Majestic cliffs, beautiful beaches and quaint houses – prepared to be entertained in a new thriller series, set in the small town of Penzance in Cornwall, by Author Sally Rigby, in the first book of the series “The Lost Girls of Penzance”. This sleepy little town which hardly ever sees any serious crime, wakes up to the discovery of human bones in the garden of an abandoned cottage and Detective Inspector Lauren Pengelly makes herself available to lead the investigation inspite of being on the verge of taking vacation time.

She had taken a position at this small town only because of her ambitions to become the Chief before her 40th birthday and hence has always been on the heels of her team with ruthless demands for excellence and dedication in their work. Having never seen a murder in their town, the team is understandably excited about the discovery of bones. The same is not true for Sergeant Detective Matt Price; he has transferred from a much bigger force to this small town due to certain personal problems. Starting off slightly at a wrong foot, Lauren and Matt settle into a working relationship, as they begin their investigation into the recent discovery.

Just as that investigation is started, the team is called into investigate the disappearance of a 4 year girl from a small nursery. With time against them, the team leave no stone unturned in finding the little girl; they even suspect the girl’s father might be involved in the kidnapping. But when another girl goes missing in another nursery, the team is both confounded and confused.

Who is the one who is kidnapping the girls? What is the identity of the remain found? Was the person murdered?

Rigby takes the reader through an interesting and fast-paced story of a bizzare culprit with an unusual motive. The dynamics between the team and DI Pengelly, and the changes that are brought on by the presence of the new member Price, makes for an interesting background. The author has established a solid base which can form a solid base for the series and the story does have the potential for making a great series.

The story was very entertaining and novel till about the first half; but later on it was fairly predictable. I could guess just about every other twist Rigby was leading towards, except for the identity of the culprit. And so I didn’t feel very invested in the investigation. However, the characters of Lauren and Price are quite distinctive and I am definitely interested in knowing where these characters are going to be further along.

This book gets 5 out of 5 stars.