I really enjoyed this book. It was not predictable at all and had the reader guessing all the way through. The main characters of Teàrlach Paterson and Dee were likeable and competent investigators.
The more they found out the more questions it raised but happily all were answered by the end and no loose ends were left which is something I particularly dislike in a book..
A clever storyline that kept the reader fully engaged, looking forward to reading more or their cases.

"The Girl in the Loch" is the first book of the Private investigator Tearlach Paterson series by Andrew James Greig. This is my first reading experience of this author and here is my account of how I found this book and the author.

Teàrlach, a private investigator operating out of Glasgow, is approached by known criminal Tony Masterson to find out the fate of his missing daughter Lillibeth and the people responsible for the crime, when a new video of the girl's former nanny being tortured is found online.
It has been three years since the incident and Masterson hopes to get closure one way or the other.

Teàrlach's investigation starts with the remote house overlooking the loch where the Mastersons live and he traces the footsteps of all who had contact with the girl and the investigation. However, he is forced to go through a maze of misdirections and lies so convoluted that they make little sense. To further complicate things, a few people associated with his enquiry are murdered one after the other and the avenues leading to the truth are almost shut down. And Teàrlach is also forced to deal with the computer whiz Dee, who is on Masterson's payroll and is shadowing him electronically every step of the way.

What had really happened to the girl? Why are those people getting murdered now? Do they have anything to do with Lillibeth's disappearance? Does Teàrlach solve this most convoluted case?

I have read few books which are set in Scotland and so this small preview into the country was a very welcome experience for me. Author Greig, through his vivid descriptions of the untamed and wild beauty of the region, has brought it to life in his reader's minds. He has also infused the narration with a sense of malevolence and foreboding with the use of local legends and lores that revolve around the loch. The story felt dark and ominous most of the time.

The various characters of the story are also unique; every one of them have pockets of light and dark within them. Even the psychotic criminal Masterson has a saving grace in that he deeply loves his daughter. Teàrlach is a straight shooting, relentless pursuer of truth and comes across as a likable character. Dee has questionable intentions at times and does not act very wisely most of the times. Nevertheless, she is interesting and gives the story a humanitarian facet. The dynamics between these characters and various other small characters make up for an intriguing narrative which majorly holds its reader's attention.

The narrative was tense, gripping, intriguing and chilling; the mystery surrounding the missing girl and other unexplained things happening around the loch draw the readers completely into the place. Despite of all these things going for it, it was not a compelling reading for me. I was not pulled into the story as much as I would have liked to.

Nevertheless, this is still a book which has an intriguing story set against a wonderfully foreboding atmosphere and will be a treat for people who like to read such books.

A gripping thriller set in the highlands of Scotland. The book pulls you in from the very first page and transports you to Scotland. A brilliant read and can't wait to read more in the series.

Plenty of action in this investigation. Tearlach is a private investigator, asked to investigate the disappearance of a young girl 3 years before. Her father is a criminal boss and used to getting his own way by fair means or foul. but does want to know what happened to his little girl who disappeared without a trace when playing outside. The police investigation had never provided answers.
There are a couple of locations, Glasgow and a lochside village in the depths of winter, a couple of crimes along the way and atmospheric descriptions which allow to picture the locations perfectly. I like the characterizations, the main ones have their own complicated personal histories which do ring true.
There are twists in this plot, most of which I did not see coming . All in all a great read and I look forward to reading more from this team
Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

This is my first book by this author. It took me a little while to get into the book, but then I was hooked. There are so many twists and turns! You must read to find out the truth😊

Tearlach Paterson is a Private Investigator, with expertise in finding missing children. His latest client wants help in solving the case of his missing daughter.

When 3-year-old Lily Masterton went missing from her home in the isolated Highlands, a massive search found no trace of her. Lily’s father. Tony Masterton, is a notorious criminal. Could someone have taken Lily in order to get back at him?

It seems that someone doesn’t want Tearlach to find out what happened to Lily and will stop at nothing to keep the truth hidden. Can he finally solve this case and give Lily’s parents the resolution they desire?

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book gave me the shivers. It was so good and twisty. I enjoyed this one another and hope to read more by this author. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

*4.5 Stars On My Instagram Account*

"Dee... I'm working with Sherlock - I'm sorry, Tearlach, on this case."

