Heartlands - Kerry Watts

Heartlands by Kerry Watts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have to admit that I thought that I wasn't going to get on well with this book. To begin with, I found the huge amount of characters that were introduced in such a short space of time quite confusing and with quite a few of them, there wasn't anything obvious to make them stand out. I found myself flicking back and forth trying to decide who was who. It's a bit unfortunate really, as I suspect that this might put some people off, which would be a real shame as once you get past that initial phase, the story moves quickly and develops well.
Heartlands tells the story of a missing teenage girl. As the detectives start to investigate it becomes clear that there are plenty of secrets being hidden in the small community and the disappearance is causing them all to be revealed. Alongside this, is the story of a girl who disappeared twenty years earlier. There are parallels between her and this current missing girl story. I did assume that it had happened in the same place and couldn't understand why more people hadn't seen the similarity, but I realised later that it was in the North of England, while the rest of the story takes place in Scotland.
This book works well on many levels. Not only do you have the main mystery itself, but we also see how the missing girl twenty years ago affected both her family and the people involved in her murder. There are a few twists and turns in this one, most of which I saw coming, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book. I did think that some of the people acted a little oddly. I'm not sure if I was dealing with any life-changing experiences that they were, I would have had the emotional energy to help out friends who were going through similar, but different experiences.
This was a very good start to a series and I'll be looking forward to finding out what will happen next for Jessie, the lead detective in this book. She clearly has a back story and past that I suspect will be catching up with her in the near future in perhaps the next book.
This isn't an easy light read, there are a lot of characters to get your head around and plenty happening in this fast-moving storyline. Don't let that put you off, because you will miss out on a good read if you do.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.


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