Book Review All That Remains (A Missing and Exploited #1)

Title: All That Remains (A Missing and Exploited #1)

Author: Hannah Holborn

Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Age Group: Adult

Rating: 4 stars

Purchase: Amazon

Review copy provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

A troubled police detective.
An addict’s neglected young son.
A simple-minded kidnapper with a lethal past

Who will survive?

Detective Harvey Sam’s training at The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children prepared him for the most important case of his career to date, the abduction of eight-year-old Gabriel Wheeler. Nothing, however, could prepare him for the boy’s blame-shifting mother from hell who shoots up instead of alerting police when the boy goes missing. Nor is Harvey equipped to deal with the heartbreak when his girlfriend leaves him on the same night, taking Effie, the non-biological young daughter Harvey adores.

The case goes cold when Harvey neglects to interview Effie’s best friend, the only witness able to identify the perpetrator’s car. As police resources are wasted on dead ends and wrong suspects, Gabriel receives unlikely help to escape from Willard Crawley, a simple-minded abductor seeking a replacement for the infant brother he accidentally suffocated years before.

Book 1 in the Missing & Exploited Suspense Series, ALL THAT REMAINS explores childhood resiliency in a dangerous adult world (previously published as Notes From a Cold Case).

All That Remains is the first book in the Missing & Exploited Series by Hannah Holborn, and it’s a strong introduction to this series. Gabriel, age eight, is abducted from school. On top of that, his mother prefers to shoot up some drugs rather than alert the police about the boy’s disappearance. Harvey Sam is the detective on the case, and although he wants to solve the case more than anything else, he’s dealing with some personal troubles too – his girlfriend left him, and took her daughter with her, knowing how much Harvey adores the little girl.

Harvey’s own emotional heartbreak causes him to miss some clues that could help find Gabriel, and Gabriel’s only chance to escape from the man holding him captive comes from an unlikely source.

The characters, especially Harvey, are quite interesting. Harvey is a flawed but realistic character, and the turmoil he goes through in his own life adds an extra layer to his personality. Gabriel too was an interesting character, and the book does a good job portraying his resilience and strength, even as such a young boy.

The book is fast-paced, but never feels rushed. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a solid suspense story.