusted, dismayed, and extremely uncomfortable. It deals with a lot of really heavy subject matter. It took me awhile to really get into it, but once I adapted to the characters and started figuring things out, I enjoyed it.

This book introduces us to Detective Lottie Parker. She's a widow with three children. She's a bit cantankerous and hard to get along with. She has an odd relationship with fellow detective Boyd, a grumpy (but funny) boss and a heavy caseload. A woman has been killed and found in a cathedral, and no one has any idea who has done it. More people start to turn up dead, and it's a mystery as to how they're connected and who would want to hurt them... but clear that they're connected somehow.

It goes deeper than anyone initially suspects. Lottie has a connection to an old children's home run by nuns and priests that may be involved, but for much of the book, we remain in the dark. Powerful men have secrets to keep, and no one is talking. Lottie has not only this disturbing case to deal with, but grief from the loss of her husband and taking care of her three teenage children.

I don't think I know anyone who wouldn't be creeped out by this book, but having eight years of a Catholic education myself, it really unnerved me. It kept me guessing until the very end, and managed to surprise me until the startling conclusion. It's a wild ride of a book. While I found Lottie hard to understand and love at first, she grew on me. There are a lot of characters to keep track of in this one, but they all play a part. I'm very curious to see how the series continues!

The Missing Ones is the first in a new detective story set in a fictional town in Ireland featuring DI Lottie Parker. In the present day the story begins with a body being discovered in the cathedral, before a second body is discovered in suspicious circumstances and a strange tattoo seems to suggest the two bodies are more closely connected than anyone looking at their current lives would think.

The case takes a person twist for Lottie, both historically, as the case seems to me linked to St. Angela’s a children’s home from Lottie’s past, but also in the present, as threats are made to her and her children in an attempt to scare her off the case. I won’t spoil anymore of the plot for anyone, as to not give anything away, parts of the story were quite difficult to read as it does deal with abuse, as although this is fiction, so much as been in the press over recent years you know for some people this was, as still is their reality.

One of the key areas of any book is the characters, and this is probably even more true of a series, who is going to carry on with a second book if they don’t like the characters? First up the central character DI Lottie Parker – Lottie is the DI heading up the team in Ragmullin, like so many fictional detectives she’s flawed, but that certainly doesn’t take anything away from the character. I really liked Lottie, she’s a single mother with three teenage children still struggling to cope with the death of her husband, and learning how to balance her family and professional lives. Lottie is a good detective, she’s certainly made it to her position on merit but she has a habit of following her gut, probably a little too often for her superiors’ liking, as it often leads to her stepping on others’ toes! That said she gets results in the end! Also featuring in the book are her three children, who are dealing with not only the loss of their dad but also the general trials and tribulations of being teenagers. Lottie’s mum also features and it becomes clear that something from their shared past has created a wall between them, something that becomes clearer as the plot moves on.

We’re also introduced to a number of Lottie’s colleagues, the members of her team and her superior officer. Without a doubt the character that made the biggest impact on me was her partner DS Mark Boyd, I really enjoyed the banter between the two of them, and there’s also a bit of history between them, and it’s clear he has feelings for her.

At a bit over 400 pages The Missing Ones is a longer novel but the plot was well paced and didn’t feel padded, in fact I probably could have read more! I enjoyed the movement between the past and the present day, I know this doesn’t work for everyone but I liked the little extra bits of information you gained from the past sections, it definitely added to my overall enjoyment of the plot.

Would I Recommend?

Absolutely! The Missing Ones is an extremely promising start to what is shaping up to be a fantastic new detective series, I really enjoyed the setting, and the characters, the plot was interesting and well paced, and the writing was gripping! I went straight onto NetGalley and requested the second book, The Stolen Girls. It’s actually the release day for The Stolen Girls today, Happy Book Birthday! I really enjoyed this one too, expect a review soon!

This was a gripping story, full of twists and so well written. The characters were immediately believable. I felt I knew Detective Lottie Parker already and I look forward to the next books in the series.
It was hard to believe this was a first novel. It reminded me of the books of Jane Casey, and it’s good to see another promising author writing in the genre.

I was so engrossed in the story of Lottie and the murders she was fighting to solve.....I had no time to wash the dishes or do the ironing. What an amazing and intricate story. I can't recommend Patricia Gibney's writing enough! You simply have to read this book.

