4.5 stars.

Fans of police procedurals do not want to miss Susan Lewis's newest release Behind Closed Doors. With a very intriguing mystery and an outstanding cast of characters, it is an absolutely riveting novel that is impossible to put down.

Detective Sergeant Andrea "Andee" Lawrence comes face to face with her unresolved and traumatic past when fourteen year old Sophie Monroe is reported missing. While investigating Sophie's case, Andee is haunted by the memories of her sister Penny's disappearance twenty years earlier. With Penny's fate still unknown, Andee does everything in her power to uncover the truth about what happened to Sophie, but can she maintain her objectivity during such an emotionally volatile investigation?

Andee is a single mother of two teenagers who has recently moved back to the town where she and Penny vacationed with their grandparents every summer. Devastated after her twenty year relationship with her children's father ended, Andee has finally started a new relationship when a family crisis brings her ex back into her life. Trying to juggle both her professional and personal lives is quite challenging and Andee is also plagued with doubts that her judgment is clouded by her unsettling memories of Penny's case and the impact of her disappearance on her family.

Although readers only see a brief glimpse of Sophie, her presence is keenly felt throughout the entire novel and it is impossible not to feel a connection to her. She is a very sympathetic character and her back story is incredibly heartbreaking. Her reactions to all of the changes in her life are sadly all too real in today's world and it is very easy to understand the reasons behind her (misguided) choices.

The mystery element is positively brilliant and there are numerous plot twists that effectively keep the truth about what happened to Sophie obscured for most of the story. While Andee's investigation uncovers a fairly long list of suspects and possible motives for Sophie's disappearance, none of the clues lead to definitive answer for what happened to the missing teen.

Behind Closed Doors is a completely captivating read with a richly developed cast of characters and a complex storyline. It is an emotionally compelling novel that has plenty of depth and substance and a plot is all too frighteningly realistic. Susan Lewis brings the story to a very unexpected and poignant conclusion that is quite moving. An excellent mystery that fans of the genre are going to love.
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4.5 stars

Following the breakdown of her relationship with Martin, father of their children and her best friend, DS Andee (Andrea) Lawrence transfers from London Metro to Kesterly. Andee, Luke, and Alayna move to the seaside village where her mother and Martin’s parents still live. Broadsided by Martin’s decision Andee is just now, a bit over a year later, beginning to move on. When Dougie, Martin’s dad, dies necessitating Martin’s return to Kesterly Andee can no longer avoid him. What upheavals will this cause in the fragile life she’s begun to create without him?
In the midst of these personal issues, a fourteen-year-old girl disappears. On the face of it Sophie Monroe is a runaway, but is she? Andee is convinced there’s more to the troubled teen’s disappearance but is that the detective talking or the teenager whose sister disappeared and was never found?
Will Andee’s objectivity be compromised by her past personal tragedy?

Though the search for fourteen-year-old Sophie Monroe is the central focus, there’s so much more to BEHIND CLOSED DOORS.
Subtle and poignant, the characters reveal themselves through the course of Andee and the team’s investigation. Everyone has a secret, a hope, a tragedy, a struggle, a burden, all of those quiet battles that define daily life the reader is privy to. You can’t help but connect with them, understand them, grieve with and for them. Those around Sophie, and to an extent the community at large, are touched and forever changed by the young teen’s case.

A slow burn story that unobtrusively draws the reader in, BEHIND CLOSED DOORS is genuinely affecting and touched me deeply. I read the last few chapters in tears. This is my first book by Susan Lewis but by no means my last.
Reviewed for Miss Ivy’s Book Nook, Manic Readers, & Novels Alive TV ( )