Another missing child for DCI Darke and her team to find,can they solve the mystery of her disappearance. Lots of twists and turns and a few surprises. A good read.

I want to start by thanking NetGalley for my eARC for an honest review. I am sure I write this after reading every Michael Wood, DI Matilda Darke novel, the superb strong character driven mystery is wonderful. Bringing together this group to solve yet another harrowing mystery while updating us all on a past that any loyal reader would not let go of. i look forward already to the next! 4.5 stars.

Michael Wood's latest addition to his brilliant Sheffield based crime series, featuring DCI Matilda Darke and her Homicide and Major Enquiry Team (HMET), is a emotionally harrowing humdinger. It brings back all of Matilda's demons and guilt as a young boy in Marseille, France, enters a police station claiming to be Carl Meagan, and to compound matters further, a young 9 year old girl, Keeley Armitage, from Stannington, has been abducted after going missing from outside a supermarket. Her mother, Linda, falls apart after receiving a £50 000 ransom demand over the phone. Craig, the father, struggles to hold himself and the family together, while his 14 year old daughter, Jodie, does her best, trying to look after her 4 year old disabled brother, Riley, who requires 24 hour care.

This is not a family that can afford a ransom, they can barely makes ends meet, with Riley's care the focus of their attention and finances, so why would anyone abduct Keeley? One of the thoughts is that this ransom is merely to draw focus away from something dreadful having already occurred to Keeley. With Matilda's boss, ACC Valerie Masterson, facing her own troubling family issues, she is going to have to cope on her own more, and despite the support of best friend, Adele Kean, and others, she is going to find herself stretched to the very edges of her limits, considering the unthinkable, that of betraying her colleagues. DC Ellen Devonport is a great Family Liaison Officer (FLO), placed amidst the Armitage family, and as the police try to locate the missing girl, she gets to know the family better, feeding the information back to the police. She grows increasingly unsettled and disturbed, what exactly are the secrets that fester within this family?

A major highlight of this crime series is the focus on the HMET police team, the likes of DS Sian Mills with her lifesaving snack drawer, the relationships, the way they go over and beyond to work the case and support each other, although they can bring their problems too, such as with DS Aaron Connolly. DC Scott Andrews's relationship with Chris develops further as they look for a place to live together, and there are other personal developments too, even Matilda herself is not immune. When team members find themselves in grave danger, you can see just how far they will go for each other, for example, where DC Ranjeet Deshwal refuses to give up, putting his life in danger to try and save a friend and colleague. This is a terrific read, dark, intense, and suspenseful with its theme of stolen children, guaranteed to push all of Matilda's buttons. Highly recommended. Many thanks to HarperCollins and One More Chapter for an ARC.

Wowzer this book was great I loved it. My first read by this author and I will definitely be reading more. I got sucked in from page one and didnt put it down until I had finished. A really enjoyable book with just the right amount of tension and plot twists to keep you guessing. Thoroughly enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it. Totally deserves 5 stars it was awesome.

Oh my goodness what a roller coaster of a read, just brilliant, full of twists and turns with great characters and I was gripped from the very first page, a brilliant well written thriller with a nail biting and edge of seat ending.

Michael Wood is a new author to me but I will definitely read more from him in the future and I can thoroughly recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Collins (OMC) for giving me the opportunity to read this fantastic book.

Another fantastic addition to the, DCI Matilda Darke, by Michael Wood.
A heartbreaking child abduction case is the newest crime that had Matilda and her team on the hunt. Memories of a similar disasterous has Matilda hyper focused on delivering a different outcome for this newest victims family.
Harrowing and heart wrenching until the very last page. This is one of the best police procedures series I have ever read. I hope there are many more DCI Matilda Darke books to come.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advanced readers copy.
#netgalley

One child is found, one child is missing.
Keeley disappears on her way from the supermarket. Soon the kidnapper calls demanding a ransom. Girl's family is shaken with grief and sadness. When detective Matilda Drake begins her investigation the hunt begins. She's determined to solve the case.

This is my first book by Michael Woods but I'm sure it's not the last. I just love the way he builds up the tension. It's brilliantly written and the characters are just so real. It was heartbreaking to see all the things Keeley and her family were going through. Once I started reading I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended.

Michael Wood you have outdone yourself on Stolen Children!

I could not turn the pages fast enough, had to remind myself to keep breathing as I rushed to the ending as the tension kept increasing.

Matlida Darke is one of my favourite series, she is so compassionate and almost nothing stops her and her team.

This time they are trying to find one child who is missing, one who was missing has reappeared .

Just the tip of the iceberg.

I trusted many , suspicious of a few and yet I was wrong.

Thanks to NetGalley , Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter for a captivating read!

Yet another STONKER of a book from Michael! If you start reading this book and think ‘wonder if it’s another child going missing wonder if the father’s involved?’ kind of book then think again, it’s much much more (and better) The story hurtles along at a frantic pace yet is often heart breaking. I found this book to be more dark and disturbing in places and the story is made even better if you’ve invested the highly recommended time in the series so far. I love these characters, I miss them when i’m not reading about them and I can’t wait for the next in this highly recommended series. With thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an advance copy.

It was a good book. I enjoyed reading it. It was full of action and adventure. I liked the variety of characters in it. It was a well written book.

Oh what a brilliant book. This series just gets better and better!

I was hooked from the first page and read until the early hours as I just couldn't put it down.

The plot was absolutely heart breaking and goes to show we really don't know what goes on behind closed doors.

At times I was moved to tears but there is some lighter moments too.

A fantastic series that I am always recommending to friends.

Can't wait for the next one now.

Wow! Loved this book. I’d not read the others in this series but this didn’t spoil my enjoyment of this book.

