The Suffering of Strangers by Caro Ramsay

Black Thorn Canongate Books

General Fiction (Adult) , Mystery & Thrillers

Pub Date 16 Jun 2019

Description

When a child abduction and sexual assault case overlap, Glaswegian police team Costello and Anderson team up to crack the cases.

DI Costello faces a disturbing child abduction case; a six-week-old has been stolen and replaced with another baby. The swap took cold and meticulous planning, so Costello treads the seedy, Glaswegian back streets for answers. She’s convinced that more than one young life is at stake.

Promoted into the Cold Case Unit, Colin Anderson reviews the unsolved rape of a young mother, whose attacker is still out there. Each case pulls Anderson and Costello in the same direction and, as their paths keep crossing, they begin to suspect their separate cases are dangerously entwined.

My Reviews 

The Suffering of Strangers is the ninth book in the Anderson and Costello Book Series.

I must start by saying I have not read any of the previous books. It would be helpful to know from the onset that this is part of a series. In addition, it would be nice to have a list of characters as other books provide so that you are not so lost trying to figure out everyone’s roles in the book.

That being said, this book is about Anderson and Costello no longer working together each busy with their own cases.

Colin Anderson is tasked with solving the Gillian Witherspoon case. In 1996 young mother of two heads to the local shop for a pint of milk after watching the ten o’clock news. The area was secure with CCTV and everyone knew everybody so she felt safe going out this late at night. She was found badly bleeding from an assault behind the bins, the problem was she could not remember anything only that she was aware of somebody. The man responsible for the assault has never been caught. The more Anderson digs into this case, the more he realizes that this is not the first woman assaulted by this man, there is a pattern.

Costello on the other hand is investigating the disappearance of a young baby left in a parked car outside a village shop. Roberta has just stopped for a minute to buy a bottle of champagne to celebrate her husband’s new job. Not wanting to disturb her son who finally has stopped crying she sneaks out for a moment thinking this will be quick, I will be back before he even notices me gone.

When she returns to the spot where her car was it is gone along with her son. 

What baffles everyone is when the car is found a few blocks away the baby in the car is not Roberta’s baby and this baby has Down syndrome.

The more Costello digs into the two cases the more she realizes these are not random abductions.

Discoveries pull Costello and Anderson in the same direction revealing a connection.

This book is full of twists and turns providing a surprise ending you never saw coming. 

Overall the book is well-written with very interesting characters. The only thing again as I mentioned previously it would have been helpful to have a glossary of the characters.

I was provided this book for free in exchange for my honest opinion.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book for anyone who loves a good British Police mystery. 📕👍🏼

I GIVE IT A 5 STAR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️