Young boys are kidnapped and then found drained of blood. There are no clues nor witnesses to be found. And, at any time could a boy be taken and killed. For Detectives Dana Tulloch and Mark Joesbury is this a frustrating case and for Dana is it hard to see the bodies of the little boys left on a Thames beach. She has never thought about being a mother, but this case stirred emotions in her she never thought she would have. For Lacey Flint is the case nothing she wants to get involved in, she hasn't recuperated from her ordeal in Oxford and getting involved in a new case is the last thing she wants unless she involuntary gets dragged into it...

Like This, For Ever is the third book in the Lacey Flint series and it's a dark story, just like the other books. The killing of children is, in my opinion, the hardest kind of crime books to read. That and killing of animals. There is just something unthinkable about hurting the innocent that reading books about it is really hard.

The interesting thing about this book is that we beside Mark, Dana, Lacey, the usual characters involved in the book's narrations we also get the narrative of a young boy Barney through the book. He is a neighbor to Lacey, and she is worried when he is out late. He meanwhile is also studying the case of the missing boys and he discovers there are patterns to the murders...

There are a lot of potential suspects in this book, but the story took a different turn than I had expected. I always love the part of the book when everything starts to come together and make sense and in this book. In this book, it's like getting a bucket of ice cold water emptied over your head. The kind of conclusion when you're are taken with the story, but there is also a dread in reading it because you are figuring it out...

Beside the case we Mark trying to get through to Lacey, one would think that the ending of the second book would have solved some things in their relationship, but Lacey seems to be hell-bent on pushing Mark out of her life, despite her feelings for him. I'm however glad that the case from the last book seems to have been closed, I did feel that the previous book ended with some questions never answered when it came to the case in Oxford. I'm pleased that's over. It was also great to have Dana back since she was absent in the previous book and also it was really great to finally meet Huck, Mark's son. Love that name. Huckleberry Joesbury. I think it's probably good that I don't have children...;)

You can read the books as stand-alone, but personally, I feel that you will understand the story and especially understand Lacey Flint better if you read the series from the beginning.

4.5 stars ( )

Young boys are kidnapped and then found drained of blood. There are no clues nor witnesses to be found. And, at any time could a boy be taken and killed. For Detectives Dana Tulloch and Mark Joesbury is this a frustrating case and for Dana is it hard to see the bodies of the little boys left on a Thames beach. She has never thought about being a mother, but this case stirred emotions in her she never thought she would have. For Lacey Flint is the case nothing she wants to get involved in, she hasn't recuperated from her ordeal in Oxford and getting involved in a new case is the last thing she wants unless she involuntary gets dragged into it...

Like This, For Ever is the third book in the Lacey Flint series and it's a dark story, just like the other books. The killing of children is, in my opinion, the hardest kind of crime books to read. That and killing of animals. There is just something unthinkable about hurting the innocent that reading books about it is really hard.

The interesting thing about this book is that we beside Mark, Dana, Lacey, the usual characters involved in the book's narrations we also get the narrative of a young boy Barney through the book. He is a neighbor to Lacey, and she is worried when he is out late. He meanwhile is also studying the case of the missing boys and he discovers there are patterns to the murders...

There are a lot of potential suspects in this book, but the story took a different turn than I had expected. I always love the part of the book when everything starts to come together and make sense and in this book. In this book, it's like getting a bucket of ice cold water emptied over your head. The kind of conclusion when you're are taken with the story, but there is also a dread in reading it because you are figuring it out...

Beside the case we Mark trying to get through to Lacey, one would think that the ending of the second book would have solved some things in their relationship, but Lacey seems to be hell-bent on pushing Mark out of her life, despite her feelings for him. I'm however glad that the case from the last book seems to have been closed, I did feel that the previous book ended with some questions never answered when it came to the case in Oxford. I'm pleased that's over. It was also great to have Dana back since she was absent in the previous book and also it was really great to finally meet Huck, Mark's son. Love that name. Huckleberry Joesbury. I think it's probably good that I don't have children...;)

You can read the books as stand-alone, but personally, I feel that you will understand the story and especially understand Lacey Flint better if you read the series from the beginning.

4.5 stars ( )

This is the third book in a psychological thriller detective series set in the London area featuring Detective Inspector Mark Joesbury and Detective Constable Lacey Flint. It begins three months after the previous book concluded.

In the preceding eight weeks, five boys aged either ten or eleven vanished from in and around their homes. Four bodies have been recovered so far.

Lacey is on a leave of absence from work after the traumatic situation she found herself in during the previous case, and she is in therapy twice a week. She also exercises excessively to take her mind of the bad experience. She can’t get to sleep. She has been avoiding Mark Joesbury because she finds she can’t hold back around him and it is essential to her that she keeps her true and quite damaged self hidden. She tells the therapist she wants to leave the police: “I just can’t do it any more. . . . I can’t look into people’s eyes and see the dark.”

But Lacey gets involved anyway. Her next door neighbor is a young boy, Barney Roberts, who, along with his friends, are the same age as the boys being taken. They are all nervous, but at the same time of an age that they want to sneak out, challenge one another, and take risks. Barney, perhaps on the autism spectrum, is uniquely observant and follows the case on his own, trying to see patterns in the abductions. His single father is gone a lot, and Lacey gives Barney his number in case he needs help.

We also meet Joesbury’s son Huck, who is nine, also friends with Barney and his group.

As usual, Lacey gets into great danger herself, as abductions continue and the mystery of who is doing it begins to unravel, albeit not without many red herrings.

Evaluation: You will find yourself tearing through this dark, gritty page-turner. Bolton does a fine job of keeping the tension very high and the characters interesting. ( )

This was chilling and very twisty and turny. It featured Dana and Barney more than it did Lacey and Joesbury, which disappointed me, but it certainly kept me guessing.

SPOILER

Would 11 year old Barney's dad and teacher really leave him home alone until 1 am twice a week so they could carry on an affair? It seemed so unlikely to me that I thought at one point that was part of the solution. ( )

1056 ( )