Mouths of Babes is the fifth Saz Martin book, long awaited and fulfilling every expectation.
Saz and Molly's baby is a few months old, and they are still adjusting to a recent death, when a 'friend' from Saz's childhood turns up on the doorstep, leading to revelations and truths that Saz had hoped never to have to confront.
This is a complex book, beautifully written, dealing with the ways in which we survive childhood, and those who fall by the way. It's illuminating on bullying and the strategems both victims and bullies use to get by, and the compromises we make to become the adults we want to be.
This latest Saz mystery is fast-paced, intelligent, mesmerising and makes you shiver. Duffy's take on relationships is spot on, and the events grow so naturally out of the people involved that the story's horrifying conclusion seems just one more logical, inexorable step.
Read it - you'll love it, and want to buy it for yourself. Easily the best Saz story so far.