The start of this book is intriguing. I loved the idea of a leas female detective with some angst and grit. An Olivia Bensen for my reading police crime mysteries. However, I found DI Lucy Harwin keen sixth sense and instincts too on point. Her always being right with every single hunch was problematic.

I hope the series continues with less predictability.

So we have another detective series beginning, this time featuring DI Lucy Harwin. I did not find her particularly likeable or otherwise; to be honest, she seemed kind of bland to me. Just your average single cop who lives for her job and goes home to ready made meals and a bottle of wine or vodka.

There was one thing that kept bugging me - Lucy is made to have this terrific sixth sense when really it's all conjecture and the only way the reader can buy it is because she says those things after we know the killer's perspective and therefore what exactly happened. Her 'gut feeling' is always on the money, even though there is nothing much to support it (example: an open gate).

The book focuses a lot on Lucy and her sidekick Mattie. When that happened I sped read because I wanted to get to the juicy bits and I found those utterly uninteresting. The blurb got to me with the mention of the asylum and I really wanted to learn more about that part. I wish it had been more developed.

I thought certain things were unnecessary clichés, like (view spoiler). Also, when well used, I don't even notice swearing in the books, but here it felt completely out of place and unnatural.

I liked the structure of the narrative. The timeline switches between 1975 at the asylum and present day and there are a couple of entries from our killer after the crimes have been committed, which brings the reader a nice perspective. The story flows fairly well, slowly connecting the dots, though a bit slow-paced for my taste because there were just some things I did not appreciate and wanted to move on.

There are several red herrings, some don't tie that well in the end, several things are unnecessarily repeated (like the mentions of Isabella and her mother) and the ending felt rushed. Although there are some exciting bits my overall assessment is that, considering the amount of series of the sort that are out there and done in a more appealing manner (to me at least), I do not intend to follow this one.

Disclaimer: I would like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

"The Lost Children” is a dark, twisty thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat from the first page to the last.

I know that sounds like a bit of a book cliché, but it’s the truth I couldn’t put this book down once I started it. Even after I had figured out part of the mystery, I just had to keep reading to see if I was right.

Needless to say, I loved this book.

Lucy Harwin is back at work after a three-month break, which she took after a case went wrong. On her first day back a body has appeared in an old children’s asylum, which closed in the 1970s, with the injuries resembling a botched lobotomy. Is the modern-day murder connected to the old place? If so, how.

As the modern day storyline unfolds we are also transported back to the children’s ward of the asylum to see the events which have led up to this current predicament.

The book has an intensely creepy vibe, which the author does a great job of keeping up throughout the entire novel. The crimes are brutal and aren’t for those with a weak stomach, but it really adds to the atmosphere of the novel. I mean what’s more creepy than an abandoned asylum and a possibly psychotic killer seeking revenge?

Like I said I figured out part of the ending but I wasn’t disappointed because I still didn’t have the entire picture. Once that entire picture is revealed it really is quite a ride to the end to see how everything turns out.

Also I enjoyed the personal story lines surrounding the officers just as much as I enjoyed the mystery. They weren’t overwhelming compared to the mystery, which still took center stage, but there were enough little nuggets to keep me interested throughout the book.

My only complaint is that the book ended kind of abruptly. I wish some of the storylines got more time in the end. But it looks like this will become a series, based on the author note at the end of the novel, so I will just have to wait until the next book.

And I’ll definitely be reading it.

A change from the Annie Graham series,but new interesting and exciting characters. Looking forward to more. A great read.

This book is a really fast paced read. It flips between two times, current day and the 70's. The majority of the 1970s text is based in a children's "hospital" which is basically the asylum where they put children with learning difficulties and other problems.
When a body is found strapped to a trolley in the now abandoned and run down asylum DCI Lucy and her team have to work out the who what and when. The bodies start to stack up and the common thread that runs between the murders is the asylum. Add to this the fantastic chemistry between Lucy and Mattie and you've got yourself a book that will make you forget to feed yourself (I like to call these kinds of books slimming aids)....a cracker of a read and half a stone lighter!
The characters were totally believable and I really invested a lot in them. There were so many plot twists in this book I almost got dizzy.
Helen Phifer has created a book that drags you in by the head and the heart. Highly reccomend

Oh my goodness, I loved this book so much! This is the first Helen Phifer book I have read and it certainly won't be the last. I am very excited that this is only the first book in a series that stars Detective Lucy Harwin :)

This was a very complex police procedural, expertly written, and with more twists and turns than a mountain track. Lucy is up against it from the very beginning. She comes back to work after being involved in a very traumatic case, and is thrust straight into the case of a body at the asylum. Who is this unidentified man and why is his body at the asylum anyway?

