Cuckoos on the Mersey

 

Cuckoos on the Mersey By Conrad Jones- Crime thriller

Wow! A book I started and raced through, brilliantly written. This is the first of a new series entitled The Child Protection series and takes us to Liverpool. Conrad has put well thought out cases into a cleverly executed plot, his partner in real life working at the front line of child protection- a real life emergency  service very underestimated. In this story amongst the neglect there are the drug takers and dealers and other bottom feeders of life orchestrated by the organised crime gangs. Sadly these have knock on effects on the children. When two children open the door to some social workers as their mother is out of it, asleep for the last time, the workers and police suspect more than what the post mortem discovers have had a hand in this and one trail leads to another. Cuckoos throw out the young of others in a nest and replace them with their own eggs. In human life they take over the premises of the vulnerable using them for their own end, not caring who falls out of the nest.

I read 50% in one sitting, as this is so very gripping. It's raw, it's gritty and whilst there aren’t descriptions of anything too nasty, some is left to the imagination and social workers telling each other about previous cases that stirs the emotions, fiction perhaps being based on fact. It's an addictive read, where you can see the slippery slope that some are led to in life, not always by their own hand. A read of emotions, perhaps the whole gamut and one to make you grateful for what you have. I very much look forward to the next in the series- please sign me up now. 

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