The Stolen Ones by Gwyn Bennett
The Stolen Ones by Gwyn Bennett
English | 2023 | Mystery & Thriller
In a tidy back garden overlooking the ocean, a small wooden flute rests beside a fresh set of footprints. The groan of the garden gate as it swings in the breeze is the only sound. Lucy Carmichael, just eight years old and lost in her own little world as night fell around her, is gone.
When three little girls mysteriously disappear on the windswept Island of Jersey, Detective Winter Labey urgently contacts forensic psychologist Saskia Monet for help on a case that’s spiralling out of control. Known for her unique insight into the darkest corners of the human mind, Detective Labey needs Saskia to profile the twisted kidnapper, who leaves a chilling signature of a wooden flute at the site where each child was taken.
Poring over details from the day Lucy vanished, Saskia is struck by the symbolism of the flute left at the scene, linking it to the disturbing story of the Pied Piper, who steals local children as revenge for unpaid debts. Everyone knows everyone on this island… is the kidnapper someone close to the families, even inside the case, watching their every move? Fearing they’re up against a manipulative psychopath who’s one step ahead of investigators, Saskia rushes to tell the police her findings. But her discovery sees her sidelined from the case, with only Detective Labey still on her side.
Then another child is taken.
… Just as a shocking revelation about Saskia’s own brother, who lives locally, threatens to derail everything. Saskia hasn’t told anyone why she moved to the island, or what kind of monster David is. But as she comes closer to cracking the case, she draws a number of eerie parallels between him and the Piper. Could her worst fears about her family be coming true?
Time is running out for them to find the Piper before he strikes again, but could the key to solving this chilling case be hiding in Saskia’s own dark and tragic past?
