This is a great start to a new series.
I loved the chemistry between DI Rachel Prince and DS Brickall especially as it was made clear from the beginning that he wasn’t her type. They have a great working relationship and really help each other out when needed.
This is a gripping story which has quite a lot of twists and turns.
Lola Jade is reported missing from her home and DI Prince is asked to help Surrey police find her.
The father starts off as the prime suspect but soon other people are questioned and the ending was just brilliant.
This book has just the right amount of humour for a crime thriller and I loved it.
I can’t wait for more books in this series.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Six year old Jade Harper is taken from her bedroom. Her mother is distraught. She is convinced her estranged husband, Gavin Harper, has abducted their daughter. Detective Rechel prince is leading the investigation but is soon out of her depth as she searches for the most high-profile missing child in the country. Rachel must untie the Harper families complicated web of secrets and lies. As the case progresses, the body of a local woman is found. Then another little girl is taken.....

This is the first book in the Detective Rachel Prince series. The case has been handed over to Rachel so that so that a fresh pair of eyes might find new clues. This is a well written book. The suspense starts right away and does not until near the end where it does up a gear. There is loads going on in the book, sometimes a little too much. The characters are likeable. Overall this is a very promising start to a new series. I'm looking forward to reading book 2.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Bookouture and the author Alison James for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Lying Kind by Alison James is the first book in the new police procedural thriller series, Detective Rachel Prince. The book introduces readers to a new detective in Rachel while she investigates a high profile case of a missing little girl. As the investigation goes on there is more and more to be uncovered and solved in this story.

This first look at Rachel and her colleagues was a pretty intense one knowing there was a child who had gone missing without a trace to her whereabouts. Of course the family is looked at closely with suspicion thrown on the father who was in the middle of divorce proceedings and custody battles.

The nice thing about this series to me seemed to be how the author portrays and investigation. Police works is not all action and adventure in a case like this but sometimes a lot of paperwork and tedious tasks to get anywhere. This was actually portrayed a bit more realistically than some books are.

I would say though I can see not all readers liking the main character in this series. Rachel is one that is on the gritty, no nonsense side of a detective and would often read more to me like a male than a female, not that it was bad to me. But there was also some things going on in the book that I can see as making her not come across as particularly likable but when finished and while I wasn’t oohing and aahing over her just yet I still didn’t mind her.

The thing that solidified my rating on this one though was the way the author wrapped up the story. The outcome was one that I wasn’t expecting because quite honestly I don’t think I’ve ever read or seen it done before. Of course that’s my own experience and perhaps it has been done but I’m always impressed by that twist that I haven’t seen or didn’t expect. So in the end a nice solid start to this series that I’d only take a slight bit off at 4.5 and hope Rachel wins me over more in the next installment.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

I wasn't sure whether I wanted to start another crime series, but I really got sucked into this one. The plot is fast paced and the character of Rachel engaging. Now I wish there were more books I could read to find out what happens next!

I enjoyed reading this book I liked the main character Rachel Prince and the interaction between her and her work colleagues was realistic. I also liked the background and the story was good.No spoilers from me but this book will keep your interest and keep you page turning..cracking book and nice writing style made it easy to read . I would read more by this author.Thanks to the publishers and netgalley for the ARC.

Rachel Prince is called in to take over an investigation of a missing child whose trail has gone cold. Six year old Lola Jade Harper was taken from her home months ago. Her parents are in the middle of a bitter divorce and child custody battle. Each blames the other. It sounds like a plot you've read before but this is a fresh take on it. Although it becomes apparent who did the dastardly deed, it's interesting to see how it unravels.

Prince has her own hang-ups. Her marriage is weird to say the least. She has very realistic relationships with her co-workers. I really liked the office interactions. Her personal like is rocky and she makes some choices that make you wince. Still it's the first novel and it gives the author lots of room to develop her character.

I really enjoyed it. It seemed fresh and it was quite interesting. I think this is a good debut novel and can't wait to read more in the series. Thanks to Net Galley for a copy of this book in exchange of a fair review.

Completely surprised! I started this book yesterday and stayed up until I finished it - I had to know what happened. Looking forward to more books in this series and watching how the main characters grow.

