ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – Memorial Park by Louisa Scarr
Memorial Park by Louisa Scarr is published by Canelo Crime and is out now. I purchased my own copy.
You can read my review of book one in the series here – Gallows Wood.
Every family’s worst nightmare…
Three-year-old Rosie Logan is missing. Her mother, Maria, turned away for just one moment and now her life is changed forever. It falls to PC Lucy Halliday and her police dogs, Moss and Iggy, to find the girl, under the direction of Lucy’s boss and friend, DCI Jack Ellis.
The case brings up old trauma for Jack. His childhood best friend, Theo, went missing when he was eleven and was never found. This is Jack’s chance to make things right. He won’t fail Rosie like he failed Theo.
But the investigation doesn’t go smoothly. The Logan family have been keeping secrets. And every time Lucy and Jack think they’re making progress, they’re hampered by yet another one. Can they find the truth, and Rosie, before it’s too late?
The next thrilling instalment in the new British crime fiction series featuring dog handler PC Lucy Halliday. Perfect for fans of Jane Casey, Robert Bryndza and Cara Hunter.
I’ve been looking forward to reading Memorial Park since I finished the first in the PC Lucy Halliday series, Gallows Wood. I loved that book and knew there was a lot more to come for Lucy and DCI Jack Ellis and that was proved with the events of this second book.
It begins with a three year old girl going missing. Lucy is a police dog handler and is called in with her newest dog, Iggy, to see if he can pick up any trace of a scent of little Rosie Logan. Whilst Jack and the team are working on this case, new information comes to light in the cold case of his childhood best friend, Theo, who went missing when both boys were eleven.
I enjoyed the cold case aspects most of all (I find these cases particularly interesting in fiction) but it’s very difficult to read at times, utterly shocking and it made me emotional. I really enjoyed the two main characters’ progression through this book, a sense of closure for Jack and a tentative new beginning for Lucy. After I’d read Gallows Wood I noted down two things that were unresolved. One was resolved in this book and I’m looking forward to reading book three to see if the other one is brought to a conclusion.
The dog handling aspect of these books makes for such an interesting and different focus. I wonder if Iggy will be needed for the next case, or if Moss, Lucy’s other dog, is required to use his special skills to search for a body. I found Memorial Park to be an excellent police procedural with a compelling storyline. I recommend it but do start with Gallows Wood so you understand the progression of the characters and the cases.
Louisa Scarr studied psychology at the University of Southampton and has lived in and around the city ever since. She is a full time writer, and when she’s not at her desk, she can be found pounding the streets in running shoes or swimming in muddy lakes.
She is the author of the Butler and West crime series, published by Canelo Crime, beginning with Last Place You Look and ending with Out of the Ashes. A new series, about a police dog handler, launched in July 2024 with Gallows Wood. The second, Memorial Park, is out now and will be followed by Broken House in October.
She also writes as Sam Holland and is the author of the award-winning Major Crimes series, following detectives as they investigate murders committed by brutal serial killers in the south of England. The latest, The Countdown Killer, is out now.
Her DS Kate Munro series, Ask Me No Questions and Nowhere to be Found, have been republished by Canelo Crime and are out now. (They were originally published with the same title, as Louisa de Lange.)
You can follow her on Twitter @paperclipgirl and on Instagram @louisascarrwriter.