The Cove

Wow wow wow another book to keep me guessing until the last few chapters I cannot wait to read the next two.
I would never have thought there was so much murder and mayhem in the beautiful Cornwall 😆

This is book one in the Devil’s Cove trilogy and sets the action off when a child is found washed up on the beach. A four year old boy called Noah went missing from his back garden a little over two months ago and the old lady walking her dog, thinks it might be his body – that is until she sees the boy’s face and he opens his eyes. He isn’t dead, but nor is he the missing four year old! Another mum who lost her son some seven years ago, called Carrie, has had to finally move on with her life and remarried and had a daughter Melissa who is now four. He was lost at sea, whilst surfing in the shallows and she took her eyes off him for just a second. At the time she was called an unfit mother and has to live in the small town with her neighbours and their opinions, ever since.

Now, it seems her son Cal has miraculously reappeared alive. Something horrendous has happened to him in the years since he disappeared. He is really skinny, with scars all over his body and x-rays show he has several old broken bones. He isn’t speaking and is really scared of any sound or stranger. He doesn’t even recognise Carrie to start. Doctors say it is post traumatic mutism due to his experiences, but the police want to find out answers as to where he has been and who kept him captive. Cal is now a young teenager and she has a new husband and daughter for him to be introduced to. How he will react to this new family set-up is worrying for Carrie. She has no idea what happened to him, nor does she know if he is right in his head, as she can’t communicate with him.

Her neighbour’s dog vanishes in horrendous circumstances and Carrie finds out that Cal has been speaking, but only to her daughter, and he has also been disappearing when everyone is asleep. Where he has been going is worrying to Carrie. Is the person who took him a stranger to the area or are they a local? The thought that it might be a local is even more disturbing than she can imagine. She is desperate for Cal to speak to her, to let her know who took him and what they did to him, but the answers may well be far from what she wants to hear! Someone hiding in the shadows of the locals and the village is hunting for a replacement for what they consider to be their property.

The book gives you plenty of clues as to who may be behind most of the sick events in the storyline, but the author still manages to shock and surprise you as to the real person behind the recent events and why they have occurred. There is still plenty to be revealed at the end of the story and it leads you nicely to another part of the mystery as to where Cal was held and why, which will hopefully be revealed in the second book. A great twister of emotions for lots of the characters in this book. You have the older brother of the missing Noah, desperate for answers and his friend, the ‘looked after’ foster kid, the oddball kids of the village. There are also parents that have had a hard hand of things, but who haven’t exactly been the best examples for their kids! This is a rollercoaster of a read with dark situations and evil hidden within the small cove community. A great start to the series with lots more dark scenarios to come. I look forward to reading the rest of the series soon. I received an ARC copy of the book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.