‘Suffer The Children’ by Cheryl Rees-Price

Published by The Book Folks,
5 October 2020.
ISBN: 978-1-91351657-1 (PB)

When Natalie Benyon awakes following a wild party with her friends Claire, Dan and Jamie she discovers that her eighteen-month-old baby Ella is missing. The police immediately organise a search of the  surrounding country area and the Welsh village of Bryn Mawr..  

DI Winter Meadows and his DC Tristan Edris focus on the family, and it becomes apparent that Natalie’s lifestyle of drinking and drugs is somewhat precarious for her young child. Unable to ascertain any details of the party as Natalie has no memory of the evening but says that the front door was open when she awoke. The police have two possibilities to pursue. Did Ella leave the house under her own steam, or has she been abducted?

All the usual lines of investigation are pursued. Has Natalie’s ex-husband Dylan Lewis taken the child?  To further confuse the situation, when questioned Natalie’s next door neighbour, George, says he saw Natalie get into a car at 2am!

Drawing complete blanks on their lines of investigation, they look to the house and a search of the garden reveals the skeleton of a small child, maybe three months old and which the pathologist Daisy Moor says has laid there for possibly more than 20 years. And so, DI Meadows now has two cases to solve, one missing child and one murdered child.

The following investigation is fascinating as the team including surly DS Blackwell and DC Valentine seek to trace all the people who have lived in the house in the last twenty years.  Some undertaking.

This is the third book I have read in this series and whilst nothing is given away, I liked the conversation at the beginning of this book and the second in the series relating to the previous investigations. I emphasise that nothing is given way, it just tidies it.  

A compelling and intriguing story, that will keep you turning the pages. I couldn’t put this book down until I had finished it. Highly recommended.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Sirett

Cheryl Rees-Price was born in Cardiff and moved as a young child to a small village on the edge of The Black Mountain, South Wales, where she still lives with her husband and three cats. After leaving school she worked as a legal clerk for several years before leaving to raise her two daughters. Cheryl returned to education, studying philosophy, sociology, and accountancy whilst working as a part time bookkeeper. She now works as a finance director for a company that delivers project management and accounting services. In her spare time Cheryl indulges in her passion for writing. Her other hobbies include walking and gardening which free her mind to develop plots and create colourful characters.