How long do you hunt for the missing?
A horrible vanishing act…
When a young Josie Masters sees a boy wearing a red football shirt, Dylan Jones, being taken by a clown at a carnival, she tries to alert the crowds. But it’s too late. Dylan has disappeared…
Thirty years later, Josie is working as a police officer in Bath. The remains of the body of a child have been found – complete with tatters of a torn red football shirt. Is it the boy she saw vanish in the clutches of the clown? Or is it someone else altogether?
And then another child disappears…
Claire's Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Firstly, when this book arrived thanks to Avon books, it arrived in a box that played circus music as you opened and also contained a huge lollipop!
Hold My Hand, starts with an eight-year-old Josie, who visits the circus with her older brother. On a trip to use the toilet, she spots a young boy, in a red shirt being led away by a clown and is the only witness. Years later, she is now a police detective and receives a call when the remains of a child and a red shirt are found.
Wow, this book really sucked me in from the very beginning and kept me hooked page by page. The story is full or lost of twists and turns to keep you guessing. An amazing psychological thriller and quite scary in parts, but I loved it! Fantastical, well-written characters and dialogue and you truly don't want to put the book down until the very end.
An amazing debut and I will definitely be keeping my eye out for more books by M.J. Ford.
Excerpt
She dropped Ferman at the pub, turning down his offer to buy her a drink. Not only because drinking on duty was generally frowned upon, but because she still had to pick up a present for Paul.
She found a milliner’s just off Turl Street, and drove right into town before realising she had no cash for the meter. She parked on double yellows a hundred yards from the shop and hurried in. Amelia had texted her Paul’s size, and she selected a brown homburg without properly looking at the price. When the owner told her, she baulked, but paid out of embarrassment. It was a pittance to her brother, but she’d have to cut a corner somewhere else if she was going to make her monthly payments to Bright Futures.
When she got back to the car, a traffic warden was just taking a shot of her number plate.
‘Oh, come on!’ said Jo. ‘I was two minutes!’
The warden shrugged, made a few more notes, and stuck the ticket to her window wordlessly. She’d been in the same situation with Ben once, years ago, and he’d used the badge, but that wasn’t her way. Instead, she tore off the notice and threw it into the car like any other civilian.
Driving back out of the city, she went through some of her options. She knew she was overdrawn, but she still had credit. The immediate problem was this month’s rent though. If she wrote a cheque and the landlord tried to cash it straight away, it would bounce. As for the Bright Futures payments . . .
A bike swerved out in front of her and she slammed the brake and the horn at the same time. The young man riding, wearing a student’s gown, turned and smiled sheepishly.
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