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Brian McGilloway has cornered the market in bleak police procedurals, seemingly always set in the depths of winter, which take place on either side of the border with Northern Ireland and the Republic. His Benedict Devlin series has been laid aside for a newcomer – DS Lucy Black. She's starting a new job in Derry, although it soon becomes apparent that she's no stranger to the city. Lucy's introduction to her new job is pretty dramatic. A child is found wandering in a woodland with blood on her hands – blood that's not her own. She refuses to speak, but seems to trust her rescuer. Almost immediately, though, Lucy is shunted into the Public Protection Unit, which takes her away from a high-profile case involving the kidnapping of a leading businessman's teenage daughter. Before long, though, she realises that the two cases may be linked and that they may be rooted in Derry's troubled history – something Lucy has had first-hand experience of. LITTLE GIRL LOST is the kind of book that you want to read with the lights on. It's chilly and creepy, with the constant threat of violence in a still uneasy city never far from the surface. And it always seems to be dark or snowing or both. Lucy is a tenacious leading character, although McGilloway is a tad sparing with some of her background. At first I thought he'd overplayed his hand by giving her a mother who's an assistant chief constable and a former policeman father with Alzheimer's. The mother is possibly the least convincing character, but the family tensions are a significant factor in the book, as Lucy uncovers past history that's deeply shocking. There's a fleeting appearance for Inspector Jim Henry, a familiar presence in the Benedict Devlin books. LITTLE GIRL LOST suggests that McGilloway could have two equally strong series bubbling along in parallel. Lucy could do with some fleshing out, and the ending relies on one twist too many, but it's a book that will remain with you once you turn the lights out. § Sharon Wheeler is a UK-based journalist, writer and lecturer.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, July 2011
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