Little Bones is the 10th book featuring Patricia Gibney's detective Lottie Parker.

Isabel Gallagher is dead on the floor in her little girl's nursery, found by her mother, Anita Boland. Isabel, who has been stabbed in the back as well as having her throat cut, is clutching a razor blade in her hand. Thae same day, Joyce Breslin has gone missing, and her son Evan who attends Bubbles day care unit has been taken. Lottie and her team soon realise they have their work cut out to find the perpetrator(s).

I must confess that I have tended to dip in and out of this cracking series for reasons unknown. To date, I have read books two, and seven to ten. With its pacy narrative, Little Bones has a terrific plot and I enjoyed being reacquainted with the main characters. Lottie, a Garda Síochána detective inspector, lives and works in the fictional town of Ragmullin in the Irish Midlands. The characters of both Lottie and her significant other DS Mark Boyd have been fabulously crafted by Patricia Gibney. Lottie has a lot on her plate in her personal life which gives an extra dimension to proceedings. Told from various viewpoints, though principally Lottie’s, Little Bones is a terrific read with plenty of suspects and a well-concealed perpetrator and motive.

Tense, exciting and intricately crafted, there are some shocking twists that are enough to make you dizzy in this dark police procedural and Patricia Gibney managed to keep me guessing right up to the riveting conclusion. This is a remarkably good, complicated and busy story I can confidently recommend that will have you reading late into the night. I really need to catch up on the instalments I've missed.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Bookouture via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

DI Lottie Parker is back for the tenth installment of this series of deeply enjoyable police procedurals. I’ve been with her from Book 1 and it’s been a pleasure watching her grow and overcome lots of hurdles both in her personal and professional life.

A young woman has been murdered in front of her 3 months old baby. That same day another woman disappears and her little boy is abducted. Are both cases connected? The razorblades found in both scenes seem to point out that way but in a case with so many different angles not everything is what is seems.

The story took off with a bang with a pretty disturbing first chapter. From there it developed into one of the frenzied and complex plots I’ve come to expect from Ms. Gibney. She usually juggles so many suspects, red-herrings and side plots that it seems nearly impossible for her to tie them all together at the end, but once you reach the last pages you once again realize that she managed to fit together perfectly all the puzzle pieces. I can’t even begin to imagine how much crazy planning writing this books must take!

Lottie’s personal life takes a backseat this time, but it looks like her relationship with DS Boyd is gonna be front and center in the next book after that cliffhanger in the last chapter.

I like how Lottie’s character has evolved throughout the series but still find a bit off-putting the way she sometimes talks to her team. I know she’s the boss but, come on, they have all proven themselves more than once to not deserve her rudeness!

Although it can be read as a stand-alone you will miss some of the background. If you enjoy police procedurals give this a chance as it has some interesting characters and a pretty convoluted plot that will put you grey cells to work.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

What can I say, Patricia is one of my favourite authors so was excited to read this book. It didn’t disappoint it was fantastic, really enjoyed it. This series gets better and better, I enjoy the characters and their lives as much as the story. A definite five star read.

Another gripping installment, the tenth, in the Detective Lottie Parker series.

A mother finds her daughter dead on the floor in front of her infant granddaughter's cot. Isabel Gallagher has been stabbed and clutches an old-style razor blade in her hand. The very same evening, Joyce Breslin, another young mother, hasn't returned to pick her child up from daycare. Then the child, 4-year-old Evan, is kidnapped from the creche. When police search Joyce's home, another razor blade is found. Lottie is sure that these cases are connected, but this is just the beginning of a very complicated investigation with a long list of suspects. No spoilers.

This was quite the story with a large cast of characters to keep straight, and a very convoluted motive that took ages for the police to analyze and solve. I do like Lottie, she's a mature woman, widowed, with older children, who is trying to keep her personal life afloat in the midst of the chaos of an intense job at the Ragmullin garda station. Her romance with Boyd takes a backseat with all that is going on but is Lottie ever going to find a little bit of happiness and peace? Lots of drama at the police station between the detectives as well. I've read all the previous books in this series and suggest any new reader do the same as the backstory is quite interesting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this e-book ARC to read and review.

