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Book Review
Reviewed: 27 January 2025

Leave No Trace

by: D.S. Butler

Detective Karen Hart - Book 9

  • Rating: full starfull starfull starfull starstar outline (4/5)

Past and present collide while trying to find a kidnapped boy

I think what I like the most about this series is that the characters are “human”. Their day-to-day lives and their work lives shape their approach to the cases and strengthen the bonds between them. I was pleased to see that Sofie’s struggles with returning to work after the attack in Book 8. One thing though, Harinder was mostly not included which seemed a bit odd given that he is her boyfriend as well as office tech whiz. But, perhaps that was done to allow the encouragement from an unlikely source to happen and be impactful.

DS Karen Hart is a tough, smart and sometimes reckless detective, though not in this book, who takes care of her team, while hunting down killers. It is nice to see her personal life progress as well.

This was a baffling case. Maybe I am looking my “touch” at seeing a path to the guilty party but I felt like I was scratching my head throughout reading my way through the revelations and the case roadblocks. I have to say I didn’t see the ending coming and I loved it when it did.

I am looking forward to what the team tackles in Book 10.

 

Happy Reading!

Release Date: 3-September-2024
British, Audiobook, Read-and-Listen, Mystery, Female-Led

Plot Summary

Three boys were taken and murdered fifteen years ago. The killer is in jail. So why is history repeating itself? A family outing to Tattershall Castle comes to a chilling end when eleven-year-old Tommy Burton disappears without a trace in broad daylight. All that remains in his place is a small blue teddy bear. DS Karen Hart and her team are called in to investigate the unusual circumstances―but for DI Morgan the crime scene is eerily familiar. It’s been fifteen years since Morgan worked on a traumatic case that saw Graham Donaldson put behind bars for abducting and murdering three young boys. His calling a blue teddy bear left at the scene of each crime, a detail never revealed to the press or public. Could Donaldson, recently transferred to a local prison, have something to do with the missing boy? Has he somehow inspired a copycat? Or, worse, is the original killer still out there―and embarking on a second campaign of terror? With Tommy still missing, and a growing list of suspects, Karen’s team must piece the puzzle together before the unthinkable happens. But as a dizzying chase for the truth unfolds, could it be that the evil they seek is hiding in plain sight?