Yes, I place the book as my new favorite and tend to re-read it again. Let me say this first, -it's well written crime fiction, thankfully, there wasn't anything too explicit/ nothing gross - detailed explained - none of that style of writing, but I LOVED the book! Why? Because it was smooth, interesting, intriguing, I enjoyed both main detectives - Rachel and her co team pair - Brickall. They both made up a good team, each one of them having contrasting personalities, but they both shared similar analytical mind with different approaches to be used in practice. So it wasn't the team who always and always agree with each other - that one point as a start to why I enjoyed The Lying Kind.

So the book is about a detective, Rachel, dealing with a case which is handed to her from another team, the incident, well, the crime occur 5 months ago and she, together with her team pal is having "fresh eye" to what might have happened and continuing the investigation of a little girl being snapped from her bedroom while her mother has been sleeping. All leads to the little girl's dad who's also missing now, but something does not match up, although, it is very likely to be so, but first they must find him to find the girl...

The book's synopsis really tells it all, but it is much more than that, there are layers of interesting leads that is investigated through to get the agents somewhere, and how multiple layered case can be, how many dead ends and how bits by bits it is starting to make sense. Detective Rachel's personality is well build up, she tells a story and she matures through the time within the book, to deal with her own terrible past...Oo, that was completely unexpected and funny to imagine one in real life..

Excellent book. Brilliant story and I loved the main characters. I would highly recommend this book.

The Missing Child will have you guessing until the very end. Good thriller with lots of twists and turns.

This was a brilliant start to a great new series by Alison James (also a new author to me). She’s created a great detective who is leading a case looking into a crime committed a few months previously with no recent progress.
A little girl went missing from her own home whilst the parents were having a party without them realising that she had gone, initially. They look into the parents and what they might be hiding. The characters are really well drawn and interesting. When a murder and another missing child is reported they need to see if there is a connection and you are holding your breath wanting to know. It takes you in different directions and when I thought I might have guessed part of the storyline other threads come into play.
The detective is hiding secrets of her own and we wonder what we will discover about her past. There is definitely more to come in the next books in the series and I can’t wait to read more. I love finding a new thriller writer and look forward to adding her books to my tbr pile!

Well worth the read who has the means and the motive of taking little Lola jade from her home in the middle of the night. There are lots of twists and turns in this book which kept me hooked till the end. Looking forward to the next book

I read The Missing Child by Alison James in a couple of days. It’s one of those books where you just plan on reading a couple of chapters and the next thing you know a few hours have gone by.

I was totally immersed in the story and it was nice change that the main character worked for the National Crime Agency instead of the police as seems to be the norm these days. I though the lead character DI Rachel Prince was strong and had a good relationship with Brickall. The plot was pact evolved well. This is the first book on the DI Rachel Prince series and I’m really looking forward to book two.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and the author for the chance to review.

The Missing Child by Alison James Is the first in the Detective Inspector Rachel Prince and what a great first instalment it is.
Six-year-old Lola Jade harper is abducted from her bedroom and her mother Michelle thinks that it’s her estranged soon to be ex-husband Gavin who has taken her. With no apparent leads been found. DI Rachel Prince who is part of the Major Crime Investigation support team of the National Crime Agency is been brought in to lead the investigation with Detective Sargent Mark Brickall to find anything missed from the previous investigation. She is determined to find out the truth. Where is Lola Jane Harper?
With the parents going through a messy divorce and mother Michelle not acting like a grieving mother. It stands to reason why, the investigation ends up with a lot of red herrings and Rachel having to go back on old leads. A new case arrives when a single mother has been found dead one morning by her son, living in the same neighbourhood. Rachel thinks that the two investigations are linked in some way.
I really enjoyed Missing Child and I can’t wait to see what Alison James has instore for the next instalment of this series. I was gripped from the very first page of this story. I thought it was an excellent debut novel. I loved both the characters of Rachel Prince and Mark Brickall and the camaraderie between them. And how the author made the story of police work realistic. Not every case turns in a bed of roses.
Thank you Netgalley and Bookouture for an honest review.

A well written debut.
An enticing plot, with plenty of secrets, lies and betrayals to get you guessing to the end.
Good characterization of each individual.
Loved the relationship between DI Rachel Prince and D.C. Mark Brickall.
A brilliant start to the series.

