Behind Closed Doors

February 9, 2015
In Haynes’s harrowing second novel set in the English town of Briarstone (after 2014’s Under a Silent Moon), Scarlett Rainsford, who disappeared on a family trip to Greece in 2003 when she was 15, is discovered a decade later during a raid on a brothel, living under an assumed name. The case is particularly vexing for recently promoted Det. Chief Insp. Louisa “Lou” Smith and her Major Crime team, as she worked the original case when Scarlett vanished. As Lou and her fellow officers attempt to determine if the beating of a local ne’er-do-well and the murder of a pub owner are related, Scarlett begins to talk about her ordeal as a prostitute for a European crime ring. When Scarlett vanishes again, Lou must try to find her before the dark forces of her former life can reclaim her. Vivid, unsparing prose, including brutal passages from Scarlett’s point of view, helps make this a haunting, highly disturbing mystery. Agent: Adrian Weston, Adrian Weston Literary Agency.

June 1, 2015

When a teenager goes missing on a family vacation, the usual questions are raised about whether her disappearance may be due to arguments within the family (running away) or having met a stranger (abduction). With the family of the missing girl being rather close-mouthed about their lives, and the knowledge that she didn't have opportunities to go and meet anyone, the assumption is that she ran away. So when she reappears 10 years later during a raid on a brothel, why won't she tell the police what happened in the intervening years? An even bigger question might be why aren't the family members reuniting now? These are the questions that Detective Louisa Smith hopes to answer, but without much help from either Scarlett or her family. The chapters take place in the present day and through flashbacks, and Scarlett's story and the investigation unfold in surprising ways. The hold human traffickers have on their victims can sometimes trump familial ties, particularly if those ties are frayed from the start. The secrets that the family chooses to keep will shock teens. VERDICT A solid choice for fans of darker mysteries, like those of Carol O'Connell or Gillian Flynn.-Laura Pearle, Miss Porter's School, CT

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2015
Scarlett Rainsford is just 15 years old when she's snatched in Greece during a family vacation and becomes a victim of human trafficking. Ten years later, she turns up at a brothel in her English hometown. Head of Major Crimes DCI Louisa Smith, who regretted not finding Scarlett when she worked the case originally as a detective constable, is tied up investigating a murder and assault possibly connected to two local crime gangs, so she sends DS Sam Hollands to talk to Scarlett, hoping to get useful information on the other cases. The interspersed harrowing accounts of Scarlett's previous decade, when only her wits helped her survive, are a counterpoint to the current investigation, just as the empathetic female police officers contrast with the brutal male traffickers. Haynes might have omitted the scattered police reports, which impede the narrative flow more than they lend authenticity, but this second in the Lou Smith series (after Under a Silent Moon, 2014) is still an involving police procedural with a protagonist who agonizes about maintaining both a committed personal relationship and a demanding career.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

October 1, 2014

Haynes's first novel, Into the Darkest Corner, was a New York Times ebook best seller and was named Amazon UK's 2011 Best Book of the Year. Since then, Haynes has kept up the drumbeat with chillers like Under a Silent Moon, first in the Briarstone series. In this series second, D.I. Louisa Smith revisits an unsolved case from her constable days--the disappearance of 13-year-old Scarlett Rainsford while vacationing in Greece with her off-the-wall family, now found at a local brothel.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2015

Fifteen-year-old Scarlett Rainsford is abducted while on a family vacation to Greece. For ten years she is shuttled about Europe by traffickers, working as a prostitute and cleaning slave. The police are stumped and the case quickly grows cold. Clues are few, and her seriously dysfunctional family is strangely apathetic. When Scarlett finally does turn up in the Special Branch raid of a brothel in her hometown of Briarstone, Lou Smith and her Major Crimes team pick up the case again, and startling local links are revealed. Gradually Scarlettt begins to open up to young DS Sam Holland and tell her truly terrifying story. Where has she been? How did she end up back home? And why is her younger sister the only one who seems glad to see her? DS Holland and Lou Smith, last seen in Haynes's Into the Darkest Corner, work a tough and very delicate case with skill and tenacity. VERDICT Not for the squeamish, this is a gritty account of the brutality of female trafficking and the pain of child abuse. Haynes pulls no punches telling Scarlett's tale, but the skillful police work and superb ending make the reading truly worthwhile. Mystery readers will want more Haynes! [See Prepub Alert, 9/8/14.]--Susan Clifford Braun, Bainbridge Island, WA

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.