Originally published: 24 January 2019

Author: J P Carter

Published by: Avon Books

Genre: Crime Thriller

Length: 368 pages

Reading dates: 6-9 February 2019

This is the first in a new series of crime thrillers by J P Carter with the central character, DCI Anna Tate.

The premise of this book is terrifying – one morning, nine very young children are snatched from the Peabody Nursery School in South London by masked gunmen, who lock up the staff and take the kids away on a minibus. DCI Tate is tasked with solving the kidnapping and getting the kids home to their very distressed parents. To make matters even worse, one of the children has cystic fibrosis and will become seriously ill very quickly without medication.

I flew through this book – the whole premise for the crime is terrifying especially as a mother (although not of nursery age children). On those nights I can’t sleep I torture myself with things that might happen to my kids when I’m not there to protect them so the thought of kids being snatched from a nursery is really scary.

The book raised some controversial issues. The kidnappers ask for a ransom to be paid but while most people would definitely want it to be paid without question, it also opens up the floodgates for similar crimes to be committed! There are also some thoughts over whether the nursery staff should have done more to protect the children.  Should they be expected to put their own lives in danger and stand up to the kidnappers?  It’s quite an emotional book – the shock and horror the parents are feeling is very realistic.

The police procedure is done really well – the suspects are revealed gradually and Anna Tate is a competent and realistic DCI. She also has her own backstory which runs parallel with the nursery kidnapping which leads us nicely into the next book in the series. At Your Door is due August 2019 and I will certainly be reading it.

I really enjoyed this – I think it is perfect if you like crime fiction with strong female leads and is great for fans of  Fiona Barton and Helen Fields.

Thank you Sabah Khan and Avon Books for inviting me on the blog tour.

About the author:

J. P. Carter is the pseudonym of a bestselling author who has also written sixteen books under the names Jaime and James Raven.

Before becoming a full-time writer he spent a career in journalism as a newspaper reporter and television producer. He was, for a number of years, director of a major UK news division and co-owned a TV production company. He now splits his time between homes in Hampshire and Spain with his wife.