“When schoolgirl Janey Macklin disappeared from the seedy side of London in 1988, her case went cold, with no body and no witnesses. Now, thirty years later, private detective Kate Marshall has been approached by a true crime podcast producer with an intriguing question they need her help answering: What if Janey was killed by Peter Conway, the notorious Nine Elms Cannibal?

The contract would be the most lucrative of Kate’s career, but it comes with a price of its own, dredging up a sordid, complicated past that she would sooner forget . . . one that the paparazzi are determined to keep in the headlines.

As Kate and her partner, Tristan, scour King’s Cross for clues, no two leads seem to point in the same direction. The last person to see Janey alive has already been tried, convicted, and then acquitted of her murder, Peter Conway is in poor health and fading fast, and the line between their clients and their suspects is blurring with each new revelation about the case.

With little to work from, can Tristan and Kate wade through clandestine phone calls, decades-old secrets, and deteriorating DNA evidence to solve Janey’s murder, or will she remain one of London’s countless missing persons, forever lost to time?”

Hello and welcome to damppebbles. Today I am delighted to share my review of The Lost Victim by Robert Bryndza. The Lost Victim was published by Raven Street Publishing on 9th July 2024 and is available in hardcover, paperback, audio and digital formats. I chose to read a free ARC of The Lost Victim but that has in no way influenced my review. My grateful thanks to Rob and the team at Raven Street Publishing for sending me a finished copy.

I am such a huge fan of Robert Bryndza’s crime thrillers. It all began with the Erika Foster series back when I was a newbie blogger in 2016. And has since grown to include the brilliant Kate Marshall series, along with the standalone novel Fear the Silence. However, I still haven’t found a window in my reading schedule to squeeze in the first three Kate Marshall books. I know, I’m letting the side down, and I am really quite embarrassed. It will happen, I know it will. Things are looking a little quieter towards the end of the year. My plan is to make sure I get them read then. The first book in the series, Nine Elms, is quite pivotal to the rest of the series, so it’s top of the list!

But before I go any further with this review, a second confession. I read The Lost Victim last year, in 2024, shortly before it was due to be published. If you’re a regular here at damppebbles, you may be aware that I had a bit of an unplanned hiatus which lasted for a good six months or so. I was still reading like a woman possessed, but I wasn’t writing any reviews because sitting at the laptop left my shoulders feeling sore. I’ve since had four operations on my shoulders, and things are finally on the up! I couldn’t not review this stonking book though. The reason for the delay is purely down to me, nothing at all to do with any of the books I read during that time. So, as a heads up, this review may be a touch shorter than regular visitors to the blog are used to.

The Lost Victim is a gripping, compelling, twisty tale based around a cold case from the late 1980s. Private detective Kate is asked by a media agency, looking to branch out into podcasts, to investigate the disappearance of Janey Macklin. They believe that Peter Conway, the Nine Elms Cannibal, whom Kate has had dealings with in the past, could have crucial information about Janey’s disappearance. Could Janey be one of Conway’s unnamed victims? Kate, who is going through a bit of a dry spell in the work department, knows this could be the case of her career. Plus, with the way things are, the cash the media company is offering is almost impossible to turn down. Can Kate and Tristan discover the truth, or will the secret of Janey’s disappearance be lost to London’s streets forever…?

I loved The Lost Victim. I enjoyed the historical aspect of the investigation. I thought the author did a fantastic job of bringing the London of the past, and the London of the present to life on the page. I was delighted to be reunited with Kate and her colleague, Tristan, once again. What a team! I love how they work together. They’re a well-oiled machine. I thought the mystery aspect of the story was excellent, with lots of twists and turns along the way. The suspense and the intrigue are expertly handled throughout. You truly cannot go wrong with a Robert Bryndza thriller. Just brilliant from start to finish! Gripping, intriguing and completely captivating. Recommended.

I chose to read and review a free ARC of The Lost Victim. The above review is my own unbiased opinion.

The Lost Victim by Robert Bryndza was published in the UK by Raven Street Publishing on 9th July 2024 and is available in hardcover, paperback, audio and digital formats (please note, the following links are affiliate links which means I receive a small percentage of the purchase price at no extra cost to you): | amazon.co.uk | Waterstones | Goodreads | damppebbles bookshop.org shop | damppebbles amazon.co.uk shop | damppebbles amazon.com shop |

Robert Bryndza is an international bestselling author, best known for his page-turning crime and thriller novels, which have sold over five million copies.

His crime debut, The Girl in the Ice was released in February 2016, introducing Detective Chief Inspector Erika Foster. Within five months it sold one million copies, reaching number one in the Amazon UK, USA and Australian charts. To date, The Girl in the Ice has sold over 1.5 million copies in the English language and has been sold into translation in 29 countries. It was nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery & Thriller (2016), the Grand prix des lectrices de Elle in France (2018), and it won two reader voted awards, The Thrillzone Awards best debut thriller in The Netherlands (2018) and The Dead Good Papercut Award for best page turner at the Harrogate Crime Festival (2016).

Robert was born in Lowestoft, on the east coast of England. He studied at Aberystwyth University, and the Guildford School of Acting, and was an actor for several years, but didn’t find success until he took a play he’d written to the Edinburgh Festival. This led to the decision to change career and start writing. He self-published a bestselling series of romantic comedy novels, before switching to writing crime. Robert lives with his husband in Slovakia, and is lucky enough to write full-time.