Review
Missing Presumed Dead (Hodder Headline Ireland)
Stolen Child
A gripping fourth novel from the young Dubliner will keep you enthralled says Sarah Lapsley.
When blonde toddler, Katie Jones disappeared from a beach in 1980 everyone presumed she was dead. Fast forward to 26 years later and a murder and attempted suicide in Dublin. A young woman shoots and kills retired GP Walter Hogan, on his own doorstep, before turning the gun on herself. The young woman is Katie Jones - where has she been for 26 years? Who took her and what had Walter Hogan to do with the mystery? These are the questions that detectives, John Quigley and Sarah Kenny have to answer in Arlene Hunt's fast paced thriller.
It's an interesting premise, pulled off with panache by Hunt. As the erstwhile victim/murderer lies in a coma in a Dublin hospital, the detectives must split up to trace her murky past in both Ireland and England. Quigley's trip across the water results in Hunt using a kind of literary split-screen effect to follow the progress of both. What results is a roller-coaster ride of a novel - as gripping as it is gritty, with the character of Quigley often providing a welcome and likeable turn as comic relief.
This could be seen as a touchy subject given the recent disappearance of Madeline McCann but don't be put off - Hunt delivers a cracking read with this, her fourth novel.
