Hunting Shadows

'a tour de force... Imagine a collaboration between Ann Tyler and AM Homes' Ken Bruen

Lee, southeast London. A young girl has disappeared. There are no witnesses, no leads, no clues. The police are tracking a shadow, and time is running out …

DI Ellen Kelly is at the top of her game – at least she was, until she took the law into her own hands and confronted her husband's killer. Now she's back at work, leading the investigation into the missing child. Her superiors are watching her; the distraught family is depending on her.



Ellen has a lot to prove. And she knows it.

A tense thriller that stalks the urban streets of southeast London and the bleak wilderness of the North Kent coast, Hunting Shadows introduces the forceful, compromised police detective, DI Ellen Kelly.



Sheila Bugler was one of four writers to be offered a place on the Arts Council-funded Apprenticeships in Fiction programme – a mentoring scheme designed to nurture emerging writers in the UK and Ireland. When not writing, Sheila works as an online editor and writer and is also a regular contributor to the writing magazine Words With Jam. Hunting Shadows is her first novel. She is currently finishing a sequel.



this chilling thriller is a gripping introduction to DI Kelly



impossible-to-put-down



fans of Tess Gerritsen … will love Hunting Shadows



wonderful characterisation and a gripping plot. DI Ellen Kelly's mourning felt so tangible that it was heart-wrenching. This debut pulled me in straight away and I was hooked! A book that has stayed with me long after the reading



terrific … compelling



fast moving … a lively heroine, with a well-imagined Irish-London background



well-written … if you like Nicci French, then here’s a new author for you to enjoy



skilfully paced and drags the reader along for the ride. More than once I thought I had the story figured out, only to be drip-fed fragments of information that proved me wrong.  As the narrative accelerates to heart wrenching finish I was left hungry for more



fans of Karin Slaughter will love the gritty realism and imperfection that is sometimes lacking in her novels



Detective Jack Taylor ... you may step down now



a thrilling début. I predict a bright future for Sheila Bugler and Detective Ellen Kelly



impressive debut … a police procedural with heart … gritty



many will no doubt welcome the fact an Irishwoman is writing something other than chick-lit



a brilliant crime debut … akin to a narcotic but in a paper form



Bugler has delivered a wonderful creation in the form of DI Ellen Kelly



a haunting tale about mothers and daughters



Bugler delivers an addictive crime novel of such a high standard that I could not leave this book alone until it was finished



a well-written novel with characters that are tangible



an astonishingly good debut and one that remains with you long after that last page has been turned



a thoroughly readable and satisfying thriller, and certainly merits a resounding thumbs-up from this reader



did this live up to my expectations? I would say, categorically, yes



Knowing my love/hate relationship with female police characters, and the intrinsic baggage of cliches that usually surrounds them, I have to say that DI Ellen Kelly, rose above the normal mediocre and largely predictable female protagonists that I have encountered, and proves herself a more complex character. I always cite the character of DS Stella Mooney from David Lawrence’s excellent and late lamented crime series as my doyen of London female detectives, so was singularly delighted that DI Kelly could easily give Mooney a run for her money…  Bugler does not disappoint



in DS Kelly, Sheila Bugler has created a tough and complicated police officer for our times ... a compulsive psychological thriller ... a page-turning race to the end



a most assured debut



a cracking, serpentine plot and a strong central character in Ellen Kelly



mark my words, we will be hearing from Ellen Kelly again



Marks the entrance of a major new talent. Sheila Bugler delivers a chilling psychological twister of a novel, laced with homespun horrors, a compelling central character in DI Ellen Kelly and a strong contemporary resonance. Fans of Nicci French and Sophie Hannah, prick up your ears.



Truly a tour de force. Imagine a collaboration between Ann Tyler and AM Homes. Yes, the novel is that good. Sheila Bugler might well have altered the way we view families and the very essence of mandatory Happiness. This is great writing.