Cover Image: The Lying Kind (Detective Rachel Prince Book 1)

The Lying Kind (Detective Rachel Prince Book 1)

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Member Reviews

This is a solid grounding for a serial character, and the story is gripping with a cracking and well-delivered twist and ending. Recommended.

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The Lying Kind is the first book in a series which features Detective Rachel Prince who works for the National Crime Agency. She begins an investigations when 6-year-old Lola Harper goes missing from her bedroom, no sign of a break in. The mother believes it was her estranged husband but could it be that simple?

The Lying Kind was a decent and fast paced read. I enjoyed the characters and the plot. I felt I could guess what was going on at some point but overall a good read.

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Thank you for the opportunities to read this book. I have attempted it on a number of occasions but unfortunately I haven’t been able to get into it.

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Another great police thriller. I thought this was gripping and I couldn't put it down. Really enjoyed it and will look out for this author again.

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Really gripping mystery thriller. I loved the characters and the flow of the book was really good, I didn't guess the ending either which is very rare for me. Great storyline and I loved Alison's writing style!

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This book was just an okay read. Although there were a few twists in it the story overall was quite predictable and did not keep me interested.

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Although I read this book ages ago, I never submitted a review. This is the first book I have ready by Alison James.
I thought it was an okay story but didn't really grab me.. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

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I had very high expectations for these books, especially since I was in the mood to read a thriller. Unfortunately I didn't particularly like the main character, and was unable to finish the story. Thank you Netgalley for giving me this book.

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I was scrolling through my kindle and was in the mood for a mystery read and the title "The Missing Girl" jumped out at me. This particular book after doing research on Goodreads had three different titles - The Missing Girl, The Lying Kind and Lola are Missing. The book starts off with Rachel and her partner Mark being handed a cold case, a young girl Lola Harper disappeared and all leads have gone ice cold. Her father has also disappeared without a trace. Rachel and Mark go and interview the mother and it seems that all cases point to a nasty custody battle and that Gavin and his daughter have swanned off somewhere. As the book goes along though and Rachel and Mark interview friends, family, acquaintances things start not adding up and it looks more like the mother knows more than she is letting on. Near the middle of the case, Rachel is alerted to an anonymous poster called TruthTeller who is adamant that the mother knows more and she is the one in fact hiding Lola. As Rachel deep dives into the mother's background, she also learns about their young son who died of SIDS and the walled-off bedroom. I have to admit when we did find out about Lola and the twists and turns near the end of the book, I was a bit confused still at the motivation of the reason behind Lola's disappearance as in one way it made sense, but the lengths that they went too didn't for me. We also meet in this book Rachel's husband that she ran out on years ago, again the reasoning behind why she ran I understood but the whole not contacting him for all those years and just letting him wonder - that to me was a weak reason for all that closed door and secrecy/hiding. If you love mysteries and brit lit, then check out The Lying Kind by Alison James today.

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Months after the missing persons case of a six-year-old girl goes cold for the Surrey police, the National Crime Agency steps in to see if they can find little Lola Jade Harper. D.C.I. Rachel Prince and her second in command, Detective Sergeant Mark Brickall are tasked with moving the case forward.

Both estranged parents are tentatively under suspicion, but with no evidence, they must surmise as best they can. When another little girl goes missing, their suspicions seem groundless. Then, a young single mother is murdered... bizarrely, her murder has a connection to the case of the missing Lola Jade.

This quote by Khalil Gibran is particularly apt for the story:

"You may give them your love, but not your thoughts. For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies, but not their souls. For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow."

MY THOUGHTS

I love police procedural crime fiction and it is always a pleasure to discover a new series in the genre. This book was a nice change in that DCI Rachel Prince works for the National Crime Agency (the British point of contact for Interpol). However, for me... Rachel Prince wasn't the most likable of characters. She had a commendable work ethic, but otherwise she is not a person I would want to befriend. She is thirty-nine years old and seems to loathe personal commitment of any kind, and deems material possessions superfluous - perhaps we'll learn the reasons behind this in future books.

In fact, there were few likable characters in this book. Even the mother of the missing child was cold, unreadable, and unsympathetic. She viewed her daughter Lola Jade as a possession - someone she 'owned'. The only character I warmed to was Rachel Prince's Detective Sergeant, Mark Brickall. I enjoyed the irreverent rapport he had with Rachel Prince and the way she missed him as a sounding board when he wasn't on duty.

Though Prince works out of the NCA's London offices, a lot of the scenes took place in Surrey, where the missing girl lived. The Surrey Police liaison, DS Leila Rajavi, was an interesting character who I quite enjoyed.

The plot was a page-turner and cleverly written. The story was rife with deception, secrets, and lies. With several devious plot twists and well-fleshed out characters, I have no doubt that this series debut novel will be enjoyed by many.

The ending of this suspenseful crime thriller was satisfactory and ironic in equal measure.

By the end of the book, I even found myself warming to DCI Rachel Prince. I will no doubt be reading the second book in the series to see what she'll encounter next.

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Thanks for requesting that book...I will read it someday, I have so many books to read this year...

Have a great summer and take care!