Though this is No.. 10 in the Detective Lottie Parker series, this does very well as a stand alone.

Isabelle Gallagher is found murdered, her throat slashed, a razor blade in her hand whilst her infant daughter
is screaming in her cot. The baby is unharmed. Detective Lottie Parker is on the scene and what she unravels with
a belligerent husband, a mother who is hiding something and a very quiet, unassuming victim who obviously incurred
the wrath of someone to meet a death like this.

No clues are apparent, the killer was clever but when another mother and son go missing and when the body turns up
again with razor blades on the scene there seems to be a connection, however tenuous it is. Connecting the dots and
turning up a trail is not easy for these victims who led lives with no history and who lived almost under the radar.

A good thriller, well written holding one's interest from start to finish.

There is so much sadness and heartbreak in this book. There are so many people lying and keeping secrets that I got lost along the way a few times It kept me guessing for most of the book who the killer was. I really enjoyed this book! I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced free copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

It is always a delight to step into Lottie Parker's world & see what hoops Patricia Gibney is going to put her through. This time a woman arrives at her daughter Isobel's house to find her dead, having been stabbed numerous times & her granddaughter is unharmed but screaming. Lottie & the team are on the case & puzzled as to why the victim has a razor blade in her hand. Her bad tempered husband is not helpful, which instantly raises suspicions. Then Joyce, another young woman, goes missing & her child is snatched from the day nursery. These events seem unconnected, but when a razor blade & an address are found in her abandoned car Lottie is sure there must be a connection. Lottie & the team are in a race to find the child & his mother.

I have been a fan of this series from the very beginning & eagerly await the next in the series. Although Lottie's home life is never without drama at least she didn't have too much this time, which was a relief! Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book- can't wait for No 11!

Isabel Gallagher is murdered in front of her infant daughter. Isabel's mother discovers her body and grabs the baby to take her to safety. Detective Lottie Parker is determined to discover who would commit such a heinous crime. Things get no better when another mother goes missing, but so is her four-year-old son Evan. The mother, Joyce, is soon found dead, but Evan still has not been found. A clue found with the first woman's body mirrors that of a clue with this new victim. To add to this, small bones are found in a different location, but they are too small to be Evan's and this gives Lottie hope that he might be found alive.

What do the two bodies and the bones have in common? Are there any connected clues and will they be able to not only find Evan but keep any more lives from being taken? Meanwhile, Lottie and Mark Boyd, fellow detective, are still working on their relationship, which now seems to have yet another complication. Lottie is also dealing with her own children and the home where they live, a place that needs a lot of work. Although forced to juggle all of this, Lottie remains laser focused in her efforts to locate Evan.

There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle in this gripping story. Secrets that are slowly unraveling definitely keep Lottie and her team on their toes as they work hard to connect the past with the present in this case. This exciting tenth book in the D. I. Lottie Parker series is just as strong and just as exciting as the previous books in this series. This compelling story culminates in a thrilling conclusion, one that is certain to leave readers eager for the next installment.

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

★★★★ 4.5 stars

I am excited to be taking part in the #BooksOnTour #BlogTour for Patricia Gibney's action-packed crime thriller LITTLE BONES.

I always look forward to a new Lottie Parker book and, as the tenth in the series, LITTLE BONES doesn't disappoint. What I love so much about this series is it is not wholly procedural and we get perspectives from various other players in the story - the victims, their families and even the villain themselves. Patricia Gibney continues to keep readers guessing from the first page to the very last and I admit to being hoodwinked for much of the book.

The story opens with a graphic prologue which will leave you heartbroken as to its outcome and yet it pulls no punches. The characters in the prologue are unnamed but as the story progresses we begin to work out who they are, with the final piece revealed as the tension in the climax builds.

