All The Pretty Ones

A serial killer thriller with nail-biting suspense (Detective Jackie Cooke Book 1)

By: Marnie Riches

Narrated by: Helen Duff

Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

The girl is sitting upright, her dark brown hair arranged over her shoulders and her blue, blue eyes staring into the distance. She looks almost peaceful. But her gaze is vacant, and her skin is cold....

When Detective Jackie Cooke is called to the murder scene, she has to choke back tears. Missing teenager Chloe Smedley has finally been found—her body left in a cold back yard, carefully posed with her bright blue eyes still open. Jackie lays a protective hand on the baby in her belly, who seems to kick out in anguish, and vows to find the brutal monster who stole Chloe’s future.

Breaking the news to Chloe’s mother is heartbreaking, and Jackie is haunted by the woman’s cries. She knows too well the terrible pain of losing a loved one: her own brother went missing as a child, the case never solved. Determined to get justice for Chloe and her family, Jackie sets to work, finding footage of the girl waving at someone the day she disappeared. Did Chloe know her killer? 

But then a second body is found on the side of a busy motorway, lit up by passing cars. The only link with Chloe is the shocking way the victim has been posed, and the mutilated body convinces Jackie she is searching for a disturbed and dangerous predator. Someone has been hunting missing and vulnerable people for decades, and only Jackie seems to see that they were never lost. They were taken.

Jackie’s boss refuses to believe a serial killer is on the loose and threatens to take her off the case. But then Jackie returns home to find a brightly colored bracelet on her kitchen counter and her blood turns to ice. It’s the same one her brother was wearing when he vanished. Could his disappearance be connected to the murders? Jackie will stop at nothing to catch her killer...unless he finds her first....

An absolutely gripping crime thriller. Fans of Kendra Elliott, Rachel McLean, and Val McDermid will love The Lost Ones.

©2022 Marnie Riches (P)2022 Bookouture, an imprint of Storyfire Ltd.

Enjoyable police procedural

A pregnant DS Jackie Cooke is determined to get to the bottom of a series of murders in which only body parts are found. The case takes on a personal note because Jackie’s brother went missing decades ago and has never been found. A bitter boss, cheating husband and a stalker will not get in the way of this determined detective.

Interesting Story Awful Narrator

The story is engaging and drew me in. However it was totally ruined by the awful narrator. She narrates with a sort of vocal fry and clearly isn’t Northern and can’t do a Manchester accent. It really detracts from the story.