‘The Girl Beyond Forever’ by Adam Loxwood

Independently published,
2 January 2024. 
ISBN: 979-8873696437 (HB)

The Girl Beyond Forever revolves around Thomas Schaefer’s search for his daughter, Amber, who was just eight years old when she was abducted from her bedroom.  Schaefer and his wife Sarah had slept as their child was stolen.  Shortly after the crime, Sarah gave birth to their son and as the years have passed, she has become reconciled to the pain of losing Amber.  Husband Thomas, however, still riven with sorrow, is compelled to keep looking for his lost daughter; a fretful quest that has wrecked his marriage and poisoned his relationship with his young son. 

Schaefer now works as a private investigator, often alongside Metropolitan Police Detective Sergeants Peterson Jean and David Noel in what is described as “an uneasy alliance.”  Schaefer specialises in locating missing people and sometimes joins Jean and Noel on a raid if he thinks it might lead him to someone he’s been hired to find. Schaefer’s daughter, if she’s still alive, will be a young woman now and so his focus is on older teens or adults who have disappeared and who might have been lured into gangs or cults.  The work takes him into a murky underworld of societies that provide the desperate or gullible with a home, but not a haven.  Led by all-powerful leaders, these violent and sadistic communities exist outside societal norms.  Schaefer fears that Amber has been kidnapped by such a gang or cult and whilst he has been able to find and release others, the whereabouts of his child still elude him.

Deadly explosions, frantic chases and tragic deaths abound as Schaefer scours the highways and byways of south London in pursuit of his goal, to find out what happened to Amber and, against all odds, to find Amber herself. The P.I. thinks he knows just about all there is to know about modern day cults and then someone tells him about Totus, and things become much more sinister than even Thomas could have imagined.

The Girl Beyond Forever is narrated in the first-person through Schaefer’s point of view. This is highly effective in terms of conveying the detective’s anguish as well as his unflinching determination to rescue Amber. Disturbing cults and occult rituals are described in terrifying and sometimes graphic detail through Schaefer’s eyes. Tight prose conveys a sense of urgency as the plot accelerates page after breathless page. Yet, alongside the thriller aspect of the novel runs the poignancy of those whose loved ones have been enticed or forced into gangs and cults.

The blend of gothic, horror, thriller, romance and mystery writing ensures that The Girl Beyond Forever delivers an explosive tale that pulls at the heartstrings and frightens the life out you! A super read and highly recommended.
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Reviewer: Dot Marshall-Gent

Adam Loxwood lives in the Weald of Kent. Other than creative writing his passions are making music, world cinema and contemporary art. The Artemis File is a sequel to his Debut novel, The Teleios Ring.  The third and final novel in the Vector trilogy, The Oedipus Gate, is currently in manuscript.” 

adamloxley.com

Dot Marshall-Gent worked in the emergency services for twenty years first as a police officer, then as a paramedic and finally as a fire control officer before graduating from King’s College, London as a teacher of English in her mid-forties.  She completed a M.A. in Special and Inclusive Education at the Institute of Education, London and now teaches part-time and writes mainly about educational issues.  Dot sings jazz and country music and plays guitar, banjo and piano as well as being addicted to reading mystery and crime fiction.