​What a great start to what can only be a very promising series. I love finding new authors, and Patricia Gibney is certainly going to be an author to look out for. I was amazed when I realised this was Patricia's Debut novel. You would never believe that when reading it.

​We are introduced to Detective Lottie Parker, and I have to say right away I liked her. A single mother of 3 teenagers and working a very stressful job, what isn't to like. Add to that the fact she also gets things wrong then she's going to be a brilliant character to follow.
Alongside her is Boyd and their working partnership as well as their personal one needs working at, lol. I loved the banter between them, and the way they interacted with each other.
​Some great characters, that are going to be interesting as we go further into the series and each character develops.
​It's a tough story to cover but covered very well.
​A very interesting read, something to get your teeth into. Well worth giving it a go, I'm lucky enough to have the next one to start right away, and I'm looking forward to it.

A fantastic and engrossing read with rich writing.
Gripping and suspenseful.

This is a really good crime thriller debut novel from Patricia Gibney. Set in Ireland it invariably has a Catholic church/child abuse thread but don't let that put you off as there is a lot more to this story. I really liked the way the characters interacted with each other and the relationship with Boyd and Parker was very well done. There are snippets of the past story told in the book but they are not overly graphic (not pleasant reading ). Right from the start the tension builds and builds never letting up for one moment. I wouldn't say there was a jaw dropping twist at the end- not a fan of "jaw-dropping" and such phrases- I try now never to guess the endings of books as it significantly reduces enjoyment- after all there are only so many characters to choose from. Settle down for a good read and you won't be disappointed. Don't try and second guess- what's the point? Let the author tell her story and really enjoy it. It's a cracker of a story. I love all crime fiction from Agatha Christie through to Mark Billingham to Katerina Diamond. If you are very squeamish you might not like it but I'd encourage everyone to give it a go

fast paced, very detailed! i enjoyed this book very much

When a woman’s body is discovered in a cathedral and hours later a young man is found hanging from a tree outside his home, Detective Lottie Parker is called in to lead the investigation. Both bodies have the same distinctive tattoo clumsily inscribed on their legs. It’s clear the pair are connected, but how?
The Missing Ones, is an amazing debut novel which is fast paced with some really great characters, good and bad. I particularly liked Detective Lottie Parker, a great strong female lead character, who is fighting a personal tragedy after the death of her husband. I also loved the dynamics between Lottie and her partner Mark Boyd.
Don’t even try and guess the who or why, I was kept guessing throughout and was gripped from beginning to end of this emotional page turner.
I highly recommend this book and can’t wait for the next in this exciting new series.

Holy Cow I loved this book. It really spoke to me because I journal and save for my girls for when I pass. I have left card and sentimental things for them to find.

I'm happy to have had the chance to read what looks to be the first book in a new series. Gibney has created a dynamic character in Lottie and makes effective use of an atmospheric setting. The sins of the past are being revisited upon the perpetrator of wrongs and Gibney has done a nice job with a twisty, page turning plot. THanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This actually is a winner of a page turner.

(I received an ARC from the NETGALLEY)

RATING: 3 STARS

Lottie Parker is a Detective Inspector in Ireland. She is a widow with three teenage children. She is at odds with her domineering mother and her boss. She had sex with her co-worker and partner, Boyd and she doesn't seem to like her other two cops on her team. She has a new case just after Christmas where a woman is found strangled and there are no clues to who this woman really was. Next the murdered woman's co-worker turns up dead and they must be related. There are other stuff happening but it becomes a bit tangled so I will stop there for the plot synopsis.

I battled between 2.5-3 stars on this one. Here is my dilemma - this book was slow movie, a bit predicable and I felt no connection with any of the characters. Yet, in the end Lottie starting growing a bit on me, but more because of her affection for Boyd. So then I am thinking, would I read the next book and...I would give it a try BUT if by a few chapters it did not engage me I would abandon it. I want to give first time writers a break as it is their first book and I hope the next one will be more polished...but I also think, where are the Editors? Maybe the Editors have different perspective on it. See, I am confusing myself! I liked the story line of the mystery but wish it was a bit tighter (at least 100 pages could have been cut). And, the fact that "jaw-dropping twist" was on the cover I figured out what the twists were.

