Book Review; Stolen Lives by Joseph Lewis.

One of those indie books that’s a joy to read.

The story is centred around several locations in America, which I always find fascinating to read about. Joseph Lewis pulls you in and takes you with him everywhere he goes.

It’s a hard-hitting crime thriller focussing on a spate of kidnapped children over several years. And then, after being missing for two years, they turn up dead. Forensic evidence shows that they’ve been horribly abused.

The team aren’t getting any breaks, but the boys keep going missing. The dice are loaded in favour of the bad guys. Until there’s a witness to the brutal killing of two lads in the burning heat of the Navajo desert. George, a young Navajo boy with heightened intuition and observational skills taught by his grandfather in the old ways, is thrown into terrible danger and agrees to help the police.

At this point, and later in the showdown, we have to release our hold on reality just a little bit regarding how much rope a group of kids would be given in police procedures and operations. However, that doesn’t distract from a great story well told.

Mr Lewis’ characterisation and descriptive powers are great. He writes his people with enormous warmth. However, he never goes down the road of over-sentimentalising when it comes to the victims. This is hard and gritty, and he keeps it that way.

The book is well-written so that you aren’t stumbling over typos and is fine read on a cold night–or even a hot one.

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