As the bodies mount up, she has to figure out how they are all connected and how events from 1975 have a direct correlation to events right now. She has a wonderful colleague, Mattie, who cares about her a great deal and who always has her back, but he is being distracted by a pretty full-on relationship. Lucy herself is also distracted, but in her case it is by her teenage daughter. I like how these characters are so real; they are flawed, very human, and so relatable.

I can't adequately express how much I enjoyed this book and I can't wait for the next one! A well deserved five stars from me :)

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book. With thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture.

First I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for my ARC copy for a fair and honest review.

I have to say lately I have been addicted to British police procedural/thrillers and this one definitely did not disappoint! DI Lucy Harwin and DS Mattie Jackson are probably two of my favourite characters lately. They are both complicated characters, with DI Harwin be not only complex, but humanly flawed and therefore very believable. The characters are well developed throughout the novel making it easy to become invested in their wellbeing.

The storyline is very fast paced and easy to follow. It takes place in Brooklyn Bay, where the local Asylum, which had be closed since the 1970's is about to be sold and redeveloped. That's where the first body is found and the link to the murderer and the victims. I'm not about to reveal the killer, but will admit the author did a good job leading you in the right direction. I did figure it out earlier on in the story, but the author kept the excitement going right through until the end.

I can't wait to read the next DI Lucy Harwin novel and find out what happens to the her and the other great characters in the book!
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A gripping psychological thriller. I could not put down this book. I was pulled immediately into the fast paced plot. I can't wait for the next book. I really enjoyed this author's writing style. I recommend if you enjoy thriller.

This is a first rate start to a new series and I shall definitely look out eagerly for further novels in the series. It's so well written and the detail is notably excellent. I love knowing all the ins and outs of policing including research and forensics. As a reader I had an advantage over DI Lucy Harwin and DS Mattie Jackson. I was fed the background information whereas they started with a gruesome murder in a derelict asylum and virtually a blank page. I was suitably astounded by the way the children were treated both by their parents and at the asylum as the information was revealed. Lobotomy is something I have heard of vaguely so it was interesting to learn more about this heinous method of controlling patients. The ending was nail biting!!!! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this. I shall now publish this review on Facebook, Amazon and my blog.

Great debut novel in the,Lucy harwin series. Fantastic read. Complex twists and turns engaging the reader in every character. Can't wait for the next installment.

Loved Lucy character . On the edge of my seat waiting to see who dunnit

Brilliant. I really enjoyed this book. I thought the storyline was really good and well put together. The subject matter had obviously been well researched. Lucy Harwin is a believable character and I would definitely read more books about her. It is a fast paced page turner that I would definitely recommend.

I was impressed from the very start with this. from the initial page, it gripped me, enthralling me, making me need to know more, what was happening, who was doing this..... I can't wait for the next Lucy Harwin book. A great heroine, embroiled in a great and tense story!

I am a fan of the author's previous series, so couldn't wait to see what she had come up with in this book. I now eagerly await the next one in this new series.

I love police procedural stories and this one didn't disappoint. The story is based in an old asylum, and jumps between the present day and the past. We learn exactly what happened to some of the children who were sent there and it doesn't make for easy reading. The way they were treated was horrific and the way the author describes everything had me imagining the scenes as I was reading.

Trying to piece together why certain people are being targeted isn't overly difficult, given what we learn about the asylums terrible past, but figuring out who is doing it was far more difficult. The characters are written very well, the story kept me gripped all the way through, and I found myself reading this in one sitting. I honestly couldn't put the story down once I started. I can't wait to see what the author brings us next.

Many thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for providing a copy.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for the advance copy of The Lost Children in return for an honest review. This is the first book in a new series by Helen Pheifer and it is also the first of her books that i've read but definitely not my last. It was as dark and creepy as i had expected when i read the synopsis and in the book you could just tell something awful was about to happen and I was totally gripped the whole way through. I liked the fact that Lucy Harwin was flawed as it made her character more believable. I didn't guess who the murderer was so that made it even better. Can't wait for more of Lucy Harwin and to see where she goes next and how her character develops.

The Moore Asylum has been abandoned for many years after a series of scandals about the mistreatment of the children that were basically imprisoned for not fitting in society's neat little boxes. Over 40 years after its closure it's about to be bought and knocked down but the discovery of an old man brutally murdered calls a halt to Brooklyn Bays regeneration. A small seaside town is about to get it's very own serial killer. Detective Lucy Garwin hasn't​ even managed to clock back in after 3 months garden leave before she's called to investigate. As the bodies stack up she also has to deal with her own guilt over the death of a mother and daughter she had been trying to protect, her own disintegrating relationship with her family and a fragile grip on ensuring her own welfare. Add to that some hefty sexual tension with her partner and you've got all the classic ingredients for a cracking start to a new thriller series.

