When a brutal homophobic attack ended David Lloyd’s career as a police officer, his life was changed forever. Five years later David is running his own private detective agency, where a missing person’s case comes to his attention. Digging into the circumstances of her disappearance forces David to realize he has not dealt with what happened to him, and that he can no loner deal with his long-time partner’s fear of being honest about their relationship.
Solving the case might not only bring peace to a shattered family, but could finally put David’s own demons to rest.
Solving the case might not only bring peace to a shattered family, but could finally put David’s own demons to rest.
David Lloyd is hired by a mother looking for her 23 year old daughter. Since the girl isn’t a minor and she has a history of drug abuse the police aren’t taking the missing persons report too seriously. David starts looking in the obvious places for Stella – old haunts and old friends but what he finds really doesn’t add up in his head. He starts to unravel a story that is so horrible and crazy that he can’t even believe it. On top of this David is dealing with his long time boyfriend who has never come out of the closet as well as his memories of the brutal attack he survived but is still haunted by.
The story started off pretty slow for me. I wasn’t sure if I was really going to like the book but it was well written so I kept going despite my misgivings about whether the story would really work for me. I was definitely glad I continued as the story picked up and one thing after another started happening.
I loved the intricacy of the characters and though there were many people involved in the tangled web that David had to push through I never got lost as to what was happening or who was who. Strange did a great job of clearly keeping the book on track. David’s relationship with Jamie had me on pins and needles as they worked through their issues. I was so glad that it all worked out in the end with both of them happy with the decisions that were made.
The story at times is hard to read as when the title says shattered family they are SERIOUS. The family is messed up beyond belief and it hurt my heart to read everything that the mom and Stella had gone through throughout the years.
Overall I really liked the book and was happy with the outcome. If you start the story and feel it’s a bit slow, just keep going, it’s worth the read.
Rating: 3.75 out of 5
You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place
This book is available from MLR Press. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
