Thank you to Net Galley, Avon Books UK and the author for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
This book hooked me in right from the word go, and kept me turning and turning the pages right up until the last one. This book was packed with everything - mystery, intrigue and twists and turns galore. I don't want to say too much for fear of giving away any spoilers at all. The story felt so alive, I could imagine the main characters, and see the scenes, it was almost as if I was watching a film. In a nutshell, wow what a book, I loved it!

Hold My Hand, starts with an eight-year-old Josie, who visits the circus with her older brother. On a trip to use the toilet, she spots a young boy, in a red shirt being led away by a clown and is the only witness. Years later, she is now a police detective and receives a call when the remains of a child and a red shirt are found.

Wow, this book really sucked me in from the very beginning and kept me hooked page by page. The story is full or lost of twists and turns to keep you guessing. An amazing psychological thriller and quite scary in parts, but I loved it! Fantastical, well-written characters and dialogue and you truly don't want to put the book down until the very end.

An amazing debut and I will definitely be keeping my eye out for more books by M.J. Ford.

Hold My Hand was a clever little thriller with a main character that just seemed to get into more and more trouble but was eminently likable and pulled you along with her.

It is quite an emotive story, Josie witnesses a kidnapping then years later, as a police officer, gets caught up in the case again when a body is found and another child goes missing. Soon things will hit close to home and with everyone looking in all the wrong directions things might not go so well for Josie..

The plotting was taut and the story unfolded beautifully, an addictive writing style and some genuinely engaging characters. I was especially taken with Josie’s relationship to those around her, Boss and ex lover Ben, the now much older detective who questioned her as a child, her brother and his family…the author does an excellent job of absorbing you into their world.

The case itself is unpredictable and felt authentic in it’s twists, the investigative elements rang true and I always like a story where at the end you are saying WELL IF ONLY THEY HAD LISTENED IN THE FIRST PLACE…which actually I did out loud although luckily there was nobody around to hear me…

We also have scary ass clowns, a surprising turn at the end, a edge of the seat resolution and some great writing. Overall excellent. I really enjoyed it, especially as a lot of it was set in my neck of the woods…

Recommended.

A fast paced, well written debut, with an unexpected ending.
Great twists, completely gripping any impossible to put down.

Just what you want from a psychological thriller, looking forward to meeting Josie Masters again.

Thank you netgalley, M.J.Ford and Avon for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this book.

This was a well-written, fast-paced book. When Josie is young she sees a boy wearing a red football shirt being taken by a clown at a carnival. Thirty years later Josie is working as a police officer and the body of a child is found, including pieces of a red football shirt, And then another child disappears. I couldn't put this book down and look forward to reading other books by this author.

Well, Hold My Hand, is a very clever crime novel. I didn't realise from the blurb that it was quite as much of a police procedural as it was. The child being led from a fair by a clown sounded very sinister and I was expecting something a bit more scary. That's not to say that this is not a hard-hitting, gritty story as it absolutely is that, and I loved every minute I spent reading it.

Jo Masters, as a child, witnessed Dylan Jones being taken from the fair. Thirty years on, she happens to be on duty as a police officer when a body, possibly Dylan's, turns up. And then, when another child goes missing, she wonders if this is the chance to put away a child abductor or murderer for good.

Jo is a feisty and impetuous police officer, but a good one. There's stuff going on in her personal life but it doesn't affect her ability to do her job well. I enjoyed her interactions with other officers and the way she went about her investigations.

Though this is primarily a police procedural, it's far more than that and it's a lot more intense than just a police officer investigating a crime. It's got guts, it's got twists and turns galore, and it's extremely well-written. After a little bit of getting to know the characters and the story, I just raced through it.

The ending truly is shocking and chilling and, I have to say, totally unexpected. I thought it was quite a genius bit of plot work to weave it into the story so well, with so many red herrings to throw me off the scent.

I found Hold My Hand to be a fantastic read. I wonder if we will see more of Jo. I feel she has a lot more to tell us and a lot more to give and so I hope that M.J. Ford will give her another outing.

