Brenda Scupham has good reason to be worried about her daughter. Two people posing as social workers insisted they had to take the child away to check her for abuse. Beleaguered single mom though she is, Brenda can’t imagine the child is an abuse victim, but she allows the couple to take seven-year-old Gemma in any event. The problem is, they aren’t social workers at all, and now Gemma is missing. It’s up to Peter Robinson to find her. He fears she is already dead by the time he gets the case.

Things grow increasingly tense when someone finds the body of a young man with exceedingly small hands. An unknown killer murdered him. It turns out his murder is connected to the missing girl.

The publisher’s hype on this insists that it’s filled with suspense. I guess there’s some suspense here, but it’s mostly old-style British police procedural stuff. There’s no fast action, but the plot is solid, and you’ll likely finish this if you start it.