This book starts off with a powerful prologue that grabs you straight away with a boy going into a French Police Station saying he is a child who has been kidnapped. Then straightaway we lead into another child going missing in Sheffield, England.

This book gripped me from the very first page and never let me go. A great storyline that revealed itself as the book went on. Alongside this you have a great group of characters with interesting lives that you want to know more about. Plenty of action throughout the book with great interaction between the characters, and some good dialogue. Then on top of this we have a great ending that had plenty of suspense and tension. For me this book had everything and I strongly recommend it

Matilda Darke is a great lead character and this book has made me want to go away and get hold of the other books in this series. Most definitely a five star read.

I would like to say thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing a copy of this book to me for an open and honest review.

This book was much stronger than the previous book in the series. It begins as a young child appears at a French police station, stating he is an English boy who went missing several years before; a case that has haunted DCI Matilda Darke ever since, as she blamed herself for the botched handover of the ransom money.

We then switch to the UK, and Matilda's team is called in as another child is missing, and the mother has had a ransom demand, although the family, struggling with a severely disabled child, have no spare cash to pay it. From there the story spirals, the tension rises and the culmination is incredibly sad.

Well told, pacy and exciting, I enjoyed this book very much. It swung the reader around, first suspecting one person, then another, then querying what crime had actually been committed. Excellent.

Thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins UK and One More Chapter for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review

I love this series by Michael Wood. DCI Matilda Darke is one of my favourite characters. This series never fails to
Impress. This was a real page turner, and featured all the elements that we have come to love about this series.

Another cracker from Michael and I am eagerly awaiting the next instalment

OMFG!  Michael Wood opens Stolen Children with a hell of a prologue, I’m sure my heart literally stopped! finally a mystery that has run throughout the Matilda Darke series is revealed (but it’s been so worth the wait). I have loved every one of Michael Wood’s Matilda Darke books but I have to say ‘this is the best one yet’......well maybe until the next one! 

Matilda is one of my favourite fictional Detectives I love the way her character is evolving, she’s strong, feisty and determined and yet she has an air of vulnerability, which comes from a cold case that haunts her every waking moment, that of Carl Meagan, a young boy who was kidnapped. Unfortunately Matilda screwed up the ransom drop which led to the kidnappers disappearing along with Carl. Stolen Children opens with the disappearance of nine-year-old Keeley Armitage, who on her way home from a supermarket vanishes without trace. With similarities to the case of Missing Carl, Matilda is more determined than ever to bring Keeley home, and if she doesn’t? well let’s just say it’s the case that could finally break her. 

The case is a disturbing one and one which has a big impact on Matilda and her team, you feel their frustration, their feelings of helplessness as the hours tick by and the likelihood of finding Keeley alive diminish. One of the strengths of this series are the regular characters in Matilda’s team, these are characters with feelings, genuine emotions, and depth which you can find sometimes lacking in a crime thriller. Despite the dark plot, there are moments of humour between Matilda and her team which serve to balance the darkness of the plot.

At times I found Stolen Children to be a disturbing read, due to the nature of the crimes, this book felt much darker and more shocking than previous books in the series, although this may sound wrong I felt it made the book all that more intriguing. There are so many clever twists and turns in this sorrowful tale, Michael Wood is a brilliant story teller, he manages to build on the tension and suspense whilst delivering a plot that’s shocking but incredibly gripping. This series is going from strength to strength, the only downside of reading Stolen Children i can see is I now have a long wait until the next book in the series. Highly recommended.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the arc, which I have enjoyed reading.
I raced through this book, only put it down to sleep last night. I was totally engrossed in the storyline and the characters and found it an extremely sad story.DCI Matilda Darke and her murder team go from strength to strength with each book. Another outstanding police thriller form Michael Wood. Stolen Children could be one of his best books. Really looking forward to the next episode.
Highly recommended.

I'm a big fan of Matilda and the team so I was looking forward to this latest installment.
And I wasn't disappointed! The hugely emotive storyline of an alleged child kidnapping was gripping and tied in nicely with Matildas past-as well as there being a possible development in this case.
Michael Wood is a great writer and I always zoom through his books. I highly recommend this one!

DCI Matilda Darke has got a hellish case, a young girl has gone missing. Reminders of a previous case where a young boy went missing and was never found and this case opens up painful wounds for her. With her team can she find the little girl before time runs out.
Now I didn’t realise this was the 6th book in a series and it made no difference to me as I bloody loved it! The humour between the characters was on point and the storyline was brilliant! So guess now has five books added to her tbr pile and will no doubt carry on reading books in the wrong order! Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

I’m completely hooked on the Matilda Darke series which I only began reading at the back end of last year. This is book 6.

A young girl goes missing - apparently kidnapped - and immediately folk in the know around Sheffield wonder if this is the Carl Meaken case happening all over again.

With a cast of familiar police men and women from the homicide team, whose romantic linkages are becoming more entwined, it is fun to follow the case with these friends. Alongside the main case there are interesting flashbacks to previous cases in the series - it is probably best to read these books in order. But be warned. Once you start you won’t stop. And as for Carl Meaken .... well!

Thanks to NetGalley for sharing this book pre publication in exchange for a fair review.

Another thrilling DCI Matilda Darke book from Michael Wood. This was so thrilling it took my breath away! I never imagined who the killer was or why. Nine year old Keeley vanishes without trace and suddenly Matilda Darke is taken back in time to the nightmare that was the case of the missing Carl Meagan. Carl was never found and Matilda blames herself every day. She can't let it happen again and is determined to find Keeley alive. Michael Woods writing is amazing, one of the best in this genre. I really enjoyed this book and can't recommend it enough.
Thanks to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this book.