Small Sacrifices by L.E. Luttrell

Release: October 1st 2020
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Woolloomooloo
Source: Rachel’s Random Resources
Find it at: Amazon, Amazon UK

Be careful what you wish for.

She wanted to be famous. But not like this.
Ellen Gibson always dreamed of being a star from a young age

All along, those remained as shattered dreams.
Discovering she holds the winning ticket in a 55-million Powerball jackpot, Ellen sees it as her opportunity to be in the limelight. But at what cost?
Detective India Hargreaves and her small team start investigating the disappearance of five- year-old Joshua Gibson. But the big guns take over the investigation from Police Headquarters when it becomes a kidnapping.
When the media and the lead investigator suspect Ellen for kidnapping, she not only become infamous, but has nightmares. Also, she seems powerless to stop events spiraling out of control …

About the Author:

Born in Sydney, Australia L.E. Luttrell spent the first 21 years of her life there before moving to the UK. After working in publishing for a few years she trained as a teacher and from the 90s spent many years working in secondary education, although she’s had numerous other part time jobs. A frustrated architect, L.E. Luttrell has spent much of her adult life moving house and renovating properties. Although she has written many more ‘books’, Small Sacrifices, is only the third of her books to be published. More will follow.
She currently lives in Liverpool, Merseyside – although if it hadn’t been for Covid 19 she would have been with family in Brisbane, Queensland.

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Small Sacrifices Review:

This book makes a good compelling reading, and surpassed my initial expectations.

As I have not read the previous 2 books in the series, my initial impression of the story line was a normal mystery thriller. However, the book adds quite a few shocking unexpected twists. I really enjoyed the theme where someone catches a lucky break, only to face their worst fears. In fact, these twists and turns make the plot more gripping. The author deserves an appreciation for making it dark and realistic. You also realize that not everything turns out the way you want it to. Similarly, even the second half of story is very thrilling as the protagonists try to pin down the suspects who kidnapped Josh. I honestly enjoyed the buildup and execution to the storyline.

However, the only reason I didn’t give this 5 stars was because of Ellen and India’s characters. For the most part, both the main characters in the story remain weak. Ellen is self-centered, selfish, and cares more about money than the welfare of her child. At times, India looked like a weak detective luckily stumbling on the clues rather than going out to her way to investigate. In fact, I loved the supporting characters like Max, Jimmy and Jacko. More so, I would have loved the story if the leads were stronger.

Apart from that, this was a gripping, shocking, and an emotional mystery.