On 21st September 2001 the mutilated torso of a small child was found floating beside London’s Tower Bridge, one tide away from being swept into the North Sea.
Unable to identify the victim, the Murder Squad turned to Richard Hoskins, a young professor of theology with a profound understanding of African tribal religion, whose own past was scarred by a heart-breaking tragedy. Thus began a journey into the tangled undergrowth of one of the most notorious murder cases of recent years; a journey which would reveal not only the identity of the boy they called Adam but the horrific truth that a succession of innocent children have been ritually sacrificed in our capital city.
Having quickly drawn you into a world of ritual killing and human trafficking, Hoskins keeps you on your toes by mixing in the harrowing tale of his own time in Africa. Vividly descriptive, you can almost smell the jungle and feel the heat, one cannot help but be drawn into his world. Richard than drags you back into the current grey capital, where children are being ritually abused and tortured. To think this is/was happening in a country like ours is scary and deeply upsetting.
What really impressed, and touched me, was the lengths both Richard and the police went through to find out what happened to poor Adam and the others like him. Putting his marriage and sanity under pressure to help these children, we see the almost self-destruction of a man who never dreamed of becoming a criminologist.
My only criticism is that sometimes it can be hard to switch from one narrative to another.
Overall I give it a 4/5
PSYCH'D 