DI Lottie Parker has a busy professional life as well as a confusing personal one. Having partially inherited the rambling dilapidated Farranstown House from her biological mother (revealed in a previous book) with her half brother who is living in New York, Lottie and her family move in with Boyd half living there, half not. Along with her children - daughters Katie and grandson Louis, Chloe and youngest son Sean - Lottie is trying to balance renovating the place so that it is half liveable whilst juggling her busy career. Her mother Rose is a constant fixture, although she has her own place, who is often there cooking up a storm for when Lottie and Boyd return home.

And then they get a call to a murder scene in which mother Anita Boland discovers upon arriving at her daughter Isabel's place to babysit three month old Holly. Unable to raise her daughter at the door, she enters and after a search of the house, hears Holly crying from the bedroom and finds Isabel in a pool of blood, brutally murdered in front of her daughter. When Lottie arrives she learns that the SOCOs have discovered a razor blade clutched within her hand and healed cut marks on her feet. What does this all mean? Lottie enlists one of her team to find Isabel's husband, Jack Gallagher. With his abrupt and abrasive attitude, it doesn't take long for the detectives to suspect him of having committed the crime. Particularly when they learn Isabel had no mobile phone and was given a small allowance for groceries and anything else she may need.

Then another woman, Joyce Breslin, goes missing when she fails to pick her son Evan up from daycare...but how is she linked to Isabel? Then the team discover that Isabel had once worked at the daycare, Bubbles, until her pregnancy deemed it too difficult. She was apparently to have met with the owner, Sinead Foley, of Bubbles the morning of her murder to discuss Holly attending. An appointment that was never kept. Sinead keeps Evan with her into the night, hoping that Joyce or her partner long distance lorry driver Nathan would soon collect the boy. But then Evan disappears from Sinead's house while she was in preparing the daycare room for the following day. There was no sign of a break-in, so did the abductor have a key?

When Joyce's car is found abandoned by a lake revealing nothing except for an envelope stuffed down the side of the driver's seat with an address and a razor blade, Lottie is convinced Joyce's disappearance is linked to the murder of Isabel. The question is, how? How do the two women know each other?

In an attempt to find Joyce's missing little four year old boy, one of Lottie's team, Kirby, decides to look into the address found in the envelope. It had to be of some significance to have been left in Joyce's car. When he manages to gain entry to the seemingly abandoned house he discovers what looks to be an old crime scene with splatters of dried blood in the kitchen and in the cot upstairs. Further investigation reveals razor blades hidden in a scarf in a cupboard. Kirby has an awful feeling about this.

Added to that is the discovery of some old bones belonging to a child found on an ancient site by a tree on a hillside. But how are all these apparent crimes and crime scenes linked? They nearly all involve razor blades, bar those of the children. So what links them all? Lottie cannot figure it out. But time is running out for little Evan unless Lottie and her team can find the little boy before it's too late. And on top of that, she and Boyd still haven't managed to tie the knot after their failed wedding in a previous book when Boyd fell ill.

There is a lot going on in this book that makes Lottie's head spin, but it is clear from the start that each part is a piece of the puzzle that ties the two women, and their secrets, together. Tensions are high as the race is on to solve the convoluted case, or cases, before time runs out. The pace remains steady throughout which is hitched up a notch as the tensions builds to a spectacular climax. The suspect pool is huge and continues to grow, leaving Lottie and her team at a loss trying to figure out what's going on.

LITTLE BONES is a fantastic addition to the Lottie Parker series which just seems to get better and better. I just wish Lottie and Boyd would hurry up already. And Katie, her eldest daughter, really should have found her feet by now. She was living in New York throughout the last book but now she's returned having decided that Farranstown is the perfect place to raise her son Louis. Although she doesn't feature as heavily in this books as previous ones, in fact none of Lottie's children do this time, she still comes across as a little flaky.

A solid procedural-cum-crime thriller, LITTLE BONES is an enjoyable read and a spectacular addition to the series. And as to expected from previous books in the series, LITTLE BONES ends with a cliffhanger of sorts to be resolved in the next installment. I look forward to that, however I expect I will have forgotten it by then as I have where the previous one left off also.