I really enjoyed this book, not least because much of it is set in and around Oxford, my local area. Jo Masters is a police officer. When she was 8 years old she witnessed a little boy being led away by a clown at a local fair and circus. He was never found. Now another boy has gone missing after being abducted by a clown. Could the 2 cases be connected? I don't want to spoil the story but it is a real page turner with some great twists. You'll need a strong stomach for the ending! I hope the author will write more featuring Jo. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
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The story goes thus, a young Josie, at a circus, sees a clown leading away a young boy in a red t-shirt, she becomes the only witness to this kidnapping. Now 30years later, Josie/ Jo is a cop and the body/skeleton of a child is found by the builders. A couple of days later, another boy is led away by a man in a clown mask. Another kidnapping.

Who is the clown in the first kidnapping?? Are these copy-cat kidnappers/murderers?? Are the two men the same or are the kidnappings just opportunistic coincidences?? Are they accomplices or master-protégé combination??

All these and more are answered in the police-procedural psychological thriller, Hold my Hand by the author M. J. Ford. A debut written so well is astonishing. There is a right amount of jadedness in Jo along with a burning desire for justice. The secondary characters also seem to prop and uphold the story well.

I liked the main character Jo, she was as flawed as it comes. I loved her gut instinct at work, but those instincts somehow didn’t work in her personal life. I loved her professionalism towards co-workers, but somehow, her courteous manners were not extended to family. I loved her capabilities as a cop, but sadly enough they don’t extend to her as a woman. As a cop, she knew where she was going, as a woman, she dithered. But then again, who amongst us, isn’t like this??

I think the author M. J. Ford will grow on me, in the next few books. If I seived away Jo’s personal life along with her closed-up weird attitude, the parts which remained read well. It was fast-paced with a lot of clues. The investigative journey was a winding, twisty road, with dead ends, false accused, ramblings of a child, along with the thoughts of a retired now mildly alcoholic policeman, who worked on the first kidnapping.

I liked Jo, the policewoman, she had courage in her convictions. Jo the woman didn’t connect with me, she was too within herself. On the whole, a thrilling police procedural with a realistic main character, written in a fast pace, with a pragmatic hand by debut author M. J. Ford. A great way to spend the Saturday afternoon.

P.S. I loved the cover too; it was heartbreakingly innocent.

When Jo was only 8 years old she witnessed the kidnapping of a young boy, now as an adult and a Police woman she is involved in a new case with striking similarities. Can she crack the new case and are they related? Jo is a likeable character and this steady paced police procedural will keep you guessing through out.

A very easy to read book that is full of twists and turns. This was a definite page turner and I finished it in no time at all. What happened to the missing boy? Can they stop it happening again? Is history about to repeat itself?

Thank you to netgalley for my copy of this book. Wow!! I finished this book today and I'm blown away. It's been a while since I read a crime based thriller the last one I read the caller by Christ carter being at Christmas time, however I thoroughly enjoyed and devoured it. The story is based around Josie who is a detective and is going through a few difficulties in life, she is a great detective and really takes her job seriously I also enjoyed the retired co worker Larry or harry freeman im sure it was he seemed very fatherly and caring towards the families he dealt with. The opening pages draw you straight in, Josie is eight years old and goes to the circus with her brother where she meets a boy called Dylan who is a year younger than her, a little while later at the circus she witnesses Dylan walking away with his kidnapper.. then 30 so years later Josie is called to an old building where a body of a child has been uncovered and they believe it's Dylan who was kidnapped that fateful day at the circus, immediately I was drawn in by different emotions as a mother of three young children I can only imagine the despair and desperation you would feel if your child was abducted, I wanted to know what had happened to Dylan and why he was abducted. The story certainly doesn't disappoint and it takes you on a rollercoaster ride of different emotions until the breath taking twist at the end. I'm so glad I decided to try this book it was fantastic and a gripping addictive read.

I thoroughly enjoyed Hold My Hand. Started it on Saturday afternoon and finished it on Sunday. It had me hooked from the start. I found the characters to be likeable and believable. Jo, the main character is strong and knows what she wants without being annoying like some lead characters can be. Some flood plot twists along the way and an enthralling read from start to finish.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon Books UK and the author for the chance to review.

Josie Masters will never forget the last day that she saw Dylan Jones alive. Thirty years later, and she is working as a police officer, and when she is called to a disturbing scene, where a child’s skeleton has been unearthed, it reopens old questions about the case she has never forgotten. Has Dylan finally been found? But as the investigation steps up a pace, another child disappears in eerily similar circumstances. Now the race is on to make sure that history doesn’t repeat itself.

