Jonah Colley is a sergeant with the Metroplitan Police firearms unit, he has to deal with intense and unpredictable situations regularly as part of his job, but nothing he's done before could have prepared him for Slaughter Quay. When he answers a call from an old friend while on a night out with the other members of his team he has no idea that he is about to walk into a nightmare. He hasn't seen his former friend Gavin McKinney in ten years, not since Jonah's young son Theo went missing and his world fell apart. Gavin and Jonah grew up thick as thieves, and when they both married their wives Marie and Chrissie, they became closer rather than drifting apart. That all ended when Theo went missing and Jonah and Chrissie got divorced.
Jonah has no idea why Gavin would contact him for help, but he can't ignore the call and ends up in a dodgy old warehouse - and discovers four bodies, including Gavin. He tries to help, but ends up attacked himself, nearly dying in the process. When Jonah wakes up in hospital with a potentially permanent injury that seems like the worse news he could have - until he realises that he is a suspect in the deaths. Detective Inspector Fletcher and Detective Sergeant Bennet are investigating the case, and Fletcher in particular seems determined to pin the murders on Jonah. It's a nightmare he can't wake up from, and once he realises there is a potential connection to his sons disappearance Jonah finds himself sucked down the rabbit hole of the case. As Jonah tries to untangle the case building around him, one of the things that DI Fletcher latches on to is why Gavin would call Jonah for help after all these years, and why their friendship drifted apart in the first place. It is a race against time - and Jonah has no idea who he is dealing with.
I read a lot of crime and police procedural fiction, and The lost was one of the stand out books in the genre(s) from the past few years. Simon Beckett has struck the right balance between building his character (Jonah) and the world he lives in, without distracting you with too much detail or adding too much weight to the story. I personally like a story that keeps moving, which means I am quite partial to books where the story starts and then details are added by having glimpses into the past, or having the story introduce pieces of the past through interactions between characters. Not everyone does this well, in some cases it feels like a contrived writing style - but Beckett does it very, very well. Jonah is the focal point of the story (as he should be) but you do get a sense of the other characters, and you feel for them as well as events unfold.
This is a slightly different take on the police procedural, mainly because Jonah is a police officer but he is on the outside of the case. The story as it unfolds was also a welcome change, something I have not come across before, or at least not often enough to recognise what was happening too early in the book. This is the start of a series, and it will be interesting to see where Beckett takes the series from here based on how the book ends (don't worry, no spoilers). The lost starts the Jonah Colley thriller series with a bang.
If you like this book then try:
- When you are mine by Michael Robotham
- Crimson Lake by Candice Fox
- Sticks and stones by Katherine Firkin
- The puppet show by M.W. Craven
- Eeny meeny by M.J. Arlidge
- 2 sisters detective agency by James Patterson and Candice Fox
- When darkness calls by Mark Griffin
- The coast to coast murders by James Patterson and J.D.Barker
Reviewed by Brilla
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