Patrick Lennon and his partner DS Carmella Masiello are tasked with the case of finding all three children. When they returned, Alice was asleep on the living-room couch and little Frankie was missing from her cot. Her parents, Helen and Sean Philips, had left Frankie in the care of her teenage stepsister, Alice, while they walked to a nearby restaurant for a meal out. The latest abduction was that of Frankie Philips. It is assumed that the three children have been taken by the same person(s), as the abductions have occurred in such a tight time span. Three toddlers have been snatched and their parents are desperate to be re-united with them. He is working long and irregular hours for there has been a spate of child abductions in the area. Now, he is living with his parents due to the fact that he needs childcare for his two year-old daughter, Bonnie. Also, he suffers from tinnitus from his years listening to overly loud music. He still bears the tattoos and piercings that went with that persona. Now in his mid-thirties, in his earlier days he was a ‘ goth’ musician. Patrick Lennon is not your usual police DI. The book starts strong ( the prologue actually made me gasp while simultaneously giving me shivers) and doesn’t let up in quality the whole way through. This is the first novel in a series which features Detective Inspector Patrick Lennon who works in the South West London/Richmond-Upon-Thames area. Also, it is a British police procedural, which is a favourite sub-genre of mine. It shouldn’t have been surprising though, as the Goodreads rating is very high with over four thousand people having a say. I am always amazed at how two people can write one story and make it seem so ‘seamless’. “ From the cradle” is my first novel by this duo of authors and I was very impressed. A gritty and disturbing, character-driven, police procedural!

From the cradle louise voss