One evening in Spring, seventeen year old Alice Teale leaves the school grounds around 9pm and is never seen again. What happened to her and why? The investigation gets off to quite a slow start until DS Lucas Black takes over with the help from DS Beth Winter.

The small mining town of Collemby hides quite a few secrets. Did Alice stumble upon something she shouldn’t have? Or did she simply run away from a far-from-perfect family home? Quite a few theories floated through my brain at one point or another but I could never quite decide on one to stick with. When someone starts sending the detectives excerpts from Alice’s journal, seemingly taunting them with information, the whole thing became even more complicated in my head and I stopped trying to figure things out. Which was a good thing too because it all turned out a whole lot more dark and disturbing than I bargained for.

I didn’t particularly like Alice, which seemed wrong somehow, considering the fact that she went missing and might possibly be in quite a lot of trouble or worse. But that didn’t stop me from becoming completely invested in her life, wanting to know what happened to her and even hoping for a positive outcome to it all. Her journal entries work really well into giving the reader an insight into the kind of girl Alice is and at the same time they act like pieces of a puzzle to try and fit together.

I did however instantly like both Lucas and Beth. This is Beth’s first big case so obviously she wants to do a good job and impress the powers that be. But Lucas is … well, he’s Lucas. You’ll have to find out more about that yourself. There’s a bit of a dark cloud hanging around him and he’s not exactly popular. Yet somehow, this rather odd pairing works like a charm and while it doesn’t look like this book is the first in a series, I’m kind of hoping that it is because I’d absolutely love to read more stories involving Lucas and Beth.

The pace is spot-on throughout and the plot is full of intrigue, mystery and a red herring or two. Alice Teale Is Missing had me hook, line and sinker from the very first page and didn’t let go. Tense, suspenseful and engrossing, I have no doubt this will appeal to crime fiction fans everywhere. I hadn’t read a Howard Linskey book before, despite seeing the name pass by often enough, but I already know it won’t be my last.

Lots of twists and turns, just as I like it. An interesting relationship between the two main detectives.

Would definitely recommend.

Set in Northumberland, in the ex-mining small town of Collemby (which is fictional but very realistically evoked of such mining towns) Alice Teale has gone missing. Someone saw her leaving school grounds at 9pm and she's never been seen since.

It shouldn't be hard to find someone who knows something. These mining towns are close-knitted, small and everyone knows everyone to some degree .Very well evoked and the setting feels real, with real life characters and issues. It's a forgotten place where even the school was failing until the new head John Morgan turned it around.

The police in this case are perhaps even more interesting than the case itself - DC Beth Winter is a fast track police officer, who has been taken in her first proper posting on DCI Everleigh's team,. She's working with DS Lucas Black who has some rumours flying around him. He shot a man when on the job and he's been vilified ever since.

Has Alice run away? She hasn't got the best family and that 's saying something! Her dad is a bit creepy and her brother seems strange. Alice seemed popular and good. Hopefully the diary she wrote in the lead up to her disappearance will shed some light on where she could be. (That was particular strength of the novel these two narrative threads)

There seems a lot more to come with this police team and Alice Teale might have disappeared but I hope Winter and Black don't!

Twists, Turns and Second Guessing

Howard Linskey is always able to do what many can't. He writes seamlessly, with a flow amd a narrative that makes you keep saying, one chapter more. Ok, one more. Alice Teale is Missing is a superbly written story, fast paced and Howard is able to continally surprise, shock and keep you second guessing right up to the end.
Another brilliant crime novel set in the North East, which Howard Linskey brings alive to the extent you can smell the spilt beer in the pubs, the chippy and the rain sodden streets.

I had high hopes for this, but maybe too high. Alice Teale Is Missing feels like what Lewis and Midsomer Murders would be like if the shows had a budget cut.

The first half of the book is dominated by a great deal of information extraction by talking, and then the story races to the end. A pity, really, since the plot is very solid. If DC Beth Winter collected information through her lengthy interrogations, then DS Lucas Black was the legs and wheels. Whenever the author wanted the reader to discover new evidence or to go to places beyond conducting villager interrogations, he does it through scenes where DS Black are in. Right where the story picks up pace is when the author decides to grace the pages with more of DS Black's participation.

A promising plot and Linskey has a great deal of a talent for building the atmosphere of a setting, but Alice Teale Is Missing was sabotaged by poor character development, uneven pacing, and lazy writing. I'll likely pick up the next book if this becomes a series to see if the writing develops, but I won't be rushing to the store.

Meh. Not bad. Pretty textbook.

Immensely enjoyable read set in Northumbria and featuring DS Lucas Black and fast track graduate detective Beth. An unlikely pairing and one Beth is unsure about herself as all the rumours and online information she has gleaned speak of an ex army man who as a firearms officer for the police killed a man...
However the two work well together and are fantastic characters with plenty of banter and dry humour in the conversations between them. So much so, I would love this to be the first book in a series of their police adventures and investigations.
There is a huge cast of suspicious candidates for the disappearance of Alice Teale and the book explores the investigation, the interviews, the smokescreens, the conflicting evidence and the lies people in the small community are telling. The duo are determined to uncover what happened the day Alice left school and we get to revisit the evidence through the perspectives of all the 'persons of interest' the police talk to as well as carefully selected entries from the journal that Alice kept but which has also gone missing.
Fast paced, tightly plotted and littered with suggestions of guilt in one camp, then another, then another, until there are so many possibilities the reader just has to get to the end to discover the truth. And when you do it is sadly a very believable and twisted tale indeed.
Fans of crime thrillers will not be disappointed.

Alice Teale Is Missing is the first in a new series and also the first book I have read by this author. I’m happy to say that it is a book I really enjoyed and I am happy knowing that there is another series to read. I have a feeling that this series is going to be a good one.

One of the main reasons is that I liked the way the two main characters Beth and Lucas were together. Lucas could have been unlikeable and unfriendly with the disastrous case he was involved in but instead he was shown to suffer from it. A loner in the police force and a broken marriage he could have been shown as bitter and blaming everybody else but he doesn’t. Instead he has tried to move in, whilst acknowledging the gossip and mistrust from other colleagues.

Beth is the graduate officer, has a pass into her position but desperate to do a good job. She has been made aware of what happened to Lucas but wants to investigate Alice’s disappearance so tries to accept it.

I had no idea what happened with Alice. I couldn’t work out if she was dead or alive or the reasons why. I couldn’t work out if she was a nice person or if she wasn’t as popular as se seemed. I had no idea who could be trusted or relied on. I felt frustration at the lack of help from former employees and I loved the description of live in a rundown town with no chance of prospects. And I’m sure we’ve all been in a pub like The Dirty Donkey!

I see huge potential for this series. A very likeable partnership and I want to see them succeed and prove their colleagues and superiors wrong