The Stolen Child

Written by Alex Coombs

Narrated by Elizabeth Bouckley

Meet DCI Hanlon. A woman with a habit of breaking the rules and a fierce loyalty to the few people she respects.
When the kidnap of a 12-year-old boy blows the case of some missing children wide apart, the finger is pointing at the heart of the Met.

Hanlon is sent in as the only cop who is incorruptible enough to handle it. But can she find the killer before another child is stolen?

Once you start the DCI Hanlon series, you won't be able to put it down. Perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, Lisa Regan and Mark Dawson.

This book was previously published as Time To Die by Alex Howard.

What readers are saying about The Stolen Child:
'Brilliantly done, authentic and doesn't pull any punches'

'The story twists and turns its way to an edge of the seat conclusion'

'Difficult to put down'

'Brilliant and well written'

'A great new character and a gripping story'

'I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the turns of the plot.'

'A great female lead, in a story that is as much about character as it is about the crime.'

• Language: English
• Publisher: Boldwood Books
• Release date: Jan 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781800488076

Alex Coombs

­Alex Coombs studied Arabic at Oxford and Edinburgh Universities and went on to work in adult education and then retrained to be a chef. He has written four well reviewed crime novels in the DI Hanlon series.

Reviews for The Stolen Child

[Tracy pye · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Hard to write this review I loved the story but the narrator spoiled it for me. I persevered because I wanted to read the other books. Thankfully there is a different narrator for the other books, (I checked and had a listen to the next in series otherwise I would not have finished this book) This narrator is bland and monosyllabic and keeps pausing in all the wrong places its so infuriating you have to listen and rectify the grammar yourself. Also there is no distinction between characters, they all sound the same!
That said the story is good and the character of DCI Hanlon is really good and I want to follow her progress. I just couldn't wait for this book to end so I could get the narrators voice out of my head. If you can tolerate her then I advise listening as the story is good and well written, just badly read.

[trixie hickey · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have never given a 5 star review before. But this was super entertaining

[Hazel Mercer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I listened to the DCI Hanlon books in the wrong order, having listened to the 'Scottish' books first, so it was interesting to listen to how it all began. Unfortunately, in agreement with many other reviewers, the narration was disappointing, the reader had no expression in her voice, reading almost like a computer generated voice. There were a lot of mispronounced commonplace words and weirdly, some words had been dubbed over the top with the correct pronunciation instead of the section being re-recorded. So 4 instead of 5 stars, I'm afraid.

[Bev Gullon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The story seemed to jump around in the beginning but this was all scene-setting for a great denouement. The narrator mispronounced a fair few things and that jarred and she didn’t always read fluidly but overall it was an engaging story and it swept me along in the tension. Looking forward to book 2