"And then he remembered. Fragmented images resurfacing, coming together. Something his mind had been blocking. He gasped at the memory, icy shivers radiating up his spine.
Der Rattenfänger."
"Someone out there is playing mind games. Testing us."
"Okay. But who?"
"Someone who is far more dangerous than we thought".
The Piper's Children by Iain Henn is a riveting, suspensful mystery. This standalone thriller is the first book in an exciting new series about a special FBI unit, focused on seemingly unsolvable crimes.
Blurb:
A baffling mystery sets an FBI agent on a dangerous path...
Park rangers are puzzled when a child is found wandering alone in the middle of a forest near Seattle.
Stranger still, he speaks a peculiar language that sounds a little like German, and is dressed in clothes people wore in the Middle Ages.
With no one having reported him missing, FBI Special Agent Will McCord assembles a dedicated unit to investigate the case, placing Detective Ilona Farris at its head.
Their relationship is edgy. They used to be an item. But McCord knows Farris is the best person for the job. Especially when more children turn up in similar circumstances.
Farris isn't convinced that she is in fact the right person. Memories of a traumatic incident in her own childhood begin to emerge, and threaten to cloud her judgement.
Can she bury her demons and solve the mystery of these children, seemingly lost in time?
Ilona Ferris is an FBI agent, following in the footsteps of her late father. One morning she is jolted awake by the shrill ring of her phone. She is needed as early as possible in an unusual case, where her expertise could be used. The chopper is taking her from Seattle to Poulsbo.
The person calling her is her ex, FBI Special Agent Will McCord "Ambitious and impatient. Pushy. A special agent when we'd been together and now an SSA". They parted two years earlier, and not on good terms. Ilona is apprehensive, the sound of Will's voice brings back some unpleasant memories.
When Ilona arrives to Poulsbo, she finds out that the "agency received a call from the local sheriff. Park rangers found a kid lost in the forest yesterday, dressed like something out of the Middle Ages and speaking German. The local chief contacted head office for assistance, requesting linguists and child handlers".
The analyst and translator from the Linguist Division Marcia Kendall believes the boy is speaking Middle High German, a variant spoken for two hundred years during the Middle Ages, around 1050 to 1350.
Marcia learned that the boy is named Dietmar, he is ten years old, and was with other children, in a cave. According to the interpreter, Dietmar comes from Hameln in North Germany, where the story of the Pied Piper originates from. He says the other children and he were following an evil man playing a pipe.
Dietmar wants to go home. Who is this child, and where is his home? Nobody has reported him missing.
McCord assembles a new unit to tackle this case, and any other seemingly baffling cases.
Ilona wonders why she's been invited to the new unit. Will explains that she has a track record that fits the profile. Apparently, the big boys have had their eyes on her for a while
"The concept is to identify, early on, those cases likely to fit the long-term, difficult to solve, risk-of-becoming-high-profile cases. We'd assign the special unit to act before any of that develops".
The unusual case has made it into the media almost immediately. There's the danger of it being sensationalized by the media, and the community is most likely going to panic. The answers to the mystery are needed to be obtained fast.
Ilona appreciates that part of the reason she was brought in is that she understood childhood trauma, being kidnapped at the age of 14 and held hostage, and emerging from her ordeal a different girl from the one she'd been before. Yet she is wondering if she is in fact the right person for the job, as her past might in fact leave her unable to process the facts.
As the investigation progresses, the case acquires a more sinister aspect. Ilona and Will have to move fast to solve the mystery of the evil Piper.
The Piper's Children is an atmosperic, gripping tale. A genuine page-turner, with a propulsive plot and complex characters.
The twists and turns are deftly plotted. The premises for the intriguing mystery, using the legend of the Pied Piper, was absolutely fantastic, yet the solution didn't quite work for me, and I have more questions which I cannot discuss here as not to give any spoilers.
The elements of the folk story, and the historical research, are skilfully interwoven with the modern day investigation.
Iain Henn has launched an intriguing mystery series. Can't wait for the next book in the series!
This post is part of the blog tour for The Piper's Children. Many thanks to Iain Henn and Polly from The Book Folks for my e-copy of the book!
Purchasing links:
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C5XNK6W8
US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/ B0C5XNK6W8
CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0C5XNK6W8
AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0C5XNK6W8
Author bio:
Born in Sydney, Australia, Iain worked for many years in print media production
for newspapers, magazines, and direct marketing agencies, and as a writer for
small business websites.
He has written fiction from a young age. Somewhere in his house, there is still a
framed copy of his first published story, a ‘5-minute fiction’ tale in Woman’s Day.
Since then, he has never looked back, having short stories published in various
magazines worldwide, and now his suspenseful thrillers and mysteries.
Commenting on what influenced his writing journey, he describes a moment that
has stayed with him. On his first day in his first job, as a teenage messenger
boy, he left the office via a back exit into a narrow alleyway where he saw the
body of a man crumpled on the ground. He had just jumped out of a window
from the neighbouring building. The paramedics were already approaching.
When Iain returned an hour or so later, the body and the surrounding activity
were gone, there was just a chalk outline on the ground where the body had
been. Ever since he has wondered who that man was, what led him to suicide,
and what his future might have been had he lived. Decades later, that chalk
outline is often on the writer’s mind when telling the stories of his characters’
lives.
Authors who have inspired Iain include Daphne Du Maurier, Ken Follett, Michael
Crichton, Tess Gerritsen, Michael Robotham, and Harlen Coben. He lives on the
New South Wales coast with his wife.
Social Media links
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Blog: https://thebookfolks.com/blog/
Iain Henn Twitter: @IainHenn
Iain Henn Insta: @iainhennauthor
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