[About Reported Missing]
When four-year-old Alfie disappears during a community sports day, Detective Sergeant Darcy Doyle and Detective Inspector Mick Kelly are thrust into their most chilling investigation yet. What begins as a frantic missing-child case quickly escalates when a grim discovery is made in the Dublin Mountains — one that raises more questions than answers.
As media pressure mounts and the investigation stalls, Darcy navigates a maze of lies, shifting suspects and dead ends, where nothing is straightforward and every assumption proves false. With conflicting accounts and a community gripped by fear, the truth refuses to surface — and time is slipping away.
Meanwhile, when his estranged daughter is brutally harmed, crime boss Frank Kavanagh unleashes a hired killer in a private act of vengeance. But blood always leaves a trail. As Darcy and Mick investigate the case of the missing boy, they begin to unravel the truth behind Frank’s retaliatory killings, which threaten to destroy everything he has built.
[My Review]
Reported Missing by Joseph Birchall just published with Poolbeg Press and is described as ‘a dark and addictive detective crime thriller with shocking twists and hidden truths‘. It is the second book in the Detective Darcy Doyle series, following on from Birchall’s brilliant debut In Plain Sight (click for my review), and it is safe to say it is another cracker.
It is the middle of December when four-year-old Alfie’s father can’t locate him following a local hurling session in the park. Alfie loves to puck a ball but his dad would rather be watching a soccer match. When his attention waivers, he loses track of Alfie amidst all the helmeted little GAA players. After the final whistle blows there is no trace of Alfie. He has vanished.
Detective Sergeant Darcy Doyle and her partner Detective Inspector Mick Kelly are appointed as lead investigators. There is a window of opportunity when a child goes missing and with the clock ticking fast, their chances of finding Alfie alive are getting slimmer by the hour. When an unexpected and very tragic discovery is made in the Dublin mountains, they soon realise that something much more sinister is at play.
As the clock moves forward the pressure is on, with both Doyle and Kelly working the case hard. They follow up every lead, chasing down every possible piece of evidence. In the midst of their missing child case they are informed by their boss of a series of murders that leads them down a very unsettling trail. Frank Kavanagh, a well-known crime boss, seems to be in someway connected to these murders but where is the link and why is Doyle so affected by it?
After a particularly tough start in life, Doyle’s ambition was always to work within the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI). Being partnered with Kelly is risky to her reputation but she also knows that beneath his demons and his tough demeanour is a good cop who seeks justice and the truth. Kelly is old-school with his ear close to the ground. He knows whose buttons to push and how to ask for information. Unfortunately for Darcy, some of his more unsavoury contacts are individuals that she herself knows all too well. Both are professionals but both are also struggling personally causing sleepless nights and cranky heads.
The interweaving of the professional and personal lives of Doyle and Kelly is seamlessly integrated into the plot, with sufficient back-story to allow new readers to the series to keep up. Moving at full-throttle over one week in December, Reported Missing is an action-packed story that never lets up. Like In Plain Sight, it is another riveting police procedural/crime fiction novel. This really is a gem of a series with great characters and stellar plots – do check these books out!!
[Thank you to Poolbeg Books for a copy of Reported Missing in exchange for my honest review]
[Bio]
A lifelong writer, Joseph Birchall penned his first play at the age of eleven and later explored screenwriting and fiction, before work and family took precedence.
This novel is the second in the Detective Darcy Doyle series, following the success of the bestseller In Plain Sight. Joseph is a member of the Crime Writers’ Association and lives in Dublin with his wife and three children.
