The Birthday by Carol Wyer

 

You drop your child off at a birthday party for 5-6 year olds. There are 20 children in all. You never expect when you go back to pick up your child, that one is missing. The one missing is yours.

Ava Sawyer goes missing in 2015 from her friend Harriet's birthday party. Ava tends to be a emotional child that likes to sulk off when not given her way. Unfortunately this time she never comes back. Two long years go by with no other occurrences in this sleepy little town. Until Ava's body is found, then suddenly it is like the killer is awoken. Murder after murder happens, can DI Natalie Ward crack the case in time to stop the killings?

The facts: All are girls, all were at that birthday party, all go to Uptown Primary School and have attended Little Stars Dance Academy. That results in a lot of suspects.

This was my first novel by Carol Wyer and I was not disappointed. She was able to make me feel like we were in a race against time together to find the killer. As each devastating murder of a child happened I kept praying she would catch the killer soon. Unfortunately this is a very realistic story in this day and time but it was oh so good. The line that stuck in my mind was " She will be pretty forever." It sent chills down my spine but summed up the book perfectly. I look forward to reading the next book in this series and see what DI Natalie Ward has in store for us.

4 stars from me!

Thanks so much to Carol Wyer, Bookouture and NetGalley for this ARC.