(Book 3 in the Gordon Square, Arlington Terrace trilogy)
Detective Sergeant Mike Brugge, Detective Sergeant Paul Osman and Detective Constable Mel Brugge work at Holden CID. Mike and Mel are married and have a son called Jack who’s at Nursery (and a lovely character).
The Prologue begins in 2023. Rachel Blossom is a patient in a residential psychiatric hospital (Victoria’s Retreat) with dissociative identity disorder. This was a very interesting start to te story and drew me in straight away.
Then Chapter One is set three years later. Linda (Rachel’s sister) has been attacked by psychopath Joe Treville and the police are questioning her.
Meanwhile, Rachel is missing and her last known whereabouts seem to be Keeper’s Lodge – a kind of halfway house with an on-site warden, where they stay before hopefully being able to live completely independently. As the police investigate, it seems Rachel has disappeared and they find it hard to find a paper trail from the places she stayed in. Something is clearly not right…
There are lots of different characters mentioned and at first, it’s a bit hard to get everyone straight and work out who they are. However, once I got into the swing of it, I did enjoy it. Though I would definitely recommend reading the first two books before this one, if possible, as this is the concluding book in the trilogy.
It’s an intriguing story and you are never quite sure where it’s going to go, it certainly isn’t a predictable or boring read at all. I also thought it was a very good idea featuring characters with different mental health issues. The idea of trying to connect with one person’s identity out of several was a fascinating idea and brought a unique perspective to the novel.
One little niggle – While I accept the copy I received may well have been a proof copy (though nothing on it says so), I really must comment on the amount of errors in the text – repetition, missing commas and question marks, inconsistent spelling (Casio/Cassio), even the wrong ‘they’re’ at one point. This definitely needed a better check before publishing.
But that can easily be sorted and then we’ll have a really good novel. It’s a unique premise (which is hard to find in fiction), a cleverly written plot with engaging characters and it will keep you reading until the end, to find out what is going to happen. Tracy Martin-Summers is a talented writer and I would recommend her work.
BLURB
Keeper’s Lodge
‘Picture postcard’ were the words Detective Sergeant Mike Brugge chose to describe Keeper’s Lodge when they first set eyes on the stunning Scandinavian -style retreat, nestling proudly in the mountains.
They were investigating the disappearance of Rachel Blossom, a psychiatric patient with severe mental health issues. Rachel had vanished and was now classed as a missing person.
The lodge in its idyllic setting, appeared to be her last known place of residence which, according to the website portrayal, was providing the final steps towards independent living.
How was it that she had completely slipped off the grid without a trace? Had her multi personality disorder outwitted the medical profession into thinking she was of sound mind, was it just a series of blunders by the nursing team, or was there something more sinister going on?
Follow Detective Sergeant Mike Brugge, Detective Sergeant Paul Osman and Detective Constable Mel Brugge, as they delve deep into the underworld of Keeper’s Lodge.
Purchase Links
UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Keepers-Lodge-Tracy-Martin-Summers/dp/1800942931/
US – https://www.amazon.com/Keepers-Lodge-Tracy-Martin-Summers/dp/1800942931/
Author Bio
Tracy was born in Harrow Weald, Middlesex in 1964, growing up in a loving family home. She married her first husband in 1990, has two grown up children and a granddaughter.
She studied a variety of topics via module learning, embarking on City and Guilds and NVQ courses, ranging from a brief spell in hairdressing to administration and now works for a utility company in North West London.
Tracy has numerous hobbies consisting of landscape painting to landscape gardening and always likes to paint the scene, even if it’s changing the colour scheme, yet again, within her home.
Tracy has always enjoyed writing and used to write short stories for her own children’s amusement but it has only been in the last few years that she has taken this more seriously and has gone on to write her first debut crime detective Novel called Gordon Square.
Tracy Married her second husband in 2014 and now lives in Bedfordshire in a sleepy hamlet where she writes whenever she gets a spare moment.
Social Media Links – www.tracymartinsummers.co.uk & www.tracymartinsummers.com
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