"Yes, it does sound like that. You'll be Watson then, I presume."

Just an example of the bit of humor in the mostly atmospheric gritty often dark Scottish crime drama mystery The Girl In The Loch (Book One) by vivid, often heartbreaking descriptive prose author Andrew James Greig. Here's a snippet of that writing,

"Tearlach heard the cry of pain from his car. There was a scale to a woman's anguish, from irritable to devastated. No shapeshifting expression could disguise a mother losing a child. It was a sound seared on his soul,and not one he could fail to recognize every time he heard it."

Tearlach Paterson, a private investigator with a conscience, is hired by deadly Scottish mobster boss, Tony Masterson, to find his daughter Lilibet who disappeared 3 years ago when she was 3 years old. Most believe she fell into the sea loch near their sprawling mansion but a body was never found. Tony demands the P.I. work with his leather clad, tattooed, motorcycle riding computer hacker Dee (mainly so Dee can track Tearlach), but soon it's clear Dee is working for Tony because she's trapped...but why?

This well plotted mystery includes a gruesome murder, Lilibet 's missing Nanny, a depressed alcoholic mother, dangerous Scottish Travelers, an elderly secretive midwife and a graveyard of small bones. How it all comes together is with Tearlach 's refusal to give up or give in.

This mystery pulled me in and kept me reading until the end. Yes, there are crazy twists, suspenseful moments and a WTF reveal at the end but it was the writer's evocative words that kept me enraptured with The Girl In The Loch.

I received a free copy of this book from #stormpublishing via #NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Three years ago Lily Masterton went missing from her loch-side home. Extensive searches failed to find any trace of her. PI Teàrlach Paterson has a bit of a reputation for finding lost children so when Lily's father asks him to investigate he takes the job, in spite of Tony Masterton's shady reputation. It also seems he is not just intent on hiring Paterson. He has an employee who is expert at surveillance & IT. Dee is also going to be along for the ride.

This is a well written tale with some fascinating characters. The author has a talent for creating a setting & an atmosphere that keeps the reader hooked. Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book. I'll be eagerly looking out for the next in the series.

I loved Andrew's previous work so was very excited to read The Girl in the Loch. I read it over the course of a few nights, feeling it drag me right in. The story is fantastic, the layers are what makes this a real standout book for me. All of the characters are likeable and very believable, I especially liked Dee. This is a great start to a new series and I look forward to reading more.

When a young girl goes missing, everything stops for one family. Three years later, they are still searching for answers. Tearlach Paterson is called in to investigate. But his investigation seems to raise more questions than answers and the more he digs, the more he finds. As the case heats up, it seems that someone wants him out of the way - but why? One final discovery will blow the entire case wide open, and the case of the missing young girl will be laid bare for the entire world.

What a read! I absolutely LOVED this one! I cannot wait to see what happens in book two. The twists, the turns, and the case all boiled together to make the perfect read.

The Girl in the Loch is an eerie, atmospheric mystery set on the banks of Loch Lomond. I really loved how the scenery and vibe of the remote Scottish highlands became a side character in the story.

Private detective Tearlach Patterson is approached by a potential client whose daughter disappeared three years ago. Tony Masterson is a dangerous man, involved in the Scottish underworld. One does not want to get on his bad side, which makes navigating this case extremely difficult for Tearlach.

As he searches for Tony and his wife's missing daughter, presumed drowned, he finds plenty of things that don't add up. He is both aided and blocked by Tony's employee Dee, who is a whiz with computers. As time goes on, Dee and Tearlach grow closer, although Dee will always be loyal to Tony. Her life depends on it.

As stated, I love the setting and scenery, and the author describes this very eloquently. I think this may be the beginning of a series. I haven't made up my mind how I feel about Tearlach, Dee, and Chloe, a former client who Tony rescued and offered a job. I remain open minded that I may grow attached to them. I was a little disappointed in the mystery itself. It seemed pretty obvious to me about halfway through the book what the solution would be.

I am curious enough about the author, who is a good writer, will develop these characters and I would read the next novel. I would rate this 3.5.

I appreciate NetGalley, Andrew James Greig, and the publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Girl in the Loch by James Greig

The disappearance of a three-year-old girl from her isolated Highland home one summer shook the nation. A massive police search involving divers in the loch and dogs combing the moorland and mountains had failed to find Lily Masterton.