This was my second Helen Phifer novel. The last one really didn't float my boat but this one was such a difference. It's a proper whodunit with plenty of clues to help you work it out without been overtly obvious. Lucy is a very likeable character, and in the writing you get a real sense of her friendship with her partner Mattie - they have that easy flirtatious banter that it can be quite hard to reproduce in print. But it's done here very well. This is a genuinely thrilling thriller, I'm really looking forward to part two.

Thank you Netgalley, Bookouture and Helen Phifer for the opportunity to review this book.

absolutely brilliant a must read book my review is on Amazon

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.

The Lost Children by Helen Phifer begins with a scene at an asylum in 1975. The setting is atmospheric and dark and you can just tell that something sinister is about to occur. This asylum is a place where kids are taken if they are deemed to be unfit to be in general society. There are kids who have committed horrible crimes who have been locked up there. However, there are others with illnesses and disabilities that are also locked up. The doctors and nurses at the asylum are portrayed as being very cruel.

We soon get back to the present with a murder at the asylum. Just from this murder, it becomes clear that the setting is the key to unlocking the mystery behind the crime. In addition, the killer’s MO is bizarre hence providing another clue to the mystery. The chapters shift between present and past explaining what happened in the asylum in the 70s. It then takes us back to the investigation as we follow Detective Lucy Harwin as she tries to understand what happened then and its connection to the present. The pressure to solve the case escalates when the bodies start to pile up.

I think what I liked most about this book was the protagonist, DI Lucy. I liked how she was intuitive and determined to solve the case despite her own demons. She had a family that had fallen apart and a previous case that continued to haunt her. She is a fighter though. I also really liked her relationship with her colleague Mattie. The two had a great relationship. The kind of friendship that I admire. They had each other’s back and it was nice watching them work together. The characters in this book felt real and relatable.

This book is fast-paced with well-developed characters which made it an interesting read. However, I don’t think that there were any twists that surprised me. We got to know the villain pretty early in the case and I guess I kept hoping that there was a twist. Maybe the obvious villain would end up being innocent? However, there were no surprises in that regard. I did like the final chapters though with the heightened tension. It felt like we were running out of time and I kept turning the pages quickly to find out how it would all end. The book had alternating POVs with a few dark chapters narrated by the killer. The narration style and shifting timelines worked well in this book.

I think that this book will appeal to fans of cop procedural or crime thrillers. This detective series is off to a promising start. I can’t wait to see how it goes and I hope to see Mattie and Lucy Harwin again soon.

In the mid 70s, 9 year old Lizzie can’t stand her younger baby brother. He’s stolen her parents attention and all he does is cry. She decided to take matters into her own hands, and smothers him with a pillow. Unable to stand looking at their daughter, her parents send her to The Moore, an insane asylum for children, where lobotomies are a common practice.

Fast forward to the present day, a man is found murdered in the now abandoned asylum, and DI Lucy Harwin is called to the scene to investigate. Shortly after the man is found, another murder occurs, and Lucy can’t help but feel they are connected. It appears that someone is murdering people with connections to the old asylum. It’s up to Lucy to figure out who is committing the murders, and why now? As the murders escalate, Lucy finds that she too may be in danger…


It’s been a while since I’ve loved a police procedural so much! I sometimes find the police work piece to be a little tedious, but this was not the case with The Lost Children. I was instantly hooked from the first chapter where we are introduced to Lizzie and the other children in the asylum, and stayed hooked through the rest of the book.

The Lost Children is told primarily from Lucy’s point of view, however there are some chapters told from her partner Mattie’s point of view as well as from the killer’s. I loved having the glimpse into the killer’s mind and learning why they felt like these crimes needed to be committed. I also loved how everything tied together in the end. While I did have the ending figured out really quickly, that didn’t stop me from throughly enjoying the book.

I loved the writing in the book. It was quick and flowed well, and I felt that Phifer did an excellent job of showcasing the strengths and weaknesses of each character, while maintaining separate voices for each. I sometimes feel that characters sound too much the same in books where one character is the predominant lead, and the supporting characters end up sounding the same as the protagonist, but that was not the case here. Each character felt well developed and rounded out, and I really enjoyed that.

I also loved seeing where Lucy started and ended. She started the book with some issues with her daughter, love life, alcohol, and work, but ended the book in a much better place, and I really enjoyed reading that progression. The one tiny thing I didn’t love was the ending felt like it ended REALLY quickly. It was like I turned the page expecting more of a “what happens now” resolution, but the book was over. I know this is just the first book in the series, but the ending did feel a little abrupt, and I wish it had been elaborated on a little more. That said, I can’t wait to read the next book in the series and see where Lucy and Mattie are headed next!

Despite my small qualm with the end, I can’t find much fault in The Lost Children, and definitely recommend it for fans of thrillers and police procedurals. This was a 5 star read for me! A huge thank you to Netgalley, Helen Phifer, and Bookouture for an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review. The Lost Children is out now, so be sure to pick this one up now!