I would like to thank Netgalley and Amazon Publishing UK for an advance copy of Dead Lock, the eighth novel to feature DI Nick Dixon of the Somerset police.

Nick and his partner Jane are on holiday in the Lake District when 10 year old Alesha Daniels goes missing. As Jane is Alesha's protection officer she returns to Somerset immediately but it's only when a second child goes missing that Nick returns because he knows her grandfather.

I thoroughly enjoyed Dead Lock which is tense read with some amazing twists. Mr Boyd does an excellent job of conveying the stress and tension involved in looking for a missing child and then takes the plot in directions the reader could not anticipate. I was absorbed from start to finish, wondering what the outcome would be. I found it interesting that I was so hooked despite there being no murders until much later in the novel as, normally, it's the whodunit aspect of a novel that attracts me and that even when the bodies turn up they seem almost incidental in comparison to what happened to the missing girls. I'm impressed at Mr Boyd's ability to draw the reader in and hold them captivated.

The early days of the hunt for Alesha take place without the protagonist, Nick Dixon. I thought I would miss him but it works really well, conveying the urgency of the officers and the well oiled procedure they implement. I found it fascinating. When Nick returns the novel takes a different turn. The urgency is still there but the focus changes from the physical search to the who and why. It takes Nick's lateral thinking and ability to see the essentials to make the necessary breakthroughs. He more or less solves the case singlehandedly. Is this a fault? It depends on your point of view. It's probably not very realistic but it makes for a satisfying read.

Dead Lock is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.