Three years later, the world may have forgotten the blond-haired girl with the big blue eyes, but her grief-stricken parents hire Private Investigator Teàrlach Paterson – an expert in finding missing children – to bring their precious Lily home.
I found this book very hard to put down.
A brilliant plot and great character in PI Tearlach Paterson .

Can I just start my review by saying that in my very humble opinion, Andrew James Greig has to be one of the most underrated writers on the British crime scene. Before I even start waxing lyrical about The Girl In The Loch, you should not only read this book, but also please check out Whirligig, The Devil’s Cut and A Song Of Winter too. You can thank me later. Right, let’s crack on…

Despite my normal aversion to reading any crime book with ‘girl’ in the title, thankfully common sense, and a love of this author’s writing prevailed. Phew. The book begins with what would appear on the surface to be a fairly typical plotline, but hang on to your hats guys, because that is totally not how this one plays out. This has to be one of the most forensically well plotted thrillers that I have read for an age, so that a seemingly linear tale of missing, presumed dead, child actually becomes increasingly more complex, with a wonderful tangential expansion to keep both the investigating private detective and, more importantly us, on a knife edge throughout. The story takes some wholly satisfying and surprising turns, that really heighten the intrigue surrounding Lily’s disappearance, and the lengths that some of the characters will go to in withholding and concealing evidence, to the detriment of both previous investigations by the police, and the current privately engaged one. I love a thriller that messes with your perception of a crime, and seeks to unsettle what you believe to be the truth, peeling the layers of deception back cleverly and slowly, until the real truth is unveiled. The pacing and plotting is just superb and that is not the only delight of this book.

In a previous review of one of Greig’s thrillers I alluded to his similarity to Benjamin Myers (himself the author of some truly dark and unsettling thrillers in years gone by) in the fact that Greig has the most beautiful rendering of place and atmosphere. The lyrical quality to his depiction of this remote and bleak Scottish landscape is just so eloquent and beautiful, capturing perfectly the raw beauty and natural dangers in this inhospitable setting. You find yourself mildly hypnotised by these perfectly placed interludes of naturalistic description, before being tugged back in to the harsh reality of the investigation itself. As a delightful bonus, he also weaves into the plot delicious little vignettes alluding to Scottish folktales of kelpies and the like, making the loch and its sinister and rugged setting , inhabit the book as a separate entity and character of its own.

I’m hoping with every fibre of my being that this heralds the start of a series featuring PI Teàrlach Paterson as I loved his slightly roguish yet taciturn character. Finding himself at the behest of Tony Masterton, a Glasgow gangster and father of the missing child, Paterson has a wonderful way of assuaging Masterton, yet remaining totally fixed on his investigation when Masterton seeks to manipulate him. This hard-headed determination on Paterson’s part brings him into conflict with the mysterious Dee, Masterton’s I.T. expert, who is assigned to help Paterson. Dee provides a teasing and testing counterbalance to Paterson, disarming him at every opportunity, being very gregarious, and haring about on her motorbike. She is purely belter throughout, and a wonderful foil to the more serious nature of Patterson. There’s also Chloe, who run’s Paterson’s office, who has a tough past, but a steely nature, particularly when it comes to Dee, and also a renegade band of travellers who not only make a solid connection with Dee, but pleasingly take the plot in a whole new direction, which adds another layer of interest overall.

So what more can I say? I think you’ve all gathered that I really enjoyed The Girl In The Loch not only for its clever and intricate plotting and characterisation, but also the careful interweaving of some truly beautiful naturalistic depiction of this unique setting. Suffice to say if you like your crime thrillers dark, compelling, and with engaging characters, you need look no further. Highly recommended.

This was an enjoyable read for me and I would recommend. I enjoyed the plot and absolutely loved the imagery the author created, at times I felt like I was there at the loch myself, breathing in its otherworldly mist.

However, it did take me some time to warm to Tearloch as a character and I found the authors linguistic choices a little OTT at times, like he wanted to flex his broad vocabulary. Sure, I'll be better at Scrabble now thanks to highlighting words on my kindle and using the dictionary function (yes, I needed to do that and I'm not completely thick, I got A* in English language GCSE!) but I felt it really interrupted the flow at times and, if it had been a print copy, it would have ruined my enjoyment. Yes, I probably need to be smarter but I just want to make people aware that not everyone will be able to follow the story as easily due to the language.

