About the Book
On a summer's day, a baby vanishes. The mystery is never solved, leaving a young mother lost in grief. Twenty-one years later, ex-police detective Dan Hennessy is struggling with his own tragic loss, and when a neighbour disappears and a body turns up at the solar farm, he is desperate for answers. The haunted landscape is keeping secrets, and there are dangers lurking in the Brecks. Dan must find the truth. Can he offer hope to the grieving mother, and also save himself?
About the Author :
Shortlisted for the Bath Novel Award, The Lost Detective is Elspeth Latimer’s debut crime novel, to be published this autumn by Story Machine. Elspeth lives in the Brecks, at the heart of East Anglia, and the subtle beauty of this landscape, together with the realities of contemporary rural life, are the inspiration behind her novel. Elspeth is originally from Scotland, where she worked as an architect, before her love of reading prompted a career change. She has a Prose Fiction MA along with a PhD on crime series, from the University of East Anglia, where she is now associate tutor in crime writing. Later this year Cambridge University Press will publish Writing the Detectives, her study on creating the protagonist in contemporary crime series. Elspeth has always been passionate about the genre and the ways it reflects who we are. The Lost Detective is a moving story about how people cope when the worst happens.
Review :
“A superb crime debut – beautifully imagined, beautifully written, stylish, tense and genuinely moving.”
— Lee Child
“This is a beautifully written, deeply atmospheric, well-paced and moving crime novel with a brilliant edge. The setting, South Norfolk’s Brecklands and Wetlands, adds to the sense of the unknown and the unstable. Former detective Dan Hennessy is struggling with grief and past demons, living in a tired caravan park. His determination to help a friend and solve a cold case, along with a hot new one, despite having given up his badge, proves just what the force is missing. In this complex and highly characterful drama, the further you look, the more you find. And just sometimes all that searching goes a long way to mending broken hearts.” — Henry Sutton, author of 'My Criminal World'
“What a good book – lyrically written and atmospheric yet with all the grim tension you could want from a crime novel. I loved the shabby Keanu Reeves ex-police detective and felt viscerally drawn into his grief and his drive to solve the mystery of the missing baby that drives the narrative alongside the hunt for the killer of the body with no hands. A sophisticated, multi-layered mystery perfect for lovers of P.D. James.” — Harriet Tyce, author of 'Blood Orange'
“The Lost Detective employs many of the conventions of a detective novel but, in Latimer’s hands, the genre is elevated to that very rare beast — a literary page-turner. The novel is so beautifully written — measured, reflective, elegiac. It is as much a meditation on grief and loss as a gripping detective story, and Latimer skilfully manages to make the two work side by side, without detracting from either one. I can’t wait to see what she does next.” — Bridget Walsh, author of ‘The Tumbling Girl’
“The Lost Detective is a novel of confluences, a beautifully written and finely poised story of loss and longing but also of redemption. Its setting, in the enigmatic and endangered East Anglian landscape of the Brecks, perfectly underscores the human mysteries the novel explores. A notable debut and a very good read.” — Sarah Bower, author of ‘Lines and Shadows’
“Luminous, haunting, humane. Set across the fields and rivers of Norfolk and Suffolk, it’s a mystery with a beating heart: forensic in its detail, propulsive in its plotting, and tender in the way it watches people try, fail, and try again to love and to tell the truth. The writing is effortlessly vivid and the tension tightens with every page as past and present collide. A beautifully crafted, deeply affecting story about loss, obsession, and the small, stubborn ember of hope that refuses to die.” — Ashley Hickson-Lovence, author of ‘The 392’
“The Lost Detective is not only an impressive crime novel with a great sense of place but a beautifully-written evocation of loss, grief and, ultimately, hope.” — Trevor Wood, author of ‘The Silent Killer’
“Dark, compelling and perfectly paced — will keep you reading long into the small hours.” — Sarah Mitchell, author of ‘The Lost Letters’
“A soulful, grief-soaked mystery, elevated by its textured and redemptive evocation of place.” — Tom Benn, author of ‘Oxblood’
“The Lost Detective reminded me of the first time I read Kate Atkinson. At once a mystery, an evocation of landscape and a tender excavation of grief, it is beautifully observed, immersive, unsettling and deeply human, and whenever I wasn’t reading it I was thinking about the characters and the world Elspeth Latimer describes. A remarkable debut.” — Emma Styles, author of ‘No Country for Girls’
