Every Secret Thing - Tapa dura

Seven years ago Alice Manning and Ronnie Fuller are two little girls returning home alone from a birthday party. Later that night a baby is reported missing and a few days later it is discovered dead in a secret hideaway in a local nature reserve. Admitting to nothing and with the truth still a mystery, the two girls were nevertheless jailed as juveniles for the murder of little Olivia Barnes. But now they have been released back into the neighbourhood and another baby has gone missing.. Detective Nancy Porter, who found Olivia's body all those years ago, is now embroiled in the investigation of the new missing child. Memories of that horrific find are uppermost in her mind and suspicion cannot help but fall on Alice and Ronnie, especially once the resemblance of the new missing child is noted. Fighting sex and race discrimination and going out on a limb to discover the baby before it is too late, Nancy Porter earns a place among the literary police detective ranks for her gumption and quick mind. Slow to get going but gradually building up to an unexpected climax, this is a great read from the author of the private detective Tess Monaghan series. - Lucy Watson