This book was provided by Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review

Synopsis

To find a killer, she must unlock a child’s terror…

The first in an exciting new crime series featuring psychologist Dr Jessie Flynn – a brilliantly complex character who struggles with a dark past of her own. Perfect for fans of Nicci French and Val McDermid.

A traumatized little boy

Four years old, terrified, disturbed – Sami is a child in need of help. Now it’s up to psychologist Dr Jessie Flynn to find the cause of his suffering and unlock his darkest memories, before it’s too late.

A psychologist with a secret

Meanwhile Jessie is haunted by an awful truth of her own. She works alongside former patient, Captain Ben Callan, to investigate a violent death – but the ghosts of her past refuse to leave her.

A body washed up on the beach

When a burnt corpse is found on the Sussex coast, Jessie begins to uncover a link between her two cases – and a desperate killer will do anything to keep it buried…

My thoughts

I love a good psychological thriller and this is as good as I hoped it would be, a slow start soon kicks into high gear, with Army psychologist Jessie Flynn treats the disturbed child of an injured soldier who has been badly disfigured in Afghanistan, and his wife ( a woman with a secret past). Bodies turn up that seem to be unrelated and at one point I felt that I was reading 2 different books!

However, as I made my way through the book, the different strands of the plot became neatly woven together, with the characters and stories intriguing  and captivating, the characters were so well written that the author manages to have the reader empathise with a character when they are suffering, both good characters and the bad. There is  touch of romance between our main character Jessie and the Military Police Officer Captain Ben Callan, which is nicely written and helps progress the plot rather than stop it completely.

Slowly Medina reveals the secrets that the characters are hiding, what has caused the child to become so disturbed as well as explaining the dead body that appears to have no relevance to the case but in fact is the key to everything.

Nicely paced and well written

I gave this 4 out of 5*