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THE WINTER FOUNDLINGS
by Kate Rhodes
Minotaur Books, February 2015
340 pages
$27.99
ISBN: 1250014328


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Louis Kinsella walks into a room and the temperature drops below freezing immediately. He is the quintessential evil manipulator, causing a chill to rise up Alice Quentin's and the reader's spine with his every word. Since he's been incarcerated in a correctional facility for the criminally insane after killing scores of young girls, he hasn't had the opportunity to walk into many rooms. But now there is a copycat killer on the loose and, since he's the only one with the information to help, he is walking into the same room as Alice far too frequently for her comfort.

Psychologist Alice Quentin has left her home in cacophonous London to spend six months in the quiet countryside, studying the workings of Northwood's High Security Hospital. She is hoping that this change of scenery will give her some peace and rest. She has vowed never to work on a police case again. Unfortunately, as soon as she arrives, a young girl's body is dumped on the steps of the Foundling Museum and the ties to Kinsella's earlier killings are clear. Another young girl is missing, and Alice cannot step away from a request from her former police colleague, Detective Don Burns, to help catch the current child killer who seems to be at work under the direction of past child killer Kinsella.

The story is told in alternating chapters from Alice's perspective and the perspective of the missing child, Ella. This allows the reader to be clued into not only what Alice and Don are discovering in their investigation, but also into what is actually happening to the girls who have been kidnapped. Even with this additional knowledge, however, the reader is kept in the dark about the identity of the kidnapper and his relationship with Kinsella until the very end. There are a number of red herrings that help keep the reader guessing. Rhodes does an excellent job of keeping the suspense and danger building, and the reader engaged. The characters, atmosphere, and plot are all very well realized. This is the third in the Alice Quentin psychological thriller series, and I'll be headed back to read the first two.

§ Sharon Mensing is the Head of School of Emerald Mountain School, an independent school in the mountains of Colorado, where she lives, reads, and enjoys the outdoors.

Reviewed by Sharon Mensing, March 2015

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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