He had never heard himself scream before. It was terrifying.
Alone, trapped in the darkness and with no way out, Bart Campbell knows that his chances of being found alive are slim.
Drugged and kidnapped, the realisation soon dawns that he’s been locked inside a shipping container far from his Edinburgh home. But what Bart doesn’t yet know is that he’s now heading for France where his unspeakable fate is already sealed…
DCI Ava Turner and DI Luc Callanach are working on separate cases that soon collide as it becomes clear that the men and women being shipped to France are being traded for women trafficked into Scotland.
With so many lives at stake, they face an impossible task – but there’s no option of failure when Bart and so many others will soon be dead…
Get ready for a rollercoaster ride like no other, with the next gripping thriller from the number one bestselling crime author, Helen Fields.
Review: This is the sixth in a series of crime novels written by Helen Fields featuring Detective Inspector Luc Callanach and Detective Chief Inspector Ava Turner. This follows on from the fifth book in the series "Perfect Crime". However, this latest entry can be read as a standalone thriller.
Luc Callanach had been seconded from Interpol in France to Police Scotland's Major Investigation Team in Edinburgh, but at the beginning of this book he is back in Paris acting as Scottish liaison officer with Interpol investigating the disappearance of a young man from Edinburgh. Meanwhile, Ava Turner and the rest of the Major Investigation Team become involved with a murder that appears to be related to gangland violence in Edinburgh.
Hence, the story takes place on both sides of the English Channel and there are several strands to it, involving organised crime, people trafficking and murder. I liked the way that the chapters alternated between these different strands. This resulted in the tension being maintained throughout the book, so that I found myself wanting to keep turning the pages to find out what happened next.
I have read the two preceding books in the series, and it was good to re-visit familiar characters. One of my favourite characters, a detective sergeant, gets to play a more significant role in this story and we see a different side to his character.
A criticism I have made of previous books in the series is that, for stories set in Edinburgh, the dialogue has featured very few Scottish colloquialisms and, indeed, there have appeared to be some Americanisms. I am pleased to report that, for this latest book, this has been addressed, and there are a few good Scottish expressions throughout.
Overall, I found the book to be a thrilling, although at times very graphic, account of law enforcement agencies' investigations into major crimes. So, are these investigations on both sides of the Channel resolved? You will have to read the book to find out.
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