The Taken - Alice Clark-Platts

A tense and powerful police procedural set in the city of Durham where a murdered preacher may be more monstrous than his own killer. There's the lost. There's the missing. And there's the taken. She asked me once if we had any secrets, and I shook my head. 'No secrets between us,' she said. 'No,' I answered. 'Never ever.' In a Durham hotel at dawn, celebrated preacher Tristan Snow is murdered as he prays. None of the other guests - not even his daughter, his wife, or her sister - saw or heard anything. But then again, they all had a motive for murder. Detective Inspector Erica Martin is confronted by secrets and lies, lost in a case where nothing is what it seems. With no answers, DI Martin is consumed by questions: Is anyone in this family innocent? When the victim might have been a monster - is there such a thing as justice? And does anyone deserve to die? Praise for Alice Clark-Platts: 'Had me on the edge of my sun lounger. Excellent plotting and a genuinely unguessable resolution to the mystery' Sophie Hannah 'Grabbed me from the first page and wouldn't let go. A compelling read, beautifully written … A tense, captivating tale, brilliantly told' Rachel Abbott 'A gripping, highly charged thriller' Ralph Fiennes 'A brilliantly plotted and utterly gripping thriller' Emma Kavanagh 'Superb … A very assured page-turning storm I read in one sitting' Stav Sherez 'Intriguing and sinister with masterful plotting and tension' Mel Sherratt