ARC AUDIO BOOK REVIEW: The Girls on Chalk Hill by Alison Belsham

Publication Date: June 26, 2023 Format: Audio Genre:  Crime Thriller Narrators: David Chandler

Publisher: Bookouture Audio Length:  12 hours 51 min Buy: Kindle | Audio

Synopsis

They lie on the hillside, wearing matching white dresses, tiaras in their blonde hair. Each of them clutches a red rose. They could be sleeping, but frost shines on the lashes of their wide blue eyes, frozen open forever…

Detective Lexi Bennett is devastated when she finds the two teenagers lying side by side on the quiet green hillside, their throats cut. Convinced this is no ordinary killer, she vows to draw on all her profiling experience to find justice for these beautiful girls who will never have the chance to grow up.

But when the victims are identified as Lucy and Eden Carter, Lexi’s blood turns cold. The sisters were triplets – and the third girl, Paige, is missing. The case suddenly feels frighteningly personal. Lexi was a triplet too, and she and her sisters were abducted as teens. Two of them escaped but Lexi’s dreams are still haunted by memories of the faceless man who took them, and her sister Rose, who she never saw again.

Her boss thinks she’s too close to the case, but Lexi is sure the monster who took her is back with a message. She throws herself into the investigation, hunting down every clue, certain that time is running out to save Paige.

Then she returns home to find the back door open and Rose’s diary on the kitchen table. As she traces her beloved sister’s handwriting, her heart breaking, Lexi swears she will not rest until this brutal monster is caught. Will the diary help her find him before Paige is killed? Or is she walking into a trap designed just for her?

 

Review:

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley.com I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This is a spooky start to a new series.  Lexi has returned to England after a stint with the FBI. Before her first day on the job she stumbles across the bodies of two young girls who had been murdered and posed. Upon further investigation it seems the girls were part of triplets and one is still missing.  This brings Lexi back to her own childhood when her and her sisters, also triplets were abducted. Lexi and one of her sisters escaped but her sister Rose did not and it has haunted Lexi through adulthood. 

There are many similarities between the two cases and Lexi sometimes gets wrapped in her emotions instead of the evidence.  This is a great police procedural with the added benefit of seeing everything going on through the eyes of the killer as well as the police. The narration was excellent and the the story kept me engaged.  I found myself thinking the killer was one person when it was someone entirely unexpected. I'm intrigued to see where this series goes.  

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