Thank you netgalley, Bookouture and Alison James for allowing me to read and review this book.

This is a detective crime thriller that is the first in a series about female investigator Rachel Prince. Prince and her partner are brought into help with the case of a missing child, who vanished from her home in the middle of the night. Prince ends up having to go back to the beginning of the crime to figure out what's really going on and who in the child's family is actually telling the truth.

So to get all the good things out of the way first (because there was more negative points in this story for me than good ones), I really liked the mystery and the police work in this novel. I liked that it wasn't all action, action, action, but demonstrated that sometimes with these investigations what is needed is hours of desk work and research before there's criminal showdowns and car chases. There did seem to be some gaping holes that hadn't been covered by the police before Rachel stepped in but I do think overall, this book seemed to portray a more realistic version of what solving crimes is actually like on a day-to-day basis. Not everything can be figured out in a few weeks - sometimes it takes months!

And now for the bad parts. Which to be honest is literally everything to do with the main character Rachel Prince. She was horrible, really horrible. I didn't like her at all, and she certainly wouldn't have liked me because I'm a woman. genuinely, this character appeared to hate women which really, really annoyed me. She has very few interactions with other female characters that aren't negative in some way.

On a side-note, in the first two pages we get the 'character looking at themselves in the mirror and describing what they see in a self-critical way' so we know what they look like which honestly I think i a lazy way to describe a character. She also 'clumsy' but trips up once.

From the get go, I didn't like how Rachel eyed up Lola Jade's mom. I honestly didn't see how noting what she looked like had anything to do with the crime. Who cares if she had bronzed skin, "collagen-pumped" lips and freshly blow-dried hair. It reminded me of how the mother in Little Deaths by Emma Flint was treated - with a lot of sexism and criticism of her looked-after appearance - but that book was set in the 1960s and all the detectives were misogynistic men, where in this one Prince is female so it's disappointing that she treated the mother in such a way.

Rachel also doesn't have any female friends, and in a conversation with her partner explains this being caused by her not being a "girly girl" growing up. She was bullied by other girls when young but I don't think this counts as an excuse for an almost 40-year-old woman to not have one female friend. You don't need to be a 'girly girl" to have a female friend. She shows disdain for almost every woman she meets in the book, except for those in her own profession. She immediately has a rivalry with her personal trainer's wife (who she lately sleeps with even though she knows he's married), and she doesn't have one good word to say about her sister and vice versa which honestly again is just disappointing for a book written about a female author about a female character in a male-driven workforce. She also shows huge contempt when she goes on a girls night with people she doesn't even like because they talk about their home lives and husbands which isn't something unusual considering they are a group of middle-aged women.

Many of the strapping men in the book all have flirtatious relationships with Rachel, which is such a huge contrast with the majority of female characters. She sleeps with her trainer, has a flirty but not handsy relationship with her partner (and also defends him when he's done for stalking, goes to the woman's work to tell her to pull the complaint and the women does so without one word of defiance, what?), a very flirty thing with the guy in charge of the children's cases in the police, and then obviously sleeps with her married trainer.

One thing as well which made zero sense to me was how fine her ex-husband was with her. She literally ran away from him 17 years previously without one word, never spoke to him again, runs away from him again when he comes to try and divorce her, and he speaks super jovially and happily with her when they actually meet. He doesn't show any frustration with her actions, which was totally unrealistic in my opinion as we never even got a reason to why she acted like that in the first place, and then he also helps her with something in the case AND invites her to his wedding at the end of the book? Seriously, wtf?

So the conclusion is, the crime itself was good, the main character was not and I'll most likely be avoiding the next book in this series.

What makes a winner in my book? One way I can tell is when life intervenes - like fixing dinner or putting laundry in the machine - I'll do whatever it takes to keep on reading, if only for a few more minutes. That certainly happened here. If you don't believe me, just ask my husband, who's rather hungry by now (on second thought, don't; my "Just one more chapter, hon" defense is starting to wear thin).

Not only is the book very well written, but it's reminiscent of another of my favorite series: J.D. Robb's "Death" series that features life-scarred Lt. Eve Dallas and her hunky Irish husband Roarke (the latter near the top of my all-time list of favorite book "heroes," BTW). Here, it's the debut of Detective Rachel Prince, with a hint of romance-to-be from another Irish hunk she works with on occasion from a neighboring law enforcement agency in England.

