TOYS IN THE DUST
First Published 2019
1997. Two seven-year-old girls, Tina and Suzy, are playing in a dusty creek when a stranger appears and strikes up a conversation. He claims to be sad that he doesn't have a doll to play with like the girls do, so Suzy hurries home to fetch one. When she returns, Suzy discovers both Tina and the stranger have vanished.
A short while later, traffic officer Leighton Jones, who is fighting his own demons, is driving home from the scene of a near-fatal accident. When Leighton sees a young girl race out in front of his car and vanish into an overgrown field, he reports the sighting. Unfortunately, his superiors, who are increasingly concerned about Leighton's mental health, doubt the child exists.
But after Tina's mother confirms her daughter's disappearance, Leighton risks his job by pursuing his own investigation of the case. Meanwhile, in the Californian countryside, a child killer is relentlessly searching for the one who got away.
Leighton has his work cut out. But can he prove his sanity and find Tina before the stranger does?
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This cat and mouse tale was inspired by the true story of one of America's oldest cold case files.
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What Amazon readers thought of it:
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"Another gripping, intricate, excellently written book where the tale, and legend, of Leighton Jones grows."
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"A great page turner that I devoured within no time. The author has created a protagonist that the reader really gets behind and cares about."
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"I love a thrilling cat and mouse chase and N.M. Brown has giving me exactly that. A pacy, atmospheric, chase."
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A lonely place to hide...
