Chloe – Lost Girl is the first book in a new thriller/detective series by author Dan Laughey. The book is set in Leeds, UK and features Detective Inspector Carl Sant and his team. The book opens with a Detective Liam Dryden meeting a female informant in a rural location. After the woman had told her story Dryden left, catching a bus out of the area.

Not long into the bus journey Dryden and the other passengers on board were gunned down. The last thing that Dryden managed to do before his death was to write a series of numbers on the window that will hopefully help the police.

As well as the murders on the bus, the team was already working on the case of missing local girl, twenty-year-old student Chloe Lee. Chloe had been missing for seven weeks and leads were thin on the ground. Is it possible that the murder and Chloe missing be linked? And just who was Dryden meeting and why?

The synopsis of the book caught my eye and I knew I had to read it. It was fascinating to read and I loved how the book interweaved the two main plots. The pace was just right, feeding me enough information at the right times to keep me on my toes and adding a few red-herrings in for fun too. I also loved the chapters featuring the mystery woman.

The characters really hooked me in and DI Carl Sant was so realistic, he was tough but fair and the way his mind worked to solve cases was spot on.

By the end of the book, I was left wanting more, not in a bad way, just that I needed to carry on the story so much so that I have already downloaded book two as I need to see how it all ends.

If you enjoy a good, riveting police thriller then this is one to read. It kept me on the edge of the seat and wanting to know how everything linked together.

About the Author

Dan Laughey is a lecturer at Leeds Beckett University where he teaches a course called ‘Youth, Crime and Culture’ among other things. He has written several books on the subject including Music and Youth Culture, based on his PhD in Sociology at Salford University. He also holds a BA in English from Manchester Metropolitan University and an MA in Communications Studies from the University of Leeds.

Dan was born in Otley and bred in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, a hop and a skip away from the Leeds setting of his Chloe novels. He now lives in nearby Guiseley.

His crime writing was purely academic to begin with. He’s written about media violence and tackled the age-old concern about television and video games influencing patterns of antisocial behaviour in society. After years of research and theoretical scrutiny, he still hasn’t cracked that particular nut.

He’s also written about the role of CCTV and surveillance in today’s Big Brother world, the sometimes fraught relationship between rap and juvenile crime, football hooliganism, and the sociocultural legacy of Britain’s most notorious serial killer – the Yorkshire Ripper.

All in all, Dan’s work has been translated into four languages: French, Hebrew, Korean and Turkish. He has lectured at international conferences and appeared on BBC Radio and ITV News in addition to providing expert commentary for The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph.

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