Rachel may not be as emotionally damaged as Eve, but she's every bit as irascible and dedicated to her job. She bristles when things don't go her way, banters with her partner Mark Brickell and fights on through injuries that would put me in a hospital for months. Here adventure begins with the disappearance of Lola Jade Harper, a 6-year-old whose mother insists was abducted by the girl's father (from whom she's estranged). Although he strongly denies any involvement, the belief that he's the culprit intensifies when he suddenly disappears.

As the investigation continues, though, Rachel's nose keeps twitching; clues just aren't adding up right. Then, a local woman with possible ties to the abduction is murdered - followed by the abduction of another young girl. In between, subplots of a drug ring investigation, career-threatening actions by Rachel's partner and the dogged appearance of a person of interest from Rachel's past are interspersed, adding to the interest.

As a devout champion of women's rights, I admit I was less than happy with Rachel's handling of the issue related to her partner's possible job loss. But that doesn't change my love of the book as a whole - nor my eagerness to read more in this series. Reportedly, next up is "Unlucky Ones" - and I'm hoping to see it soon!

4.5 stars, rounded up
This book proves how important a good beginning is. It quickly drew me in and kept me invested. DI Rachel Prince is part of the Major Crime Investigative Support team of the National Crime Agency. She’s on the far side of her 30s, single, with a bit of a snarky attitude. I loved her immediately. And I loved her DS, Mark Brickall, even more. “She didn’t correct his insubordinate tone; she would never hear the end of it if she did. It would never end. Instead, like the parent of a recalcitrant toddler, she picked her battles and only pulled rank when it was strictly necessary.” James intersperses enough of their personal lives to make the characters seem real.

This isn’t an action packed book. There’s more of the hard everyday police work- interviews over and over again, searches, stakeouts. You reach the 60% point before there’s a second murder. But don’t get me wrong. James keeps up a good level of suspense. Lots of false starts and blind alleys. At one point, Prince aptly compares the case to a maze. You get the feel this is how real police work goes. You have your suspicions, but how will it all come together?

I thoroughly enjoyed this and will definitely be checking out book two in the series.

My thanks to netgalley and bookouture for an advance copy of this book.

It is every parent's nightmare, your child goes missing from the one place they should be safe, home. But is all that it seems in this case and what will happen when The National Crime Agency get involved? The Missing Child is a tense journey into the investigation of missing Lola Jade Harper.

Oh, what a tangled and strange cast of characters, a whole bunch of unreliable narrators all playing with your mind and in the midst of it all a missing child. We have secrets, betrayals and lies in this brilliantly plotted police procedural. It does start off slowly but the pace picks up and the twists and turns left me reeling.

Lola's mother, Michelle Harper, is a strange kettle of fish, something very controlled and disturbing about this woman and she had my nerves set on edge from the outset; her family and friends were not much better and I just did not know who to believe as the story played out before me!



And what secrets is DI Rachel Prince hiding up her sleeve? Mysterious calls and texts seem to set her on edge as she begins her investigation into the missing child. It was kind of hard to warm to her and I could sense the barriers she had built up around herself as I read. I think this is the effect that the author was going for, a character who doesn't reveal all from the outset, one whom we want to invest time in getting to know and I look forward to seeing her layers unpeel as the series develops.

I did really like DS Mark Brickall, strangely enough, his down to earth and sometimes very non-pc approach engaged me immediately and he has Rachel's back every step of the way. This is a partnership with a whole lot of mileage in it!

I found a couple of very loose similarities to real-life cases, think Madeleine McCann and Shannon Mathews, and for me, this gave the book that extra little bit of frisson, it was hard not to get caught up in the drama surrounding her disappearance. this combined with highly relevant and topical mention of social media and trolling gave it a realism that I look for in a read.

Slower paced to start with but a with a rising tension #TheMissingChild  was a nail biting and twisted plot that fed little snippets making me think I had guessed it then throwing me back up in the air again, I read the last few chapters so fast as I was dying to see what happened indeed that fast I had to go back and re-read them. I'm looking forward to seeing where Alison James takes us next with this series.
Review will be posted on blog chapterinmylife as part of the blog tour