Lottie Parker is an irish detective, a widow and a mother. She is dedicated to her job, worries she isn't there for her children and is passionate about justice for victims. St Angela's- a disused orphanage is all set to be converted to a luxury hotel and golf course but it has a chilling past. When a council worker from planning is strangled in the cathedral and another is found hanging in his garden Lottie and her team investigates. There is an older connection between them than where they worked. As the investigation digs deeper it uncovers horrors that lead all the way back to the Vatican and Lottie's friends and family are all affected by it.

I loved this book. It was a real page turner & just as you thought you had uncovered one secret another rears its head. I am even more delighted to have the next book o=in the series on my shelf & will definitely be my next read.

Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for introducing me to Lottie Parker (& Patricia Gibney!) Definitely a five star read!

Just finished the last page of Patricia Gibney’s “The missing ones” – and I’m missing the characters already. The novel features Garda Síochána detective inspector Lottie Parker and is set in the fictional town of Ragmullin in the Irish Midlands.

Lottie is one of those wonderful ‘flawed’ protagonists. Still grieving for her late husband, Adam, Lottie throws herself into her work – often to the detriment of her home life with her three teenage children. In her early forties, Lottie has an addictive personality and she valiantly tries to stay away from booze and cigarettes. She doesn’t eat properly and she is always tired. Also, she is slightly OCD – she is constantly counting things.

Lottie and her team are tasked with a murder investigation. The victim, Susan Sullivan, was a terminally ill woman in her fifties. Her body was found in the Catholic cathedral where she was strangled with her iPod cord. Shortly thereafter, they have another body. A co-worker of the dead woman is found hanging from a tree in his garden. It is discovered that not only do the two victims know one another, they both have nearly identical tattoos on their inner thighs AND they were both residents of St. Angela’s Catholic institution as children.

“A banker, a clergyman, and an official”

Secrets abound in Ragmullin and we meet three unnamed men having an even more secretive meeting. They have something they want hidden and, it would seem, would do anything to hide their secret from the world. They don’t trust anyone, not even each other.

Lottie and her team have very little to go on and become more and more frustrated as days pass. When a priest’s body in found under the snow in the same garden as the hanging victim, things become very confusing indeed. What could all these deaths have in common? With an antagonistic superior, and the press hounding them, Lottie and her team face seemingly insurmountable odds.

They are made aware of two ‘cold case’ murders which took place nearly forty years ago and wonder if those two murders and the three they are currently working on could possibly be connected in some way…

Meanwhile Lottie is fretting about her children. Her eldest, Katie, has a new boyfriend and has been smoking weed. Her two younger children are often left to their own devices and she feels guilty and inadequate as a result. She also feels guilty about her growing emotional dependence on her coworker and sometimes lover, Detective Mark Boyd.

While reading this novel, and learning about Lottie Parker, I pictured her as the actress Suranne Jones of “Scott & Bailey” fame.

The themes running through this novel are corruption, desperation, and the lasting damage done to adult survivors of horrific child abuse.

It is truly hard to believe that this is the author’s first novel. Many red herrings and plot twists pepper this eminently readable police procedural. With strong and sympathetic characterization, “The missing ones” marks a solid beginning of a series I plan to follow diligently. In fact, I already have the second novel in the series “The stolen girls” loaded on my Kindle.

A relevant Irish thriller that was totally engrossing.

I am very sorry to say that I was unable to finish this book. I think I made it to chapter 10, but the subject matter disturbed me in such a way that I could not go on. The writing is excellent - this is a personal issue for me. I think this shows that the author has such talent in writing that she evoked emotions in me that were real and raw. I call that a success.

Thank you to NetGalley for an opportunity to read and review this book.

4/5 stars
I really liked this novel; it kept me guessing throughout the novel and thought the ending was quite unexpected. I enjoyed "meting' Lottie and her family as well as her co-workers. I think the author did a good job of introducing us to these characters. Looking forward to next in the series

Set in Ireland this novel focuses on the lead detective who is dealing with a lot of issues while trying to solve a string of murders. This story is well written but I found myself skipping through some parts to get to the end. I would recommend this but it took me halfway through the book to get really engaged in it.