Houses of Deception by Cynthia Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Madeline and Mike are back with the MDPI team and this time they are attending a function their Current Affairs event enterprise have been planning for an anniversary celebration for two up and coming real estate agents with an expensive lifestyle, Troy and Tara, it is the first event that Madeline has taken a back seat on and she is proud of her assistant and what she has done, the couple are more than happy with the result too. When they are about to leave the party, they receive a phone call from an unlikely person, it is their former nemesis and teacher Russel Barnett, he explains that he is concerned that his nephew, Dylan Latham has disappeared without a trace and nobody has heard from him for a week, that includes, friends, family and his employer, he is coming to MDPI for help to find the young man, it shows how desperate he is to ask for their help and because of their shared history, Madeline is inclined to help out however they can. Russel also tells them that he has tried to go see Dylan’s girlfriend Paige DeLong, but she hasn’t been seen or heard from for about the same length of time, but attempts to locate the two have been unsuccessful through the normal channels and it not in Dylan’s nature to just up and disappear.

Unfortunately, they are woken up early the next morning by a frantic phone call that the wife of the host has gone missing overnight and he has no idea what to do, as Madeline talks to Troy, she asks him questions so she can flesh out what he has already done, as well as starting to gather any information she might need and tell him that they will be at his house as soon as they can. When they get to the house, they have a tour and check to see whether there is anywhere that Tara could have hidden herself away, in order to do this thoroughly, they call in another member of the team, after they have done all they can do, they leave their team member there so that they can have any updates as they arise. They then go to their offices where they speak to Russel again and start to plan how they are going to approach Dylan and Paige’s case, as well as who they want to speak to and where they want to check out, they begin with a timeline with all the information they currently have, the first places they visit are Dylan and Paige’s homes and speak to their landlord and landlady, they don’t find much, but they note down what they do find and questions they may want to ask later on, they get a feeling from Paige’s landlady that she isn’t as concerned as she should be and that she is a little evasive. As they continue with the interviews, both Madeline and Mike believe that something isn’t right, but they can’t put their finger on it and the more information they glean about Paige and their relationship, more red flags are appearing.

They return to Troy’s house hoping that Tara has returned, however, when they see a package on the driveway which has appeared since they left, they get really worried, especially when Troy receives a mystery text and finds a lock of Tara’s hair in a package, their missing person’s case soon turns into a kidnapping and ransom. As the demands are made and reality hits in, Mike and Madeline try to convince Troy to go to the police, however, he is adamant that he can’t risk Tara’s safety, so he starts to make calls to get the money together instead, this in itself is a red flag to Madeline as she thinks that there may be al ulterior motive, especially when she starts to dig deeper into their living arrangements. Meanwhile, as they conduct more interviews with Paige’s family, a link to a possible piece of art comes to the fore, but this information just leads to more questions than answers.

As Madeline and Mike try to make sense of the situation with both of these cases becoming more complicated with not enough time to breathe, never mind review all the facts, questions and answers, the two are becoming suspicious that there is more than meets the eye to both these cases and that as the time passes, they are feeling increased anxiety about the welfare of the two young lovers. Will they be able to untangle the web of questions, answers and assumptions to piece the puzzles together, or will they run out of time and the unthinkable happen? This is a thrilling race against time where crimes are committed, mysteries abound and secrets are waiting to be revealed as the MDPI team race to figure out the who, what, where and why of these two complex cases.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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