Savage Children by Peter Boland
John Savage Action Thriller #3

Compelling characters crack the case…

What case, you ask?

Well, there is this serial killer taking children from parks and the only clue is a drawing by the missing child stuffed through the mailbox door of the child’s home. The police are stumped and even though they are looking another child seems to disappear every couple of weeks. When the killer takes John Savage’s ten year old neighbor, a child he likes and spends time with, it becomes personal. So, he learns what he can, calls in his computer savvy much younger Iranian friend Tannaz and the two get to work looking for Callum.

How are the children being taken? Where are they are disappearing to? What is happening to them? Will any of them turn up again? If ex-SAS operative Savage has anything to say about it Callum will be returned to his divorced parents in one piece hale and hearty even if it does mean not immediately sharing with the police all of the clues he and his partner find along the way.

Tannaz and Savage make a good team even though they are quite different. I would love to know how the two met and imagine that is probably mentioned in a previous book. The two find clues online, and here and there and sleuth and search and interact with street gangs, a supremacist group that is very racist comes into play and the two also have interactions with the police.

The task of finding out what happened to Callum is not easy or linear. It take them through some twists and turns that are intriguing. I will say that there were a few surprises for me even though I read the end before I reached it chronologically.

What I liked:
* The complexity of John Savage
* The fact that Savage was retired, still fit and had personality
* The dynamics between Savage and Tannaz
* The way the story unfolded
* The twist(s) at the end
* Finding out who the Archangel was and what happened to the children

What I did not like:
* The Archangel
* One of the police on the case
* Realizing once again that people can be warped
* Wondering what the Archangel was doing during the years between the time he first started taking children and what ended up being the motivator for his crimes.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Had I ever read anything by this author before? No
Was it necessary to read the previous two books and prequel to understand this book? No
Would I read more by this author/in this series? Yes

As the prequel, Savage, is available free through a link at the back of the book I would recommend reading it to get a feel for Savage before reading this book.

Thank you to the author who gifted me an ARC of this book through Books on the Bright Side ~ This is my honest review.

4.5 Stars ( )