Once I'd got about half way through and persevered, I really started to enjoy it. Dee was the redeeming character for me, she was witty and rebellious but also had tender, vulnerable moments. Tearloch didn't have as much depth as her. Although if there's another book maybe that's something that will be explored.

If you can get past the somewhat pretentious language then it is a very enjoyable read overall with a fresh plot, interesting characters and a little Gaelic mythology thrown in for fun.

This was a murder mystery set in the Scottish Highlands, and the first book featuring a private investigator named Teàrlach Paterson.

The Scottish Highland setting appealed to me, and I was drawn into the atmosphere of this book from the start. It was obvious that there was a mystery, a potential tragedy, concerning a little girl named Lilybet. I thought the author brought the characters and the story to life very well, and found myself picturing the scenes in my head as I was reading. I did become invested in this story, and it is the type of book that I'd probably read again.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy to review.

The setting for this really lends itself to trauma. The big fancy house at the side of the deep and mysterious loch, the locals who hate the building and believe in the myths and the gangster whose daughter goes missing.
With a vast range of excellent characters from Paterson to the travellers, the hacker and the gangster every single one is brimming with personality, has just enough backstory to make them real and interactions are consistently well plotted to maintain those personalities throughout.
Fast paced with some beautiful twists.
Loved it!

PI Teàrlach (pronounced Charr Loch - hence his nickname of Sherlock) Paterson was contacted by Tony Masterton, a wealthy but dangerous man, living in the Scottish highlands, to discover what had happened to his three year old daughter, Lilibet, who went missing three years prior. Tony and his wife Samantha had been shattered by her disappearance, and the fact that the police couldn't find any evidence of Lilibet anywhere. Living beside the loch with the rumours and wild stories that came with it, left those who weren't locals, disturbed. But the local people had a healthy respect for the loch...

When the bones of a small child were found in the loch, Teàrlach immediately suspected it to be Lilibet. But the DNA didn't match. It was another child; this one had nothing that resembled Tony and Samantha. When the DNA matched that of a recent murder victim, the puzzle became deeper. Teàrlach worked beside Dee, another who was working for Masterton, but wasn't at all sure he could trust her. Would they find Lilibet? What would be the outcome in this tragic, confusing case?

The Girl in the Loch is an outstanding thriller by an author new to me. Andrew James Greig kept the pace moving fast in this 1st of the Private Investigator Teàrlach Paterson series, and I'm very much looking forward to #2. The gritty tension held me from the start, and I certainly didn't expect the massive twist at the end! Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

A lovely story that twists and turns that you don't want to put down, needless to say I read the book in a day. Some interesting thoughts are stimulated by this book such as how much would anyone give to have a child. Thanks to NetGalley and Storm for the chance to ARC this book.

Grieg's characters are standouts in this new investigative series and the loch-side setting provides a pervasively dark and moody backdrop to the mystery of a missing child.

🗻Good, suspenseful missing person/murder story🔍

I'm new to this author and was drawn to The Girl in the Loch by the Scottish setting. Sure enough, the mystical, moody Highland setting played a key part in the thrills and chills as a private investigator works on the cold case of the missing child of a gangster and opens the lid on new threats, arson and murder. The writing was solid except for a few brief attempts to philosophize, and the character count remained fairly low to make the read easy. I thought the plot was well thought out and executed and would definitely read more in this new series.

Superstition and Scottish myth put some scares into Dee, the motorbike-riding female hacker, who I considered the most intrepid of the characters involved in the investigation.
Both Dee and p.i. Tearlach (for the Gaelic-challenged, just think of him as Charlie!) have a careful respect for Tony Masterton, their employer, who's proved he's earned his reputation as ruthless. But Masterton has his tender side, too, and I liked that he's not just a one dimensional figure. The introduction of Travellers and their mobile caravan lifestyle intrigued me.

There were enough twists and red herrings to keep me constantly guessing, limited violence and good action sequences, including a gripping flight to escape "she who inhabits the loch." Those Scottish mists really ratcheted up the terror!

Thanks to Storm Publishing and NetGalley for sharing a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest opinion.