EDITOR KATE LYALL GRANT INTRODUCES 'LOST VICTIM' BY BESTSELLING AUTHOR HELEN H. DURRANT

Helen H. Durrant is a master of her craft, and with her latest tense and twisting Detective Rachel King thriller, she shows she's at the height of her powers. From the tension-filled opening scene to the final shocking revelation, Lost Victim had me glued to my Kindle. 

Still suffering for the mistakes of her past, with her troubled private life, childcare issues and crippling self-doubt, Rachel King is an all-too-human, wholly relatable heroine — and possibly my favourite of all Helen's detectives. The moment when Rachel realizes that someone very close to her is missing had me gasping in shock — just one of the many wow! moments in this electrifying crime thriller.

THE SETTING AS TOLD BY HELEN H. DURRANT

DCI Rachel King’s working environment is central Manchester — some distance away from her home in the leafy Cheshire village of Poynton.

Almost all her cases are Manchester based, her latest, Lost Victim, is set in the suburb of Ancoats, only a stone’s throw from the bustle of the shops and the busy Arndale Centre.

This is an area where working class people once toiled in the plentiful cotton mills and lived in the cobbled streets surrounding them. Today, those mills have mostly been demolished or turned into swanky apartments with fancy price tags, well out of the reach of ordinary folk.

I remember the Ancoats of old and the street names. Today when I pass by on a tram or drive into the city, I’m struck by how the area has changed. Part of the Rochdale Canal has even been turned into a marina. Superficially this is a very different Ancoats from that of earlier in the century and Rachel’s cases still throw up the age-old problems.

DETECTIVE RACHEL KING

Mother of two teenage daughters and a toddler son. Divorced from Alan. She lives in the Cheshire village of Poynton — about ten miles from central Manchester.

She is good at her job, gets results but can occasionally make mistakes. One of them was getting involved with a budding villain in her teens. A decision which continues to haunt her.

MEET DETECTIVE RACHEL KING IN A NEW GRIPPING CRIME THRILLER — OUT NOW.