I really enjoyed this book, though it is definitely not for the faint hearted! The story is set in a fictional town in Ireland and the detective, Lottie Parker, is a widow with 3 teenage children. The story starts with a murder in the cathedral, and the suspense quickly builds when another killing takes place. The 2 victims were work colleagues, but we are made aware that they had some kind of past history together. The main plot is interspersed with chapters taking place in the seventies, and these make difficult reading as they concern abuse at a local children's home, St Angela's. How do the 2 parts of the story link up? Are those horrific events linked to the current investigation? This is a real page turner which will keep you guessing until the end. I was pleased to see that this is the first in a series. I shall certainly look out for the next one. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.

This is book 1 in the Detective Lottie Parker Series. It is an awesome debut thriller. It took me awhile to get into it. At first I wasn't so sure I was going to like it. It was complexed with lots of characters. The book kept me engaged. The ending was an edge of your seat thrill ride. It was certainly dark material but made it into an exciting story. It is a gripping, gritty, and tense read set in Ireland.

I don't think the characters were developed very well and am hoping they will be developed better in the next book.
I thought Lottie was a terrible mother. She is grieving over her husband's death, comes home late from work and let's her kids starve and felt that she didn't protect them very well since there were several deaths in the town. She just let them fend for themselves. She also didn't have a good relationship with her mother. Most of the characters are flawed in their own ways and help you see how damaged people can be on the inside and show little of it on the outside.

St. Angela's, a former children's home links to a murder being committed decades later. In the modern timeline, a woman's body is found strangled in a cathedral, and Detective Lottie Parker and her partner Boyd are dispatched to the scene. There are no witnesses and the cleaning lady found the body. Hours later a body of a man is found hanging from a tree. Why would someone want to kill them? Lottie will need to dig in the past to find the answers she is looking for.

The book had many twists and turns that kept me wanting more. The pace is good while Lottie and her team race to catch the killer. There are definitely some dark themes and some upsetting scenes which are disturbing but of course that is what I love in reading a dark gritty thriller.

I want to thank Netgalley, Bookouture and Patricia Gibney for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Missing Ones is the debut novel by Patricia Gibney and book one of the Lottie Parker series. I just love a series and was super excited to read this one, the cover had me intrigued and then I read the description and I was sold and had to get stuck right in.

Detective Lottie Parker is hard working, she’s intelligent and doesn’t suffer fools lightly, she’s also a widow and mum to 3 teenagers. Lottie’s had a difficult time, loosing her husband she turned to drink but has sorted herself out and she has a real on off relationship with her mum. She’s a fabulous character, real feeling and very likeable. Her work partner Mark Boyd is another great character and there’s a chemistry between the pair which I hope will develop further through the series.

The prologue left me open mouthed and desperately needing to read on. The story is set over nine days but flits to the past very cleverly. I’m not going to go into the plot too much as this is such a fantastic story I wouldn’t want to give anything away. I will say however it has twists and turns, it has difficult subject matters which gave me shivers and probably not for the faint hearted but it was really well written, even though some scenes made me cringe I was desperate to keep on reading and to find out who done it and each time I thought I had an idea, boom another twist.

I’ll end on saying that this is a brilliant start to what looks likely to be a brilliant series with great characters and I’m eagerly waiting on book two now. I definitely recommend The Missing Ones.

Thank you Net Galley, Bookouture, and Patricia Gibney for the opportunity to read The Missing Ones in exchange for an unbiased review.

I wish we had the ability to give 1/2 stars here because this was a 4.5 star book for me. While the book is relatively fast paced with lots of twists and turns, I still had trouble getting into it at first. I am not sure why - somewhere through the first chapter or two, I put it down and it took me a week or two to convince myself to give it another go and I am VERY glad I did.

As an American reading an Irish mystery, I had to google a term or two, but I was thoroughly amused by their swear words - especially their "f-word". A few times I tried to look up a word by way of my kindle dictionary and only found the american definition, so I had to stop to google a few times, but it was fun learning new slang, so that didn't bother me. I even found myself using the phrase "economical with the truth" a time or two. :-)

The setting for this book was wonderful - in the down trodden, eerie, wintry, gloomy, Irish town of Ragmullin. It was a GREAT setting for a creepy, twisty mystery! And no spoiler - the first chapter starts with three children watching the burial (with "eyes black with terror") of another child, wondering which one of them will be next... Spooky, right?

Throughout the story, we follow Detective Inspector Lottie Parker, whom I really enjoyed getting to know. She is all kinds of flawed, just like most of us are! She is running the investigation of the murder of a woman named Susan who was strangled in a church...

