From the top of the Ferris wheel, Ellie can see everything. Her life, laid out beneath her. Ellie looks up. She wants freedom.
Down below, her little sister and mother wait, watching as people bundle off the wheel and disappear into the crowd. No Ellie. Must be the next box.
But the Ferris wheel continues to turn.
When Ellie goes missing on the first day of Schueberfouer, the police are dismissive, keen not to attract negative attention on one of Luxembourg’s most important events.
Probation officer, Cate Austin, has moved for a fresh start, along with her daughter Amelia, to live with her police detective boyfriend, Olivier Massard. But when she realises just how casually he is taking the disappearance of Ellie, Cate decides to investigate matters for herself.
She discovers Luxembourg has a dark heart. With its geographical position, could it be the centre of a child trafficking ring? As Cate comes closer to discovering Ellie’s whereabouts she uncovers a hidden world, placing herself in danger, not just from traffickers, but from a source much closer to home.
My thoughts: Cate has left the probation service and her messy family court case behind and moved to Luxembourg with her daughter Amelia and boyfriend, police detective Olivier.
When the older sister of Amelia’s school friend goes missing at the carnival, Cate is dragged into the case via her sort of friendship with the girls’ mother Bridget. Olivier is leading the case but won’t discuss it with Cate.
As the days pass, it becomes increasingly less likely that Ellie will be found, and that’s before Bridget confesses something that changes how the police view the case.
Meanwhile a newly arrived teenage girl attempts to understand her new life and the world of undocumented migrants that she finds herself in.
Clever and relevant, this is another brilliant book from Ruth Dugdall that had me absolutely gripped and will get its hooks into you too. By placing the reader right there in the middle of everything, with sweet Amina who just wants a better life, with terrified Ellie who wants to go home and with Cate, who thought she was doing the right thing in leaving Suffolk, but realises that she was really just running away from her troubles. Cannot wait for the next book.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 