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this was definatly a great debut novel for this series. I was really into the characters and the plot was well written and thought out.

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The Lying Kind by Alison James is the first in a new detective series featuring Detective Rachel Prince. A great opening and a tense and gripping storyline. I look forward to following this series.

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6-year-old Lola Jade Harper disappeared a few months back and despite the media outcry the police have been unable to find a clue. DI Rachel Prince along with DS Mark Brickall are brought in to take over the investigation. Soon Rachel finds that little Lola’s life held a lot of lies and secrets which she needs to unravel fast before time runs out for Lola

The Lying Kind is as the first book in DI Rachel Prince’s series which shows a lot of promise . A realistic police procedural with a compelling main character with a few twists that I didn’t see coming made it an interesting read and will look forward to the next installment in this series

I would like to thank Bookouture & NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review.

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This was a great start to a new series by Alison James. I found the story interesting, and think there is lots of scope for further books in the series featuring Rachel Prince.

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This book is also known or now known as Lola Is Missing or The Missing Child (I'm not sure why it has three different titles, maybe it depends on where you live). Alison James takes readers to a parent's worst fear when their child disappears in the middle on the night without a trace:

Lola is Missing; she is six years old who is taken from her bedroom. Her mother is distraught and also very convinced that her ex-husband is responsible for abducting Lola away. It does not help that they are not able to find him. Leading the case is Det. Rachel Prince but it is going to make more than her expertise to untangle the web of truths and lies that this family has. Everyone knows that the longer a child is missing the less likely they are to be found alive and as more and more time flies by and more and more lies are told, Rachel is not sure they are going to find Lola in time especially when another little girl is taken.

This was a gripping read that did not rely on a body count in order to make it so as this book is about a missing child. James relayed on the twist, turns and lying that goes on within family dynamics especially that of this broken marriage. Things become very interesting and devious along the way as Jones shows the lengths people will go to in order to protect their secrets as well as trying to find their daughter.

I really liked Det. Rachel Prince, she is smart, tenacious and follows her gut when investigating her cases. She also doesn't pander to politics which is always dangerous and interesting at the same time. I mean people do not always have to like her in order for her to get her job done. She also seems to have her life and career together and is not running from some hidden demon that is going to rear its ugly head at a bad time. Sure she has made some poor choices with men (who hasn't, lol) but they do not affect her work or work ethic. She is not pining away for some guys that she throws the whole case away.

James also does a great job of showing what I believe actual police work is like, not all action but having to hit the paperwork in order to solve the crime. There is quite a bit of this in this book, going back over evidence and information that Rachel or her team has found. There are also a few stake out scenes that show that it is not that glamorous.

Alright this a nick picking thing but it makes me question if James is willing to do research for her books. ACL tears do not repair themselves, you can attempt to strengthen the muscles around the knee to provide stabilization but the ACL will not regenerate. As an individual who has had to have ACL surgery I wish they had the ability to repair themselves. Really this is minor in the scheme of things of your book but just do a quick google search and you’d know this information. Also she wouldn’t be able to walk in high heels after just tearing it without falling on her face every time she took a step especially if it was a full tear there would be nothing preventing the lower part of the leg from flying forward with each step🙄.... Sorry rant over

Alright looking past my rant, lol, this book was interesting and great start to a series, especially with the main character who I thought was really well done. I look forward to continuing on with this series to see what James comes up with next.

Enjoy!!!!

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The Lying Kind

The first book in Alison James’ Detective Rachel Prince series, The Lying Kind is about the case of six year old Lola who has been abducted. She has been missing for six months when the case is assigned to Detective Prince.

I really enjoyed this book, the plot is great, thank you characters are relatable-I loved Rachel’s feistiness!! This is a well thought out storyline that gripped me and became a real page turner. Highly recommended, five shiny stars.

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I found this police crime thriller just an ok read and to be honest at times thought it was very slow moving with nothing very exciting happening. The main character DI Rachel Prince I could not take to at all and really got on my nerves.

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A really excellent, solid start to an exciting new series.
The novel flows well and the characters build well throughout the book.and the plot is a very solid police procedural one.
I liked it and look forward to reading more.

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I'll start by saying that easily my favourite thing about this book was the relationship between Rachel Prince and her colleague and friend Mark Brickall. It makes a change for there to be no romantic endeavour or strained animosity between main characters in a story such as this one. I could picture in my mind incredibly clearly just exactly how I imagined them to be, especially Brickall. I'm not totally sure how old Brickall is but the way he is described made me think of Finchy from The Office! Maybe not quite as annoying and disgusting but if a film is ever made then Ralph Ineson is the man for the job!

As someone else mentioned another great thing about the way this is written is that Prince actually has her head screwed on. She doesn't need saving and she doesn't have masses of problems outside of work. She is a Detective and a good one at that.

The story is cleverly woven together, first going one way and then another. It seems so obvious at first who the culprit is but as time goes on we learn more about the people in Lola's life and good and evil slowly start to switch places. Everyone is not as they seem at first glance and each characters back story and motives are played out brilliantly as far as I'm concerned.

I very much look forward to reading the next instalment of this series!

Thanks to netgalley and the author for the ARC.

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