As the investigation moves forward, we start to learn about Susan and the various other characters intertwined in her story... there were a lot of characters and a lot of little sub-stories... I feared that I would come to the end of the book and find myself wondering about loose ends (happens a lot with new authors) but I felt satisfied in the end, when everything was revealed and I didn't notice anything left hanging. I love a tidy book! :-)

The subject matter is quite disturbing, but I don't mind that... it adds to the creep factor, which I'm always looking for in a good "twisty" book.

I am VERY happy that I didn't abandon this book when I took a break in the first few chapters... I truly enjoyed this read. While it is not winter here right now, I read this book during a particularly gloomy, rainy week and it made it feel all the more creepy.

On a separate note, I also enjoyed the little note to the readers at the end. I was very sorry to read about Ms. Gibney's husband's death and can definitely see where Lottie would be a character near and dear to the author's heart. I checked goodreads right after I read this and was very happy to see that she has a second book, The Stolen Girls coming out July 6th, 2017. I can't wait to pick that one up! I think Patricia Gibney is one of my new favorites!

What a fascinating mystery and utterly heart breaking story. Kept me gripped right from the off and had so many twists and turns that I really did not know who the main players were.

This was a little on the extreme side. There were so many individuals involved, so many cover ups, so much conspiracy. I felt just as confused as poor Lottie, the detective who was tasked with finding the answers. What made this just that much more palatable to read was the human aspect of the main characters. Lottie was such a real person, suffering from her own griefs and insecurities, worrying for her children while juggling overtime. It made her a character that was easy to relate to, and that gave the story a new dimension in my eyes.

Some of the twists felt overly contrived, some seemed obvious, and some genuinely shocked me. Maybe not so surprised, as I found myself anticipating them, yet shocked that events played out the way they did. This author pulled no punches, and nobody was safe.

As a whole, I felt this was a strong enough start for the series, and I liked Lottie, her family, and her persistent admirer enough that I would absolutely leap into book two. Overall, a solid 4 Stars. ~ George

OMG!!  I honestly loved this book, it was an absolutely brilliant read from the first chapter and I have already recommended it to friends and family.  I loved the main character of Detective Lottie Parker, she had just right amount of baggage to make her a character you could really feel for and I found myself to be routing for her throughout the book.  The book covers some really tough subjects and Patricia has clearly done her research and they are dealt with really well.  The descriptions, plot, pace and characters are all spot on and I did not hesitate to give it 5 stars and its out now for you to grab a copy!  And even better news is that the second book in the series is now on pre-order (The Stolen Girls) and is due out on 6th July 2017 - after reading the first, I definitely can't wait for the second in the series!!

A detective story with a very Irish flavor featuring crimes that go back to a period when the church had too much power and women and children were the first to suffer. The story centers around the former orphanage of St Angela's and gets going from the very beginning, but it becomes really exciting towards the end, so you really can't stop reading. Lottie Parker is a great character and I hope to read more stories from the same series in the future.

Could not put this book down! This is a fantastic debut novel for the author and I look forward to reading more in the series.

The main character Detective Lottie Parker is a widowed mother of 3 teenagers. She is struggling with her grief and her need to move on and copes using prescription drugs and alcohol and throwing herself into her work leaving her children to fend for themselves a lot causing her much feelings of guilt. She has a strained relationship with her mother due to events that have occurred in their past.

A series of murders have occurred over the Christmas period and all seem to have some connection to a children's home called St Angela's run by the Catholic Church in the early 70's. The investigation uncovers years of abuse suffered by children left in the Church's care and events from Lottie's own past.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it. Many thanks for Netgalley and the publishers for issuing me with an advanced copy in return for an honest review.

This book is so graphic and disturbing. It was really good but a little deep most people like that though. A single detective with three teenage boys at home I think thats a nightmare enough. However, this book makes 3 kids by yourself look like a cake walk. People murdered in a church, hanging from trees. From the start you are brought in and you will not want to put it down.

What a great debut novel. The Missing Ones is a gripping and dark psychological thriller. Well written plot with many twists and turns to keep the reader guessing.

An outstanding debut novel! I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this book from a first-time author. It started a little slow but really picked up as the story progressed.

Detective Lottie Parker investigates two initial murders that are connected by a unique tattoo found on their legs. Her investigation leads her to St. Angela's, a former children's home to which Lottie has personal connections. Every time I put the book down, I couldn't wait to get back to reading it again. I particularly enjoy serial killer books, and this one doesn't fail to satisfy. I look forward to more books by this author.