A great story that I cannot praise highly enough. Gripping, edgy, and thrilling fail to describe how great this book is. Recommend it highly to anyone.

I read this book on holiday may by the pool and it was a brilliant story line linking the past with the present. The characters were credible and complex and there were twists and turns a plenty! I will highly recommend this book to friends!

I struggled to get into this initially, however once it got going, it didn't stop! Well recommended.

I can’t believe this is a debut novel it’s so expertly written. Will be watching out for the next book. The book starts with the kidnap of a child from a circus. Years later there is a second kidnapping but is it being carried out by the same person. There was s couple of twists that I did not see coming. The investigator jo comes alive in the book and you really get a sense of who she is and hopefully we might get to see her story unfold in any further books.

An excellent part police procedural/thriller. An excellent debut novel with a fantastic twist I did not see coming. M J Ford is very talented and is an author to keep a look out fot

When she was a child Josie witnessed a child being led away from a fairground by a clown. Thirty years later she is a detective back near where she grew up & a body is found that appears to be the missing child. Josie has always regretted not saying something back then, even though she was a small child & she wants to get involved in the case.

This is a fast paced story that keeps the reader guessing. Josie was an interesting character & I hope to meet her again in a sequel. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book

I loved this book from the start.ups and downs all the way through,never guessed what was going to happen

Thirty years ago Josie Masters witnessed the abduction of Dylan, an 8 year old boy, at a fair by a clown. Now Josie is working as a DS in the Avon and Somerset police when another child goes missing. A body is then found, is it Dylan? Can the two be linked? This is an amazing psychological thriller, quite scary In parts and full of twists and turns. It is impossible to anticipate what is coming next and the ending is totally unexpected. An excellent debut novel and hopefully the beginning of a new series.
Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book..

If your not keen on clowns this book will give you bad dreams. Josie saw a boy led away by a man in a clown mask when she was 8 ,the boy went missing .Thirty years later, as a police officer ,she gets the chance to help solve the mystery of the missing child. Jo as a character is fully formed and you warm to her .She turns out to have complications in both her professional and private life that have an impact on the case. Nothing is as simple as it first seems and things take a horrific twist towards the end ,it keeps you reading . I was gripped . A great debut and I look forward to reading more - hopefully this will ba a series

I love this book and the twists not one but two that you don't see coming, a must read.

I loved this book, I struggled to put it down except when I just needed to think about what I had read, after reading a particular chapter. What I said wasn't very ladylike at all! Was great writing, I was literally reading it so fast as I was enthralled by the pace of the story and the action.
I found all the procedures very interesting and not in too much depth that it became laborious.
Excellent story! Thank you to NetGalley, M.J.Ford and Avon Books for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Brilliant. This story is really well put together and I was totally caught up in it from the start. The descriptions are so good that I could visualise everything. That brought the book to life. Every character is really well described and their back stories given life. The case of Dylan's kidnapping came to a shock ending that I did not see coming. I hope that there will be more books in this series.

I am a huge fan of police procedurals so I was really excite to read it, and it met all my expectations!

A little girl at a carnival sees a clown leading a little boy away... and the little boy is never seen again. Fast forward several years. That little girl is now a police officer and another little boy goes missing in exactly the same way... just as the old skeleton of a little boy is found. Has the clown struck again after all these years?

I loved everything about this book: the plot, the characters, and especially the twist you don't see coming. Great read!

#HoldMyHand has more twists and turns than roller-coaster and I loved every moment of it! MJ Ford offers a well written story that keeps you gripped throughout, there is a lot of emotions generated when reading this book as you have clear empathy to varying characters.
Only downside is that you can't put it down!

Josie is going ti the circus. While she is there she is a witness to a horrifying event, that will haunt her fir the rest if her life.
Josie is grown and works for police department. A child is kidnapped by a man wearing a mask. It's a living nightmare. She is thrown back to that day at the circus. Little does she know, it only gets worse from here.
I enjoyed this story. It kept my attention. I was entertained and I couldn't wait to read the next page. The characters mesh well together. The time sequence is flashing back to Josie as a child and Josie trying to solve the crimes. It all ties in together to a complete ending. Recommended
5 Stars

I really enjoyed this book.

It all starts when an eight year old Josie Masters is the only witness to an abduction of a young boy, wearing a Liverpool football shirt, at the fairground. 30 years later Josie is a police officer and a boys remains are found with what looks like a Liverpool football shirt. Is this the missing boy from 30 years ago ?

Whilst the investigation is proceeding another boy is abducted from a suspect that resembles the abduction 30 years earlier. Are these connected ? Is it the same abductor ? A copycat ?

The story is very much a police procedural book with lots of twists and turns plus a few dead ends. It is a very well written novel and kept me interested right to the end. It definitely keeps you guessing.

I really liked the main character, Josie, and loved how she absolutely relied and trusted her gut instincts, even when everyone else doubted her theories.

I look forward to reading more from this author in the future and hope to see Josie back for some more investigations.

Thank you to Net Galley, Avon Books UK and the author for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
This book hooked me in right from the word go, and kept me turning and turning the pages right up until the last one. This book was packed with everything - mystery, intrigue and twists and turns galore. I don't want to say too much for fear of giving away any spoilers at all. The story felt so alive, I could imagine the main characters, and see the scenes, it was almost as if I was watching a film. In a nutshell, wow what a book, I loved it!

Hold My Hand, starts with an eight-year-old Josie, who visits the circus with her older brother. On a trip to use the toilet, she spots a young boy, in a red shirt being led away by a clown and is the only witness. Years later, she is now a police detective and receives a call when the remains of a child and a red shirt are found.

Wow, this book really sucked me in from the very beginning and kept me hooked page by page. The story is full or lost of twists and turns to keep you guessing. An amazing psychological thriller and quite scary in parts, but I loved it! Fantastical, well-written characters and dialogue and you truly don't want to put the book down until the very end.

An amazing debut and I will definitely be keeping my eye out for more books by M.J. Ford.

Hold My Hand was a clever little thriller with a main character that just seemed to get into more and more trouble but was eminently likable and pulled you along with her.

It is quite an emotive story, Josie witnesses a kidnapping then years later, as a police officer, gets caught up in the case again when a body is found and another child goes missing. Soon things will hit close to home and with everyone looking in all the wrong directions things might not go so well for Josie..

The plotting was taut and the story unfolded beautifully, an addictive writing style and some genuinely engaging characters. I was especially taken with Josie’s relationship to those around her, Boss and ex lover Ben, the now much older detective who questioned her as a child, her brother and his family…the author does an excellent job of absorbing you into their world.

The case itself is unpredictable and felt authentic in it’s twists, the investigative elements rang true and I always like a story where at the end you are saying WELL IF ONLY THEY HAD LISTENED IN THE FIRST PLACE…which actually I did out loud although luckily there was nobody around to hear me…

We also have scary ass clowns, a surprising turn at the end, a edge of the seat resolution and some great writing. Overall excellent. I really enjoyed it, especially as a lot of it was set in my neck of the woods…

Recommended.