Originally published: 7 March 2019

Author: M J Ford

Published by: Avon

Genre: Crime Thriller

Page count: 352

Reading dates: 28 February – 4 March 2019

Keep her Close is the second book featuring DS Josie Masters and the Thames Valley Police in the city of Oxford. Continuing on from the previous book, Hold my Hand, where Josie saved her nephew from a killer clown, she is understandably still traumatised by events but is trying to carry on normally.  She is in a newish relationship with Lucas, a groundskeeper and is thinking about the possibility of starting a family.

When a well connected young woman goes missing from her room in Jesus College (Part of Oxford University), Josie and her new colleague, DS Pryce face a race against time to find her alive. Within days, two more girls are taken from other Oxford colleges and she starts to suspect the kidnapper is sending her a message.

This is a great sequel.  As is often the case in a series like this, there is enough background story to be able to read this as a standalone book. Josie is a great character – she has her flaws and is realistic, one whose decisions feel in keeping with the story – other books I’ve read in this genre, often have the character making implausible decisions that make me roll my eyes!

The action moves thick and fast and as they realise the women’s disappearances are connected, the police work that goes on in trying to find the women is really interesting. I really enjoy books with police procedure and especially one’s with strong, capable women who are the focus of the story. As you’d expect, there are lots of twists and turns and the last third of the book is so exciting, I didn’t want to put it down!

I look forward to reading more books in this series – thank you to Sabah over at Avon Books for my copy as part of the blog tour.

About the author:

M. J. Ford is a writer and an editor at Working Partners, where he works on projects across the age groups. He loves thrillers, historical and fantasy titles.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MJFordBooks