I confess that I have never read any work by J A Kerley but the jacket info was enough to convince me it was worth a try. It comes under the Thriller/Suspense category and is justified to be there I can assure you. I picked the book up with absolutely no expectations and was really pleased that I made the choice to read this.This is apparently the 4th book in the Carson Ryder Series however I can only judge based on this book which can quite easily be read as a stand alone novel. Carson Ryder is a Homicide Detective in Alabama and he is called in to help with a case where young girls are disappearing. The only problem is that so far there are multiple girls going missing, but no bodies, no clues and nothing to even indicate what on earth is going on. Unfortunately for Ryder his partner Harry Nautilus is in hospital after being mysteriously attacked and left for dead.Connor Sandhill is an ex cop who now runs a restaurant and is know as the `Gumbo King'. Connor left the police force under circumstances that seemed highly suspicious although he has never confirmed or denied any of the rumours. With no leads and being on his own Ryder decides to enlist the help of Connor as he has a reputation at solving very difficult cases.At the same time Connor finds himself in the unfortunate position of being a babysitter for his ex-girlfriends sister. Little Jacy is only 9 and when Connor finally agrees to watch her he finds juggling that with working on the case. The nightmares he has regarding the missing children become an awful reality when he realises Jacy is missing. Both he and Ryder now have to face the fact that there is a good chance that these little girls will never be seen again. The question is can they wade through the murky waters of bent cops, angry citizens and the mayor to find the person responsible.I must say that the first 3 or 4 chapters were a little on the slow side but by chapter 5 I realised that I needn't have worried as the story flowed and I didn't want to put the book down. The story itself was good but the characters weren't as good as they could have been in my opinion. I absolutely adored Connor Sandhill as a cop that played the rules his own way to get the desired results. Carson Ryder was another story. He lacked something (which I can't put my finger on). It seemed like he never really came into his own and that was a little disappointing but didn't lessen the enjoyment for me. Overall I thought it was a great read and I would definitely recommend and certainly would read other books in the follow up series.
This is my second foray into the world of Carson Ryder and Harry Nautilus and a murky macabre world it is. In Little Girls Lost they are on the trail of an abductor of little black girls. It’s set in Carson and Harry’s familiar world of Mobile, Alabama as theunsolved abductions begin to stir up political and public unrest and the police are baffled. One victim is taken from her own bedroom and it’s almost as if they’d being taken to order. Commodities to be sold to the highest bidder selected from a website of images. However Harry is out of action as he’s confined to hospital and so Carson has to join forces with a dubious ex-cop, Connor Sandhill. Once legendary for his crime solving,he left the police force under a cloud and reinvented himself as the Gumbo King. When one of the missing girls is found in a burning building it’s Sandhill who detects that shewas killed elsewhere and the arson was an attempt to destroy forensic evidence. Then another little girl vanishes, Jacy, who is the child of a family friend but when Sandhill finds out that she may be more than the child of a friend it becomes personal. Set against shady local politics, backhanders and a newly elected female mayor trying to do the right thing, it’s a deftly plotted, fast paced read. Dubious characters and shady preachers crawl out of the woodwork and Sandhill himself is seen as one of them and Ryder is warned not to involve him in the investigation. But Ryder persists and he and Sandhill are soon embroiled in double crossing cops and devious school photographers. However this is the second Ryder and Nautilus book in which the latter is out of the action and I wondered why. Sandhill is a flamboyant character who is determined to find Jacy alive. A real page turner and, as the old cliché goes, I couldn’t put it down. It was an all too convincing plot with a disturbing and frightening central element. Everyone seemed to have their own agenda on the abductions and that was well portrayed. I really liked Sandhill and his gaudy outfits and hats and hope to meet him in another Ryder and Nautilus thriller.
What do You think about Little Girls Lost (2010)?
This was a great book. Apparently the fourth in a series featuring a cop called Carson Ryder in Alabama. I'd not realised that when I bought it but as it turned out it wasn't an issue.It's about little black girls being kidnapped and of course then the race issue is brought into it as the local community don't think enough is being done to locate them. Carson enlists the help of an ex-cop who left under a cloud. It's dead fast-paced and I greatly enjoyed it and will certainly read more by him.It had very, very good reviews on Amazon which is why I bought it and I wasn't disappointed.
—Lynda Kelly
Mobile, Alabama. Young pre-teen girls are being snatched off the streets. Carson Ryder's partner Harry Nautilus is out of action following a mugging so he's out on his own following a trail that seems to go stone cold with every fresh kidnapping.When the body of one of the missing girls is found in a burnt out house, the apparent victim of an arson attack, Conner Sandhill, an ex cop who left the force in mysterious circumstances is brought in to help with the floundering investigation.What unfurls is a sometimes uncomfortable delve into the underbelly of the sex trade bravely taken on by Mr Jack Kerley and he has my utmost respect in his handling ofa difficult subject. Uncomfortable reading which however kept me hooked for two days. Good job sir!”
—Lorna
There are a bunch of books sitting around at work for anyone to help themselves too and I picked this up last week. I've never heard of the writer or series (in fact, I didn't even realise it was a series until part way through). It doesn't really matter. I'm a fan of police thriller/procedural type books but this really just screams generic and cliché the whole way through. I couldn't actually figure out who the main character was supposed to be as Ryder is frequently knocked to the sidelines by other more interesting characters. The plot is simple, the twists pointless and there was a distinct lack of interest in any of the characters.Cranky boss who hates him, playing against the rules, weird baddies with random sexual deviances. It's all been done before and better. It's not terrible and you can read the entire thing in an afternoon but there are better cop based series out there. The early Alex Cross books for a start. Won't be reading any more of these (and possibly more telling - I'll be taking it back into work rather than finding a space for it on my shelves).
—Andy
