Finders Keepers. Belinda Bauer. Corgi Books 2012

A gripping and enthralling thriller that builds a atmosphere of increasing unease into a savage and climax and a satisfying and unexpected conclusion. A girl is kidnapped from a car and a note saying "You don't love her" is left behind and this is just the start of a number of similar kidnappings that happen in the area. Detective Inspector Reynolds leads the investigation into the kidnappings, he has a older unresolved set of murders in the village of Shipcott and the sole surviving victim PC Jonas Holly to deal with as well. As the kidnappings increase and the pressure increases on everyone the threads from past events start to twist into the present and draw everyone into deeper trouble than they can imagine. The investigation is carefully set up, the very large cast are wonderfully developed and the plot moves with superb menace.
This book is the third of a trilogy and Belinda Bauer uses continuity with deft care to give the bigger story a very satisfying continuation without ever sacrificing the current story as a self contained event. Where needed the necessary details from prior events are supplied in a very natural way that gives the context for the cast.
The cast is one of the astonishing strengths of the book, there is huge and very diverse cast and the narrative focus shifts quickly and seamlessly from one cast member to another. It is never confusing or confounding, each character comes to vivid life and earns their place in the reader's attention without loss to the plot mechanics or of tension in the story. The big cast effortlessly creates the community that the horrifying events are taking place in, the various reactions of those directly, indirectly and investigating the kidnappings are woven together to create a panorama of the crimes. The moving focus in the story allows the subtle and not so subtle impact of the crimes to be traced and to give the assorted victims space to be heard.
Belinda Bauer takes a breath-taking risk with the plot at the centre of the story, a move so outrageous that it should by rights fall into absurdity or just stupidity, due to her astonishing control and the careful set up it is neither of these, it is horribly, plausibly sad instead. The low key approach increases the tension as the situation starts to unravel, it allows those caught up in it to emerge as much more than handy body parts in the service of the plot.
The conclusion is a wonderfully unexpected as the enormous investment in the cast pays off and the final justice is served as it needs to be. This is superb crime writing that takes huge risks that are all entirely justified and provides the readers with something fresh, vital and vividly entertaining.

Dark Side. Belinda Bauer. Bantam Press. (2011)

A superb crime story, as cold and griping as the bleak winter Exmoor landscape that the story is set in. Belinda Bauer has located the battered skull beneath the skin of the English village murder story. A severely disabled, elderly lady is murdered in the small village of Shipcott in midwinter. PC Jonas Holly, the village policeman is quickly sidelined by the investigative team sent to handle the case. The abrasive Detective Chief Inspector Marvel finds Jonas a considerable nuisance and deals with him as such. A second murder places everyone in the village under significant pressure and the investigative team and Jonas in particular. The plot uncoils steadily, the reveals are cunning staged and the conclusion is wholly unforgiving and satisfying.
Belinda Bauer takes the basic structure of the English village murder mystery , the way the community knows everything except what it does not wish to know, the comfort of familiarity and the suffocating closeness of knowing everyone and uses them to amplify the force of the savage story. The cast are varied and bursting with life, the smallest walk on part is so finely drawn that they insist on the readers attention, without ever upsetting the balance of the narrative. PC Jonas Holly is a great leading character, he is not a moss covered village bobby, he returned to Shipcott for a deeply serious reason, the failing health of his wife. The murders in the village are a considerable burden to him, both on a personal and a professional level. That such events could happen on his watch is pressure enough, being very publicly excluded from the investigation adds severely to it. It forces him to act to regain and retain his position within the village, the community expect something from him that he struggles to provide.
The lead investigator, DCI Marvel should be a walking cliche, an abrasive double outsider, transferred from London to the local force and an outsider to the village, he is abrasive, enraged and frustrated. He avoids all the obvious pitfalls he seems set up for and emerges as as gripping and deeply unlikable person in his own rounded right. He gets a deeply satisfying and viciously sardonic treatment from Belinda Bauer and deserves all of it, in particular the happy unfairness meted out to him at the end.
The astonishing skill with which the plot threads are woven and twisted up to the last words of the book is a joy to read. The reader is reminded that justice is a freezing cold process that does not encompass mercy in any way. This is a superb book, very strongly recommended.

BLACKLANDS. Belinda Bauer. Corgi Books (2010)

Astonishing and utterly compelling thriller that drives relentlessly forward to a white knuckle conclusion. Steven Lamb digs holes on Exmoor looking for the grave of his uncle who had been abducted and murdered years before by a serial child killer, Arnold Avery. He does so in hope of repairing the damage done to his family by Billy's abduction. Steven finally writes to Avery in prison seeking his help in locating the grave and Avery seizes the opportunity that has come his way to have something new in his life. The story unspools in a very gripping and creepy fashion, the events have a horrible inevitability about them until the final heart squeezing conclusion.
This astonishing book manages to disguise the plot as the natural outcome of the actions and reactions of its brilliantly realised cast to their circumstances. From the very slightest of beginnings, the story moves carefully and calmly through the increasing escalation of events. There is nothing blatant about the progression of the story, it moves without many set pieces, the story is nudged along by wickedly believable actions and collisions. The increasingly uneasy atmosphere conjured up arises almost unseen and gathers paces as quietly as a descending fog on Exmoor.
Belinda Bauer has created a memorable cast and gives everyone, from the principal to the smallest walk on part, the breath of life. The ebb and flow of the story is so deeply entwined with the lives of the cast that the author's breathtaking craft in shaping the story is invisible. Arnold Avery is a triumph, a monster of terribly comprehensible proportions, never sympathetic and utterly engaging, a ruthless mixture of self-discipline and appetite, he still does not quite dominate the book. Steven Lamb, twelve years old, struggling to repair his shattered family and to survive his friends and enemies, emerges as the deep heart of the book. This book is enthralling and is simply unmissable.