A good solid read with a fairly likeable team, LITTLE BONES can be read as a standalone but to do so one would miss out on some important background pertinent to the series as it stands today. Perfect for fans of Carol Wyer Victoria Jenkins King and Lake series and Carla Kovach.

I would like to thank #PatriciaGibney, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #LittleBones in exchange for an honest review.

I’d like to thank Bookouture and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Little Bones’, the tenth in the Detective Lottie Parker series written by Patricia Gibney, in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Isabel Gallagher is found brutally assaulted in her own home, her baby screaming in her cot nearby. When Isabel’s mother phones for help, DI Lottie Parker and DS Mark Boyd start investigating what turns out to be a very complex case when a child’s bones are found buried and another woman and her four-year-old son disappear.

‘Little Bones’ is the next in the series set in Ragmullin as Lottie investigates crimes involving blackmail and drug smuggling while coping with her family’s problems and Boyd’s recovery from illness. The story is well-written with an involving plot, drama, intrigue, twists and turns, and a number of possible suspects any of whom could be responsible. There has to be another in the series as Lottie and Boyd still haven’t got married and we're left with a cliffhanger that leaves Lottie confused. I look forward to reading it..

This is a compulsive and absorbing police procedural with a complex thrill-a-minute plot and plenty going on between the pages. It's stylishly woven and thoroughly atmospheric with some beautiful scenic descriptions and never a dull moment. There are ample twists and turns, clever use of misdirection and an unravelling of secrets, mysteries and drama aplenty as you realise that many people can not be trusted. Exciting and highly entertaining, you will be hard pushed to find a more refreshingly different thriller this year. It's fast paced and suspenseful with an impeccably concealed perpetrator and obscured motive. The narrative exudes tension and Gibney has well and truly mastered how to pull the wool over your eyes, grip you from the start and ratchet up the tension to palpable proportions before it culminates in an explosive finale. All in all, an enthralling thrill ride with credible and engaging characters and a keen sense of time and place. Highly recommended.

Patricia Gibney: Little Bones

Spending time with Detective Lottie Parker and her team feels like coming home to my family and I am so happy to be back! I love Lottie's relationship with Boyd, but the fact that her children and deceased husband still play an important role in the series highlights her vulnerability and makes me root for her as a character. The team dynamic is brilliant and it's given an extra edge in this particular instalment; an aspect of the plot I found really dramatic and was interested to see play out.

There are lots of different strands to Little Bones, including chapters from the viewpoint of the killer, which means the investigation is quite frustrating for Lottie, but very interesting for me as I tried to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. I was hooked trying to work it out and really appreciated Gibney's ridiculously tight plotting with plenty of twists to keep me guessing.

As the investigation comes together, the novel becomes very tense as Lottie and her team try to find the suspects before it is too late. This created a huge adrenaline rush and I was desperate to see how the investigation would conclude.

