The first book in the Trish Maguire series

How do you bear it when your 4-year-old child goes missing? When Antonia Weblock's daughter, Charlotte, vanishes from a London playground, even her enemies are sympathetic. Villified for putting her City career above her child's welfare, she has plenty of those. She turns to barrister Trish Maguire for help. As a specialist in the darkest cases involving children, Trish knows exactly what can happen to them at the hands of abusive adults. While she does everything she can to support Antonia, the police pull out all the stops to find Charlotte, asking the questions that are in everyone's mind: did she wander off or was she kidnapped? Could her apparently devoted nanny have killed her and hidden the body? Why wasn't her stepfather looking after her as he'd promised? And where was her real father when she disappeared? No one who knows Charlotte can be above suspicion and it is not long before Trish herself is at risk. Trish Maguire is a memorable character whose strong ideals and fierce intelligence belie her private torments and vulnerability. Creeping Ivy is a menacing story of manipulation and betrayal which will stay in the mind long after the book is finished.

I'm delighted that Trish Maguire will be available to readers again, I'm a great fan. Natasha Cooper is a compelling crime-writer; her stories always start with an intriguing premise and lead us through to a satisfying conclusion. But she's more than an assured story-teller. Cooper is fascinated by the nature of evil and each story is a contemporary fable, exploring the roots and the consequences of violence.