Welcome to Day One of Mel Comley Week where I catch up on reviews of one of my favourite authors books. Due to my lack of reading time recently (and the fact that Mel is a writing machine!!) I have fallen behind on her books. And so to make up for it I am devoting a whole week to her! Day One is a review of Goodbye My Precious Child which is a DI Sally Parker crime thriller.
About this book…
A brutal, senseless murder…
One intrepid detective…
DI Sally Parker and her cold case team are tasked with solving a nineteen-year-old murder case unlike any other. The victim – a six-year-old child.
Who killed little Millie Pickrel? And why?
What motivates a person to murder an innocent child?
Will Sally be able to give the family closure after years of tormented existence?
Other books in this series are:
Wrong Place – a top 50 selling book in the UK,
No Hiding Place
Cold Case
Deadly Encounter
Lost Innocence
Goodbye My Precious Child
My review…
This has been my favourite non-Justice series so far due to the location and the fabulous Sally Parker who never gives up until she gets her man (or woman!). So I was immediately taken off to the Norfolk coast at the start of Goodbye My Precious Child as we meet a single mum treating her children to a much needed family day out in Great Yarmouth. But those wonderful memories are going to be overshadowed by a terrible tragedy when six year old Millie is discovered murdered in her bed later that night. The case is never solved so it’s up to DI Sally Parker and her team to look into it 19 years later when they make some rather shocking discoveries about that horrific crime.
I love true crime novels and tv series especially those that focus on cold cases and whether or not there have been miscarriages of justice and the Sally Parker series feels current and topical due to that comparison. I get very passionate about cases that haven’t been solved knowing that there are families out there who don’t have the closure that they so desperately need and so straight away I felt a huge amount of sympathy for Anna who lost her precious daughter in such a terrible crime. Sally developed a connection with her and with others involved in the case so that she was able to get as much relevant information about the murder as she possibly could, whilst also keeping a professional yet empathetic approach to her goal of finding out the truth. Sally is relatable and likeable which we see through her personal life as that plays a big part in how she works professionally as well. The case itself could be difficult to read about as I do struggle when it’s children who are the victims of such violent deaths but this is the world we live in nowadays unfortunately and Mel handles her cases without too much gruesome detail so that we are aware of what happens but she keeps to the facts of the case.
Goodbye My Precious Child was a quick read for me (one of the things I love about Mel’s books are that they are the perfect length for an afternoons read on the sofa!) as I was desperate to see how she followed the clues to their end result. And for a change, I did guess the who and why but that is never my focus when I read these crime thrillers and plays no part in my overall enjoyment of them!
Goodbye My Precious Child was shocking, emotional and involving from start to finish. One word of warning though if you are an M.A. Comley superfan is to make sure you read the final Justice book (Overdue Justice #19) first and not after this one like I did as there are some little spoilers here that relate to that book!
This is a highly recommended instalment of the Sally Parker series! And hopefully not the last!
This author is in my TBR ❤️ seems so fun 💞
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Well worth a try!
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