I can’t believe we’ve reached book ten in this brilliant series.
This book starts with a bang as a woman’s body is found by her mother in her home. Her young baby is in her cot and witnessed her mother’s murder.
Lottie, Boyd and the team have trouble working out why this young mum was murdered and struggle to find leads.
A few days later another mum is missing and her son is taken from the child minder.
The pressure is on to find the mother and son before another murder takes place.
This is a clever crime thriller with lots of suspects so it definitely keeps you on your toes.
I look forward to the next book in this series.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Wowsers - book 1o- already and I lose count of all the shizzle that the author has thrown at the main characters outwith the main crimes being investigated. Does she not give them time to get over the last storm before raining down on them again... Good thing that the crimes are interesting and intriguing enough for me to allow myself to put these aside with a quick eye roll, so that I can keep on with the series... Sorry, rant over...
We start with the death of a young mother in front of her baby daughter. The mother is found lying with a razor blade in her hand by her own mother who has turned up to babysit. Lottie Parker and her team are called in to investigate. Then another mother fails to collect her son from the childminder. The father is called but before he can arrive, the son also goes missing. The mother's car is subsequently found, along with an envelope containing a razor blade... and with an address written on it which leads the detectives to another potential crime scene... But how do they connect, they must connect, the razor blades they have in common? Lottie and her team have their work cut out for them to solve the crimes and bring the missing back... alive...
I've already said my piece about the personal lives of the characters, which seems to have shifted focus away from Lottie's personal life and is now targeting Boyd, which if the rest wasn't so high quality would have me running for the hills... And it is good. Had me running round chasing my tail all the way through, kind of good! It's also well paced and there's no superfluous padding or waffle.
And the case in question is quite interconnected and twists and turns in all the right places, delivering shock after shock as it crescendos its way to a rather shocking conclusion.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I have read and loved all the books in the Lottie Parker series and I can honestly say they just keep on getting better and better, hard to believe this is the 10th book in the series. Little Bones is a gripping and sinister crime thriller that had me hooked from the very beginning. The story is one that will have you wanting to turn the pages so fast to find out what is going on. I love when a book grips me like that as was the case with Little Bones. This is a book that once you start you will not be able to put down. I can’t wait for book 11. 4⭐️

Number 10 in the Lottie Parker series.
There’s lots of threads in this one and quite a few characters to keep track of, but it all comes together nicely, including an unexpected villain. The developments in the subplots are ticking along nicely and we get to see more of the other members of the teams stories rather than Lottie’s this time, which I found refreshing. That said her demons are never far behind and the ending gives up more intrigue to look forward to. This works perfectly as a standalone but it’s a great addition to this brilliant series

I had high hopes for this book. It has a great premise and really grabbed my attention. The prologue was fantastic but after that is seems to be lacking something. It's not that good to me. It just was ok for me and even though I didn't read all the way to the end without skimming it never got any better. I honestly tried. I love a good thriller but this one was amateurish. I know most people like it and I chalk that up to them reading all the previous books in this series. I believe that even if I would have read and loved them this one would have been a huge disappointment for me.

I'm very sorry about this. I hate giving a bad review.
Thank you #NetGalley, #ParticiaGibney, #Bookouture for this ARC. This is my own true feelings about this book.

3/5 stars leaning to 2.5 for me. I recommend you read for yourself. You may love it.

I am a huge fan of this series so I was looking forward to this one.

Although it had the usual gripping prologue for me this just didn't have the intensity of the previous books. It seemed very repetitive and I just wanted to get to the end rather than being totally immersed in the plot.

That said it was great to catch up with Lottie and Boyd and after what's happened here with them I can't wait to find out what happens next.

👩‍👦⌛👩‍👧Imperiled mothers and children; so many shady characters!

This is a really good whodunit series set in Ireland with a strong female detective who's got a few wrinkles in her off-hours life. Lottie Parker is a widow, mother and grandmother, so a spate of murder and disappearances of mothers and a small child keeps her on the case in Little Bones with little rest or sleep. Interview after interview of family, employers and colleagues bring frustratingly little in the way of clues or even confirmation of whether the cases are linked. Added to that, some seemingly unrelated old skullduggery turns up and taxes the already overextended gardai and forensic investigative resources.

Little Bones has plenty of twists and tight-lipped, shady characters, keeping the mystery going and the urgency of the chase tense. With a new wrinkle in almost every chapter, it kept my interest and left me guessing (no, I had no clue) right up until the intense action climax. This is the fourth novel I've read in this series and my enthusiasm for the series remains high.

Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for sharing a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest opinion.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this absorbing book

where has this author been all my life...this book is gripping in the way its so horrific....

a human bone is found, later its found to be the remains of a baby

a young woman is found murdered beside her baby, luckily the murdered spared the baby and life will never be the same for the husband jack as he becomes number one suspect

wow this storyline is deep, and complex but overall even though this is my first book by this author and book 10 in the series i fell right into it and really got into the characters, it was easy enough to follow and have to say i love how this author writes, will be keeping an eye out for more of this authors work

cant recommend this book enough, will keep you up at night to see how it all comes together