Hold My Hand is a fantastic crime debut by M.J. Ford. We follow Josie Masters as she tries to piece together what happened to a young boy thirty years ago, when he disappeared from a fair. In the opening chapter, M.J. Ford captured the ensuing panic that rises, when the boy’s mother realises that he is missing and it compelled me to continue reading. The fairground provided the perfect creepy atmosphere, for such a horrible crime to take place. Clowns have always terrified me, so when I read that scene, in which the little boy is being taken away by a clown, it really gave me chills. I just hope I’m not going to have nightmares. We then fast forward thirty years when Josie is now working as a police officer in Bath. She is a character who is haunted by this event that she has witnessed in her past. The fact that she had a personal connection to the case made her a really fascinating character to explore. We can see that she still carries the guilt all these years later, about the fact that she didn’t do anything that day to prevent Dylan from being kidnapped. Now, she hopes that she can finally bring some closure for his family.

The tension in this novel really picks up as the investigation into the two cases steps up and there are several surprising twists and red herrings. The ending of this book really came as a shock and I couldn’t quite believe what I was reading. But I’m not going to say anything more about that here; you’ll have to read the book if you want to find out what happens.

This is a cracking novel from M.J. Ford. I’m always excited to read a book by a new crime author, and I’m sure I’ll be keeping an eye out for what he’ll come up with next. This book kept me reading well into the small hours, I was desperate to find out what happens. Hold My Hand is a gripping story that will keep you engaged from start to finish. Thank you to Sabah Khan at Avon Books for sending me a copy of the book to review and for inviting me to take part in the blog tour.

If there’s one thing that’s sure to give me nightmares it’s clowns, I really have a phobia about them, they seem so sinister behind their painted smiles, they really do freak me out. So when I picked up Hold My Hand and read the first chapter where young Dylan is taken by a clown, you can imagine my horror, my heart raced, and my stomach churned but I just had to read on. I’m so pleased I did not let my aversion to clowns put me off as what a thrilling and gripping read Hold My Hand turned out to be, despite the nightmares that followed!
Full review will follow on my blog

I enjoyed this book from the getgo to the very end. The pace was excellent and drew you in. Fab characters and story. I would definitely recommend this book and eagerly look forward to his next one A 5 star read.

While at the carnival , 8 year old Josie witnessed a kidnapping of a little boy wearing a red football shirt holding the hand of a man dressed as a clown . Now 30 years later she's a police officer in Bath and a body of a child is found . Then another child goes missing in the same circumstances ! A heart pounding thriller that ends with a fabulous twist ! I loved this book ! M.J. Ford is a remarkable storyteller ! Thanks to #Netgalley and #AvonBooksUK for the digital copy in exchange my honest review ! #HoldMyHand

30 years ago Josie witnesses a kidnap of a child at the local circus. Now she is a police officer and called to a body which could be the missing child from her youth. When another boy goes missing are they dealing with something more sinister?

Oh this is one of them sneaky books that will keep you engrossed past midnight and so that you nearly miss the train stop to work! Absolute belter!

Thank you netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Absolutely brilliant book. Lots of twists and slightly creepy. Great characters, I hope this will be a series.

When a young Josue Masters sees a boy wearing a red football top, Dylan Jones, being taken by a clown at a carnival, she tries to alert the crowds. Dylan has disappeared. Thirty years later, Josie is working as a police officer in Bath. The remains of a child have been found - complete with tatters of a torn red football top.

Josie has carried a lot of guilt over the years as she felt she did not do enough to help when Dylan was being abducted. The storyline is believable, the characters are a mixed bunch of some likeable and dislikable. There is even a retired detective, Harry Freeman, who had been part of the original case. There is plenty of dead ends during the investigation and it took me until nearly 3/4 of the way through before I realised where this story was going. This is a very good, well written and fast paced debut novel. I will be looking out for more from this author in the future.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Avon Books UK, and the author M.J. Ford for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Really great read, I loved the backstory behind it as I’ve never read anything like that before so it was good that it stood out from other stories which is why I wanted to read it when I heard about it.
Only thing I would say is that the reveal needed to be a bit deeper for me but overall a great and satisfying read all round and touches on some very real subjects which are shocking.